Tony Gleaton’s "El Amado de Afrodita"

1990

Tony Gleaton photographed Black communities in Latin America.

Leo Anthony (Tony) Gleaton (1948–2015) was an African American photographer who documented overlooked communities in the U.S. and Latin America. Starting in the mid-1980s, Gleaton spent years living among Afro-descendant communities across Latin America. The resulting work, Tengo Casi 500 Años: Africa’s Legacy in Mexico, Central and South America, became a landmark photographic monograph and exhibition. His intimate portraits of everyday life challenge the widespread myth that because of mestizaje, or racial mixing, Black people and Black communities do not exist in these countries.  

This photograph was taken in Oaxaca, home to one of the largest Black Mexican populations. In 2020, when the Mexican census counted Afro-Mexicans for the first time, more than 2.5 million Mexicans self-identified as Black.