Holiday Black Face and “The Negro of Banyoles”
Buckle in folks, this one takes a turn. On New Years Eve I ran the Sant Silvestre 5k in Girona. Apparently, Sant Silvestre runs are a global thing, that usually happen on New Years Eve, but sometimes happens in the days leading up to it. In the small village where I live, they had a Sant Silvestre run on the 28th. We didn’t run in that one, but we did stumble upon the aftermath while walking Blu.
I’ve been living here over 4 years now, and I have done very few community events. That being said, the stuff I have participated in has always been a great time (with a few caveats). We once did a night run/walk in Ginestar. The community comes together once a year and just goes for a walk in the woods at night. Some people run, most people walk, and at the end of the circuit, there are card games and sausages. Some folks just play the games and never do the walk at all.
We’ve also participated in a few Quina nights at a local Pavello (a gym). I’ve done this in two different villages and it’s always a hilarious experience. Quina is VERY similar to bingo, and they generally host 4-5 Quina nights around Christmas, New Year’s, and Three Kings Day. The prizes are bonkers. People walk away with large electronics like televisions and other appliances, gift baskets, and LOTS of ham! Full on cured Boar legs. And the energy is electric. The whole town shows up and everyone gets really into it. A full gym filled with families playing Quina with an announcer having a blast calling out numbers and cracking jokes. If you’re ever in Catalunya around this time, you HAVE to go to Quina at least once.
The Girona Sant Silvestre was great. They closed the roads, and the community really came out to line the streets and cheer for us runners. There were some people in costumes. Will saw a man in a full-on horse costume. I got passed by a banana. When Will signed me up in November, he decided I could run the 5k in under 30 minutes. I wasn’t so sure, but he was right. I managed to finish in 28:06. Not bad, McGowan. Will was targeting a PR, and while his official time was 20:07, according to Strava, he finished in under 20 minutes. Go us!
I’ve managed to keep the momentum going and have done a few more runs since then. And yesterday I went for a 3-hour ride. This is huge, because as you know, I’ve been keeping it real short and cute since September when we did the Ride Across Girona. I’m pretty sure this was my longest ride since then!
On Monday, I took the bus into Girona to run a few errands. While I was there, I stumbled upon their Three Kings Parade. The thing about the Three Kings is that one of them is Black. Good ol’ Balthazar. The issue with this is that here in Spain (and probably other places), they INSIST upon presenting a Black king even if they don’t have any Black people willing to do it. The solution? Black face.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Girona had managed to find a Black man to play Balthazar in the parade. I was, however, very confused about his entourage. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. It was a mix of dozens of white people in Black face, with maybe a dozen or so bonafide Black people. Living outside of America means I encounter quite a few cultural practices that don’t sit well with my spirit, but the amount of Black face that happens here around the holidays is actually bonkers.
It means I often have to reconcile how much foolishness and how much racism I’m willing to put up with for the sake of spending time with the community. Black face at the Three Kings parade wasn’t exactly a surprise, and I generally avoid going to that particular event, but this year I stumbled upon it and decided to watch the parade go by. I doubt I’ll ever do it again. I now know that the parade is on the 5th, and the holiday is on the 6th.
I was discussing it with a friend, and it reminded me of a story I stumbled upon a few years ago. I don’t remember how I ended up going down that particular rabbit hole, but it’s the story of “El Negre de Banyoles”.
Trigger Warning; absolute inhumane treatment of a Black body.
The synopsis is that a French dude who liked collecting historical artifacts witnessed the burial of a Tswana warrior while traveling in modern-day South Africa. He then waited for darkness, and legit dug up the grave and stole the man’s skin, skull, and a couple of bones. THEN HE STUFFED THE BODY WITH NEWSPAPER TO SHIP IT BACK TO PARIS. I imagine at some point steps were taken to better preserve and taxidermy the body. It was put on display in France, and later purchased by a taxidermy collector from Barcelona. It was exhibited in Barcelona before finding a more permanent home in the Darder Museum in Banyoles (about 20 minutes outside of Girona). There, it remained until 1991 when a local Doctor of Hatian descent stumbled upon the display in the museum.
I can only imagine his face when he realized what he was looking at. He immediately wrote a letter to the Mayor asking him to shut down the display. The press got hold of his request and it eventually reached enough people in high places that it became international news. You might recall the Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992, so that really put a spotlight on the area.
It still took until 1997 for them to finally remove the body from the museum. Now, the thing that really pisses me off? A number of people in Banyoles were upset that they shut down the exhibit. Why? Because they considered “el negre” a “member of the community”.
Excuse my French, but BITCH, WHAT?
Anywho, I will NEVER be visiting that damn museum, but the lake in Banyoles is cute.
I think I’m telling y’all this to say, racism is EVERYWHERE. And just because folks look at a taxidermied Black body as a member of the community, doesn’t mean it’s okay. In the year 2000, they finally returned the body to Botswana, removed the museum outfit, and gave him a proper burial. There’s a documentary about it, but it’s in Catalan. According to the documentarian, the body belongs to Chief Molawa VIII born between 1800 and 1805, deceased around age 27 and taken from Litakou (Now Dikathong in South Africa, not Botswana).
TRIGGER WARNING OVER.
The world can be a horrible place sometimes, and I am constantly reminded that existing in a Black body can be a traumatizing experience even if everyone around you is smiling, singing songs, and throwing candies. To be clear, Blackface is not okay, even if it’s been culturally relevant for centuries. It really needs to stop. It’s viewed as innocent and “just paint”. It’s actually super weird, and if you can’t find a Black person in 2025, just have a white person wear the costume, and skip the shoe polish.
I choose my battles wisely, and I know I don’t have it in me to take on solving the Blackface that occurs here in Spain with Three Kings celebrations, in The Netherlands with Black Pete, in Philly with the Mummers Parade, and more.
I’ve chosen the battle of creating better representation in cycling and the outdoors, and even that eventually led me to burnout and have a meltdown. So yea. I’m one of those people who can successfully equate most of the world’s problems to racism, but I’ll save you that speech. Your girl will always be a hotep at heart, but I know there’s a time and a place.
In more positive news, I released my first episode of Women’s Bike Racing Fan Club. It was a lot of fun to make, and seems to be pretty well received. I’m looking forward to keeping it going. I also look forward to the end of this current cold snap. It was 27 degrees farenheit when I woke up this morning, Auntie don’t like that.
Random Bike racing news updates:
Biniam Girmay did end up signing with the former Israel Premier Tech team. I hope they’re paying him more money than he knows what to do with. It’s great to see them detach from their previous controversial sponsorships, but I’m personally not convinced they haven’t just put some less controversial wrapping paper on a problematic program. It’s still unclear if Derek Gee will have to pay them the 30 million Euros they’re suing him for, BUT yesterday it was announced that he signed a 3-year deal with Lidl Trek. At least he gets to race his bike, I guess?
Well, that was a fun little ride of a blog post eh? If you’ve made it this far, good for you! I’ll catch you next time!
