Spanish city of Madrid under fire for using blackface in Christmas messages

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – The Spanish city of Madrid came under fire on Friday for hiring a white actor to wear blackface and speak in a bad African accent for Christmas video messages sent to local children.

Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for Madrid’s main opposition party, called the Christmas videos “foul and disgraceful,” and yet another example of the ruling Popular Party’s racism.

“If in 2024 you are using blackface, it means you haven’t understood the diversity of the neighborhood. Respect for racialized people is the least you should ask of the public authorities,” tweeted the local Socialist Party account.

The use of blackface this time of year is nothing new in Spain, which celebrates Three Kings Day on Jan. 6. The holiday consists of the three wise men from the Bible — Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar – delivering presents to children overnight.

Balthazar is depicted as a Black man, and communities around the country still use white men wearing black makeup to depict the Biblical king who gave the gift of myrrh to Jesus when he was born.

However, as Spain grows more diverse and aware of the racist history of blackface, Spanish communities are increasingly hiring Black men to dress up as Balthazar for local parades and other celebrations.

Sources from the Madrid city hall told broadcaster Cadena Ser that they had hired five Black men and one white man to dress up as Balthazar for the video messages. However, they said the white actor was the one who was available after two Black actors became sick with COVID-19.

Elsewhere in Spain, other controversial Three Kings Day celebrations are set to begin later on Friday.

One of the most important is the celebrations in Alcoy, Alicante, Spain’s oldest Three King’s Parade, dating back to 1866. Dubbed a “Celebration of National Interest,” it also involves hundreds of locals dressing up in exaggerated blackface with big red lips to depict pageboys, who help the three kings to collect children’s letters and deliver gifts.

The activist group Afrofeminas has been calling for an end to Alcoy’s blackface tradition, which it calls “the most offensive and violent in Europe.”

“The makeup is a deliberate attempt to portray Black people as flamboyant, ugly and grotesque,” the group said in an article, stating that the Black pageboys have their roots in slavery.

“It doesn’t matter if you think it makes children happy. It doesn’t matter if it’s tradition. If you wear makeup to look like a caricature of a Black person, it’s racist,” continued the Afrofeminas article.

Earlier during this year’s Christmas celebrations in Spain, the anti-racism group Afrofeminas lodged hate crime complaints to the justice system over “humiliating and racist” comments online against four Black school girls who read some of the winning numbers during the country’s famous Christmas lottery.

In 2022, Spanish authorities detected 755 hate crimes for racism and xenophobia — representing 43.5% of the country’s total hate crimes, according to the most recent report by the Interior Ministry. Compared to 2021, the number of hate crimes grew by 3.7%.