Abstract:
This paper takes capeyuye [spiritual singing] as a point of departure to study
the Mascogos’ continuous struggle to define themselves as binational people, as Afro-
Seminoles living in Coahuila, Mexico. By reflecting on the intersections of race,
nationality, and the body within the specificities of Mascogo border culture and
history, the paper problematizes Anne Anlin Cheng’s notion of “racial melancholia,”
suggesting that self rejection might be a more strategic move than she acknowledges
to be. In the end, the author coins the term “dialectical soundings” and propose that
the singing of spirituals among the Mascogos in fact renders Blackness visible in the
context of the Mexican border essentialist racial discourses.
