Estatua de Yanga/Gaspar Yanga (Veracruz, Mexico)
Dublin Core
Title
Estatua de Yanga/Gaspar Yanga (Veracruz, Mexico)
Subject
Subject (Topic)
Enslaved persons--Emancipation
Maroons--Mexico
Mexico--Verzcruz
Public art
Public sculpture
Resistance
Slavery--Mexico
Transatlantic slave trade
Enslaved persons--Emancipation
Maroons--Mexico
Mexico--Verzcruz
Public art
Public sculpture
Resistance
Slavery--Mexico
Transatlantic slave trade
Subject (Name)
Yanga, Gaspar
Yanga, Gaspar
Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture
Commemorative sculpture
Description
The muscular, semi-nude figure looks resolutely forward as he raises a machete in his right hand and holds a long (sugar cane?) in his left. A shackle with a broken chain is still attached to his left wrist. The work was created to celebrate Gaspar Yanga, a seventeenth-century self-emancipated (former enslaved person) leader of a maroon colony of self-emancipated people near Veracruz, Mexico. He successfully resisted a Spanish attack on the maroon colony in 1609 and later negotiated with the Spanish colonial government to secure self-rule for the maroon settlement.
Creator
Lendechy, Erasmo Vásquez, 1918-2002
Source
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons
Date
August 10, 1976
Contributor
City of Yanga
Rights
City of Yanga, Edificio Municipal, Avenue 2, Centro, 94930 Yanga, Veracruz, Mexico
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Visual Arts-Sculpture
Coverage
Negro Yanga, Barrio del Negro Tango, 94930 Yanga, Veracruz, Mexico
Alternative Title
El Yanga
Has Part
Plaque:
"El Yanga"
Negro Africano precursor de la libertad de los negros eslavos fundo este pueblo de San Lorenzo de Cerralvo (hoy Yanga) por acordado del virrey de nueva Espana, Don Rodrigo Osorio Marquez de Cerrvalo, el dia tres de Octobre del ano 1631 por mandato del virrey trazo el pueblo el Capitan Hernando de Castro Espinosa, H. Ayuntamento Constl. 1973-1976
El Yanga ver agosto 10 De 1976
Primer pueblo libre de America
"El Yanga"
Negro Africano precursor de la libertad de los negros eslavos fundo este pueblo de San Lorenzo de Cerralvo (hoy Yanga) por acordado del virrey de nueva Espana, Don Rodrigo Osorio Marquez de Cerrvalo, el dia tres de Octobre del ano 1631 por mandato del virrey trazo el pueblo el Capitan Hernando de Castro Espinosa, H. Ayuntamento Constl. 1973-1976
El Yanga ver agosto 10 De 1976
Primer pueblo libre de America
English translation:
Black African liberator and precursor of the black slaves who founded this town of San Lorenzo de Cerralvo (today Yanga) by agreement of the viceroy of New Spain, Don Rodrigo Osorio Marquez de Cerrvalo, on the third day of October 1631 by order of the viceroy. This town was laid out by Captain Hernando of Castro Espinosa. H. Constl. City Council, 1973-1976.
El Yanga on August 10, 1976.
First free town in America
Black African liberator and precursor of the black slaves who founded this town of San Lorenzo de Cerralvo (today Yanga) by agreement of the viceroy of New Spain, Don Rodrigo Osorio Marquez de Cerrvalo, on the third day of October 1631 by order of the viceroy. This town was laid out by Captain Hernando of Castro Espinosa. H. Constl. City Council, 1973-1976.
El Yanga on August 10, 1976.
First free town in America
Extent
156 in. (396.24 cm)
Medium
Bronze
Bibliographic Citation
Rosas, Salma Lara. "Erasmo Vazquez Lendechy: autor de la escultura en Yanga y ayudante principal de Frieda Kahlo." El Sol de Corodoba, August 11, 2024. Accessed on February 2, 2025, https://oem.com.mx/elsoldecordoba/cultura/quien-fue-erasmo-vazquez-lendechy-historia-del-artista-que-hizo-la-escultura-de-yanga-13224263.
Carillo, Karen Juanita. "Mexico's First Liberated City Commemorates Its Founding." JSTOR Daily, October 20, 2021. Accessed February 16, 2025, https://daily.jstor.org/mexicos-yanga-commenorates-founding.
Conduru, Roberto. "Transnational Counter-monuments: Anti-Slavery and Pro-Freedom Memorials." ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, July 30, 2021. Accessed January 28, 2026, https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/transnational-counter-monuments/.
Enslaved: Peoples of the HIstorical Slave Trade. "Yanga." Enslaved.org. Accessed February 4, 2026. https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-126857/
Rights Holder
Renée Ater
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Sculpture
Physical Dimensions
156 in. (396.24 cm)
Collection
Citation
Lendechy, Erasmo Vásquez, 1918-2002, “Estatua de Yanga/Gaspar Yanga (Veracruz, Mexico),” Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, accessed October 1, 2026, https://mail.slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1156.