Francis Daniel Althoff, Jr. Collection on Afromexican Spanish

The Francis Daniel Althoff, Jr. Collection on Afromexican Spanish houses the research and related materials for his doctoral dissertation, “The Afro-Hispanic Speech of the Municipio of Cuajinicuilapa, Guerrero.” The collection dates from 1985 to 1993 and consists of field interviews preserved on audiocassettes, transcripts of the interviews, an audiocassette with traditional music from the Cuajinicuilapa region, conference reports from the 1985 Segundo Congreso Nacional Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios Afroasiáticos, and newspaper articles related to the topic of Afromexican Spanish in the Cuajinicuilapa region. The transcripts are paper copies of what is found in his dissertation and are excerpts.

The collection contains data pertaining to the contribution of African legacy into the formation of Afromexican Spanish. The collection contains field interviews with members of the town of San Nicolás de Tolentino in the Cuajinicuilapa region of México. The study gathers oral samples of the speech patterns of community members, descendants of Africans who had settled in Costa Chica, Cuajinicuilapa as early as the 16th century. The research and audio recordings are an invaluable resource for researchers given that this geographical area of México was relatively isolated at the time of the interviews between 1991 and 1992.