# Contemporary resistance models: the case of Mexico Negro  
For many years, Afro-Mexicans were regarded as persons who had accepted the ideology of mestizaje and therefore lacked any knowledge or understanding of themselves as blacks. The work of Trinidadian Catholic priest Father Glyn Jemmott Nelson has helped to raise their consciousness of race. Mexico Negro is in part the product of Father Nelson's consciousness-raising efforts. The organization is motivated, first, by the members' rejection of the fact that when the Constitution of the United Mexican States was originally drafted in 1810, African-Mexicans were excluded, despite their participation in the independence movements. Secondly, members are fully aware of Mexico's failure to comply with specific recommendations of the United Nations such as the Durban Declaration, adopted at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, that all nations throughout the world should acknowledge the presence and existence of people of African descent in their respective countries. Thirdly, they are motivated by the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) proclaimed by UNESCO, to continue to challenge the Mexican Government in its ongoing neglect of all these United Nations mandates.  
Unfortunately, despite efforts such as those of Mexico Negro, the majority of Mexicans remain totally unaware of the status and day-to-day realities of their African and Afrodescendent compatriots. Mexico Negro's main objective is 'to obtain constitutional recognition from the Federal Government of Mexico and a commitment to the development of their region with good roads, a good education system and social amenities' (Ramsay, 2016, p. 161). Peñaloza laments that the community's situation is made worse by its inability to access or provide effective means of challenging the status quo, given the way the system is established. His words suggest a sense of near-impotence in face of the systemic blockades to inclusion: