Public Project
I am black because the sun looked at me
Copyright Johis Alarcón 2024
Date of Work Jul 2018 - Ongoing
Updated Sep 2021
Location Ecuador
Topics Belief, Children, Community, Conceptual, Documentary, Education, Emotion, Faith, Family, Feminism, Gender, Hope, Human Rights, Latin America, Leadership, Love, Motherhood, Parenting & Family, Photography, Photojournalism, Portraiture, Pregnancy/Birth, Spirituality, Womens Rights

Daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters of black women who survived slavery keep the African legacy in their spirituality. The diaspora’s ancestral rituals and their cultural migratory reconfiguration adapted to their new territories and have become a way to remember their origins as well as a strong link of the black people with their African original territory.The term Cimarrona refers to the wild female spirit that resistance against racism since they arrived in Ecuador in the XVI century. 
This ongoing project explores black women become visible as historical protagonists of liberation and as guardians of ancestral afro practices as a method of cultural memory preservation of the diaspora.New cultural influence and mass migration of the new generations challenge their ancestry with the risk of losing it against globalization. Nowadays, cimarronas reinvigorate their ancestry to defend their territory and lead the Afro descent continuance in Ecuador.
Published in The New York Times  
24,592

Also by Johis Alarcón —

Project

Green Peace- Galápagos

Johis Alarcón
Project

Global Found - TB Paraguay

Johis Alarcón
Project

Amazon Midwives

Johis Alarcón
Project

Republik - Timelessroad

Johis Alarcón
Project

TEARSHEETS

Johis Alarcón
Project

Smithsonian Magazine - The Quest to Save the World’s Most Coveted Chocolate

Johis Alarcón
Project

I am black because the sun looked at me

Johis Alarcón
Project

Johanniter Ecuador

Johis Alarcón
Project

The Wall Street Journal: Venezuelan Migrants Fall Prey to Sex Traffickers

Johis Alarcón
Project

UN WOMEN Ecuador

Johis Alarcón
Project

The Guardian: Community Education

Johis Alarcón
Project

Ghetto Dreamers

Johis Alarcón / Ecuador
Project

Public Eyes: Lighters

Johis Alarcón
Submission

GHETTO DREAMERS

Johis Alarcón
Project

Portraits

Johis Alarcón
Project

A ti vuelvo

Johis Alarcón
Project

Back to the Market

Johis Alarcón
Project

Assignments

Johis Alarcón
Project

Bloomberg: Ecuador Unrest

Johis Alarcón
Project

Machachi

Johis Alarcón
Project

San Roque

Johis Alarcón / San Roque, Ecuador
Project

Linked

Johis Alarcón
Project

"The 3x8" Behind the city

Johis Alarcón
Project

Cimarrona

Johis Alarcón / Ecuador
I am black because the sun looked at me by Johis Alarcón
Sign-up for
For more access