Afro-Peruvian

Afro-Peruvians (also Afro Peruvians) are citizens of Peru descended from Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Western hemisphere with the arrival of the conquistadors towards the end of the slave trade.

Early history

The first Africans arrived with the conquistadors in 1521, mostly as slaves, and some returned with colonists to settle in 1525. Between 1529 and 1537, when Francisco Pizarro was granted permits to import 363 slaves to colonial Peru, a large group of Africans were imported to do labor for public construction, building bridges and road systems. They also fought alongside the conquistadors as soldiers and worked as personal servants and bodyguards. In 1533 Afro-Peruvian slaves accompanied Spaniards in the conquest of Cuzco.

Two types of black slaves were imported to Peru. Those who were native-born in Africa were commonly referred to as bozales ("unskilled", "untrained"), which was also used in a derogatory sense. These slaves could have been directly shipped from west or southwest Africa or transported from the Spanish Indies or other Spanish colonies. Afro-Peruvians previously acculturated to Spanish culture and who spoke Spanish were called Ladinos; some were mixed-race, descendants of Spanish men and African women. People of color performed skilled and unskilled functions that contributed to Hispanic colonization.