Karla Duarte’s “Sentir el Son” is a hero’s journey of an Afro-Mexican woman told through poetry, music and dance.
“I chose the art form of dance and movement and body because I think systemic racism can be felt in the body,” Duarte said. “It's a matter of invisibility when you are a woman and a woman of color.”
Like in America, enslavers took African people to Mexico against their will.
Their descendants have lived there for centuries, but the Mexican government didn’t allow people to identify as Afro-Mexican on its census until 2015.
Since 2020 Duarte followed a parallel Black Lives Matter movement unfolding in Mexico — Las Vidas Negras Importan.
She said it led her to explore how Afro-Mexicans are reclaiming their identity through the arts.
She hopes her new short film will cause people to consider how they fit into that history and the current effort.
“Sit with the music, with the song, to feel it in your body,” she said, “and to ask yourself, what part and what role are you taking in this movement?”
Stream it on PBS.org beginning Monday, Feb. 19.
