Remembering Victoria Santa Cruz, the Afro-Peruvian Artist Who Redefined Black Identity in Peru

Victoria Santa Cruz turned a childhood insult into a lifelong declaration that continues to resonate across Latin America. Born on October 27, 1922, in La Victoria, Lima, Peru she grew into one of the most influential figures in Afro-Peruvian arts and refused to accept the limits imposed on her Afro-Latina identity.

Afroféminas recounts that she was born into a large Afro-Peruvian family where music shaped daily life. Her father, Nicomedes Santa Cruz Aparicio, was a respected playwright and decimista who moved among artists and intellectuals of his time. Her mother, Victoria Gamarra Ramírez, raised 10 children in a country that resisted acknowledging African heritage as central to the national story. Inside their home, rhythm carried memory. Oral tradition preserved histories left out of textbooks. Meanwhile, dance functioned as living archive.

Peru during the early 20th century promoted a narrative of racial mixture that often minimized its African roots. Black identity was pushed to the margins and reduced to folklore. Growing up Black meant navigating cultural richness alongside social exclusion. Santa Cruz absorbed the music and discipline of her household while confronting a society that struggled to recognize her fully.

The Childhood Incident That Shaped Her Voice

An episode during her early childhood stayed with her for decades. A white girl refused to hold her hand because she was Black. The gesture lasted seconds and revealed the structure of prejudice embedded in ordinary life. Santa Cruz ran home in tears. Her mother told her she was as beautiful as any other child. The reassurance remained, even as the sting lingered.

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Victoria Santa Cruz interpretando su increíble poema “Me Gritaron Negra” #8m #victoriasantacruz #poema #poetaslatinoamericanos #mujerpoeta

♬ sonido original – jazmín.

That memory later opened her most recognized poem. “I was barely seven years old, barely seven years old. What seven years! I was not even five yet! Suddenly voices in the street shouted at me Negra!” The lines, originally written in Spanish, begin “Me gritaron negra,” a performance that traces the path from humiliation to affirmation. The poem closes with a declaration that has since echoed across generations: “A Black woman I am!” In that line, the insult shifts into self-definition voiced with clarity and force.

Building Afro-Peruvian Cultural Space

Long before that televised performance in 1978 fixed her voice in public memory, Santa Cruz had already built a cultural movement. In 1961 she founded and directed the ensemble Cumanana, dedicated to recovering Afro-Peruvian dances and rhythms that had been sidelined. Each rehearsal and each performance asserted that African heritage belonged within Peru’s national identity.

A scholarship from the French government took her to Paris, where she studied at the University of the Theater of Nations. She later trained at the Higher School of Choreographic Studies and worked as a costume designer for major productions. The experience expanded her artistic vocabulary and strengthened her discipline.

She returned to Peru in 1968 and founded the Compañía de Teatro y Danzas Negras del Perú. The company performed throughout Peru and abroad, including participation connected to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. Audiences in the United States also received her work with enthusiasm. She later directed the National Folklore Ensemble of Peru’s National Institute of Culture and developed methods for teaching rhythm that treated the body as a source of knowledge rather than an accessory to it.

‘Me gritaron negra’ and the Politics of Self-Knowledge

“Me gritaron negra” became the defining piece of her career. The poem mapped the internal process of confronting racism learned in childhood and dismantling the shame attached to it. Santa Cruz articulated the experience of growing into racial awareness as a Black girl in a society structured by exclusion.

According to Infobae, in an interview with intellectual Marco Aurelio Denegri, she reflected on adversity with directness. “I realized that the obstacle fulfills a role […] If one begins to understand and to stand up, that is, to assume responsibility without looking for someone to blame, one begins to find that key that says Know yourself, because while the human being does not know who they are they will always have someone to blame. It is very comfortable, but it is a trap.” The words, originally spoken in Spanish, revealed her belief that self knowledge required accountability.

During another appearance on the program La Función de la Palabra, she addressed victimhood in equally clear terms. “In one aspect of my process I was a victim and I cannot stand victims, they believe that the whole world is against them. Reality is neither easy nor difficult, reality is.” The comment reflected her insistence on confronting circumstances without surrendering to resentment.

Victoria Santa Cruz’s Legacy Continues to Circulate

Her final major performance took place in 2004 with the participation of Eva Ayllón and Bartola, artists who represent subsequent generations of Afro-Peruvian expression. Victoria Santa Cruz died on August 30, 2014, at the age of 91, leaving behind choreography, scholarship, and a body of work that remains widely studied and performed.

For contemporary Afro-feminist movements across Latin America and Spain, her poem functions as a point of origin. Her words circulate in workshops, classrooms, and digital platforms. Each time a young Afro-descendant recites “A Black woman I am,” the declaration renews itself.