A king in America: The Afrobolivian royal house
- The only royal house recognized in South America
 |  |
 |  |
First, thank you very much to the Afro-bolivan Royal House for collaborating providing the information and giving the authorization to prepare this article. Its history starts in the nineteenth century with the arrival of a group of slaves to colonial Peru, among this group, was Prince Uchicho, who arrived in 1820 at the hacienda of the Maraqués de Pinedo (Casa Real Afroboliviana, n.d.). The monarch, of Kikongo origin and from Senegal, was discovered by the rest of the people from Africa, observing that he had tattoos that only one member of the royal family could have and knowing their origin, they decided to work half an hour more a day to release it. The prince, adopted the family name for which he worked, so, for the western world, his family became known as the Pinedo family, Uchico was crowned in 1832 and his father, before he died he sent his cape, his crown and his royal scepter for the occasion.
The descendants of King Uchico who inherited the throne were Bonifaz, José and Bonifacio. King Bonifacio, was crowned in 1932 and is remembered for presiding over the festivities of San Benito de Mururata, to do this he used the costumes corresponding to royalty and presided over the dances of said celebration. Then, he was succeeded by the current monarchs, King Julio I and Queen Angélica Larrea, according to his line of succession, the heir to the throne is Prince Rolando, who will be responsible for continuing the tradition.
Since slavery was abolished, several Afro-Bolivian groups already accepted the Pinedo dynasty as a royal family, but it was not so for the government of Bolivia, which was given the task of formalizing the Pinedo house in 2007 (Coronas Reales, 2016), together to other native peoples and thus, the royal house becomes one of the few recognized in South America, since in the rest of the countries, with the independence of the European empires, the noble titles were abolished between the XIX and XX centuries, although it must be taken into account, that this recognition is symbolic and not political, so it does not interfere with the government of Bolivia or with any other sovereign state (Rodríguez, 2016).
The descendants of King Uchico who inherited the throne were Bonifaz, José and Bonifacio. King Bonifacio, was crowned in 1932 and is remembered for presiding over the festivities of San Benito de Mururata, to do this he used the costumes corresponding to royalty and presided over the dances of said celebration. Then, he was succeeded by the current monarchs, King Julio I and Queen Angélica Larrea, according to his line of succession, the heir to the throne is Prince Rolando, who will be responsible for continuing the tradition.
Since slavery was abolished, several Afro-Bolivian groups already accepted the Pinedo dynasty as a royal family, but it was not so for the government of Bolivia, which was given the task of formalizing the Pinedo house in 2007 (Coronas Reales, 2016), together to other native peoples and thus, the royal house becomes one of the few recognized in South America, since in the rest of the countries, with the independence of the European empires, the noble titles were abolished between the XIX and XX centuries, although it must be taken into account, that this recognition is symbolic and not political, so it does not interfere with the government of Bolivia or with any other sovereign state (Rodríguez, 2016).
References:
Casa Real Afroboliviana (s.f.). Historia de la Casa Real. Recuperado de https://www.casarealafroboliviana.org/historia.html
Coronas Reales. (2016). “La historia de Julio I: el rey más pobre del mundo vive en Bolivia”. En Secretos Cortesanos. Recuperado de https://secretoscortesanos.com/2016/03/24/la-historia-de-julio-i-el-rey-mas-pobre-del-mundo-vive-en-bolivia/
Rodríguez, A. (2016). “El último rey de América”. En El País. Recueprado de https://elpais.com/internacional/2016/11/10/actualidad/1478814462_310202.html
How to cite this article:
Nocetti, F.A. (2020). "A king in America: The Afrobolivian royal house". In NabbuBlog. Retrieved from http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-king-in-america-afrobolivian-royal.html