Podcast Summary: New Books Network

Episode: Karma F. Frierson, Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025)
Date: December 23, 2025
Host: Regan Gillum
Guest: Dr. Karma Frierson

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Karma Frierson discussing her new book Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz. The book explores how blackness is understood, performed, and integrated into the identity of Veracruz, Mexico, not solely as a matter of individual identification but as a crucial element of local culture and history. The discussion navigates the complexities of blackness in a locale often characterized by both its cosmopolitan openness and historical amnesia towards its African roots.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal & Academic Origins of the Project

• How the Project Began:

  • Dr. Frierson traces her research back to her undergraduate experience, mentorship in African American Studies, and exposure to the book Silencing the Past, which shaped her view of history and academic writing.
  • Influence of the Mellon Mays Fellowship, which supports underrepresented scholars in academia ([02:23]).

  Quote:

  “My mentor at that time was Professor Motori... And he gave me this book, I'm sure you've heard of it, Silencing the Past when I was writing my BA thesis. And that book changed my life because it was so accessibly written and it helped me conceive of history, right? The narration of history in these new ways.” [03:02]

• Choosing Veracruz:

  • Inspired by seeing the exhibit "The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present," and noticing a research gap regarding the Gulf Coast.
  • Expectations of finding a large Afro-Mexican community were upended by the city's reality: locals denied black presence, yet constantly referenced blackness.
  • Decision to explore why blackness is spoken of rather than simply seeking black-identified individuals ([05:30]).

2. Book’s Central Arguments

• Locality and Blackness:

  • Local interpretations and expressions of blackness predate Mexico's federal recognition of Afro-Mexicans.
  • Blackness in Veracruz is less about individual self-identification and more about communal narratives, cultural practices, and localized history ([08:22]).

  Quote:

  “What I argue in the book is if we look at these criteria of culture, history and traditions, this is what people were using to access blackness for decades prior to formal recognition.” [10:28]

• Beyond Individual Identification:

  • Through census questions and local tradition, blackness is accessed culturally and historically, not just through ancestry or by self-labeling as Afro-Mexican.

3. Veracruz: Geography as a Gateway to Blackness

• City Between Worlds:

  • Veracruz is metaphorically and culturally “between the Caribbean and Mexico”; locals feel a kinship with Havana.
  • The regional identity of Jarocho serves as a conduit for conversations about blackness, even when individuals do not identify as black ([12:50]).

  Quote:

  “The Jarocho was a... term for people of mixed race... people of indigenous African and European descent. ...The Jarocho as a type is understood as being an Afro-descendant character, even though individual Jarochos do not necessarily self identify as being black.” [15:10]

• Research Pivot:

  • Shift from searching for black people to studying blackness in everyday practices, discourse, and the crafting of local identity ([16:40]).

4. Dance, Music, and Performing Blackness

• Dance Communities and Accessing Blackness:

  • Public dance, music (e.g., Son Jarocho), and festivities function as tools for entering into and expressing blackness.
  • Frierson warns against framing this as appropriation—community members are not “taking” blackness but accessing layers of their own history and locality ([19:47]).

  Quote:

  “...what was fascinating to me is that people weren't trying to invent a tradition. Instead, they were doing, looking at things they were already doing...and this is an example, an instantiation of our blackness.” [21:25]

• Essentializing vs. World-Building:

  • While certain practices can be read as stereotypical or essentializing, Frierson focuses on blackness as a means to deepen local belonging, not mimicry or 'performing blackness' in a superficial sense.

5. Interludes: Writing Practice and the Fieldwork Experience

• Stylistic Experimentation:

  • Dr. Frierson intersperses the book with narrative interludes that capture fieldwork moments not easily woven into academic argumentation ([23:20]).
  • These vignettes blend personal and ethnographic storytelling to render Veracruz itself as a vivid character and emphasize the “local color” genre.

  Quote (Reading an Interlude):

  “Although he considers himself black, he complains he is not black enough. Interestingly, it is his palms, not his skin or hair, that tell the tale... Robert wishes I were blacker too.” [24:10]

• Authorial Voice:

  • Humor, short punchy sentences, and close observation mark Frierson’s writing style, designed to be accessible to both undergraduates and academics ([39:02]).

  Quote:

  “My uncle, very early in my grad career said, karma, jargon is slang. Just say what you... Let’s say what you’re trying to say.” [40:50]

6. Ethnography in Practice: Challenges & Opportunities

• Research Methods:
  • Frierson worked with four main communities:
    1. Son Jarocho musicians and dancers
    2. Public dance groups
    3. Danzón dance classes
    4. Audiences at cultural events (state-sponsored and informal)
  • Emphasizes the importance of immersion, rapport-building, and accepting vulnerability—“being bad at something in public” ([29:58]).

7. Scholarly Interventions & Theoretical Implications

• Main Contribution:

  • The book challenges a purely quantitative or self-identification approach to blackness.
  • Argues for recognizing the impact and legacy of the African Diaspora even in contexts where self-identified black populations are numerically small or historically silenced ([43:34]).

  Quote:

  “If we only think that the black, that the African Diaspora matters in communities where people are currently contemporarily self identifying as black, we're going to miss a lot. And that is one of the main interventions that I hope this book makes...” [45:00]

• Local Lived Experience:

  • Stresses that diaspora, while transnational, is always locally lived and negotiated in specific contexts and historical moments.

8. Future Directions

• Next Project:

  • Dr. Frierson plans to research the experiences of African American expatriates and other black migrants in Mexico, examining cross-community blackness and new forms of diaspora in the context of recent Afro-Mexican recognition ([47:45]).

  Quote:

  “You have Afro Mexicans, you have lots of Haitians in Mexico... So how are these different ethnic black people interacting with each other? How are they seeing themselves as similar and different?” [48:07]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On finding her research focus:

  “My expectation was that there would be a lot of Afro Mexicans in the city based on what the scholarly research was telling me. And when I got there, people kept telling me that I need to go other places... There are no longer black people here. And at the same time, they kept talking about blackness.” [05:47]

• On the meaning of ‘reckoning’ in the subtitle:

  “And reckon, it means multiple things. It means to count, which is really what we see with the census. It means to estimate or determine... So I was really reckoning with what blackness means for these different constituencies at these different time periods.” [06:50]

• On writing style and purpose:

  “I wanted to write a book that an undergrad could come to and then a scholar like you could come to as well... so it could meet the reader where they are.” [41:26]

Timeline of Key Segments

• [01:57] Introduction, Frierson’s academic beginnings
• [02:23–07:09] Origin story, choosing Veracruz, evolving research questions
• [08:22–11:40] Central arguments: locality, blackness, and the census
• [12:50–17:16] Veracruz’s Caribbean connections, Jarocho identity, shift in research focus
• [19:47–23:20] Dance communities, music, and the notion of accessing vs. appropriating blackness
• [23:50] Frierson reads the “A Hand to Hold” interlude
• [25:24–29:21] Purpose of interludes, painterly writing, ethnographic moments
• [29:58–36:58] Research communities, methods, fieldwork challenges
• [39:02–41:54] On writing: practice, clarity, accessibility
• [43:34–47:29] Scholarly interventions: black absence, self-identification, diaspora’s expanded impact
• [47:45–49:37] Future research directions: Black American expats in Mexico

Conclusion

This episode provides a nuanced, lively exploration of how Afro-descended histories, practices, and discourses shape contemporary identities and senses of place in Veracruz, Mexico. Dr. Frierson uncovers blackness as a shared repertory of cultural, historical, and social meaning—something that exceeds checkboxes and census figures. Through her ethnographic lens, vibrant writing, and innovative narrative style, Frierson offers both a theoretical intervention for scholars and a moving portrait for anyone interested in the lived realities of the African Diaspora in Latin America.