User:Jlbettis/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Afro-Mexicans in the Mexican War of Independence

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I am thinking of working on it, or something on a similar topic, for my final project in my Mexican history course.

Lead Section
After reading through the "lead" section of the Wikipedia article "Afro-Mexicans in the Mexican War of Independence, I felt like the first sentence was lacking some information. Firstly, it mostly just repeats the title. Upon reading the title "Afro-Mexicans in the Mexican War of Independence" I would already assume the author believes they played an important role in the war, otherwise, there wouldn't be an article about it. With that being said, the only new information added by the first sentence is about Vicente Guerrero. This makes me believe that this article is primarily going to be focused on Guerrero and other Afro-mexican military elites.

I feel that the "lead" should've mentioned slavey since it discussed it in length in the article. It feels like the "lead" is meant to describe a very militaristic and strategy heavy article, instead, the article itself seems to be focusing on the social status of Black individuals irregardless of their relation to the independence movement. The article almost drops off its intended purpose to instead discuss Afro-Mexican slavery and a few interesting military leaders. The "lead" is clear and concise, I simply feel it is a bit mismatched to the article itself.

Content
After reading through this article, I feel I found some good information but that it was often buried underneath seemingly irrelevant information. I feel like the article went away from the topic of military and the War for Independence into a presentation on race relations. For example, I would've liked less information about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and more about what enlistment looked like among the Afro-Mexican community. I want answers to questions like: Why were they fighting, who were they fighting for, did blackness effect one's treatment in the military, was it difficult to rise the ranks as a black person? In short, I want to read an article presenting the Afro-Mexican perspective of the war.

Tone and Balance
I feel that this piece doesn't really display a strong stance on anything. The article felt rather neutral and passive. I know this is probably preferable in a resource like Wikipedia, however, I feel like it is a missed opportunity because this feels like a topic worthy of being discussed passionately.

Sources and References
Many of the sources seem to be from 2001 or earlier with the exception of Sierra Silva's Urban Slavery in Colonial Mexico, which was published in 2018. This tells me that all the sources about Black participation in the war might be a little outdated. I also noticed that the majority of the references made (10 out of 16) are to two articles by the same author, Vincent. I wonder if the lack of diverse sources might've led to a skewed article or perhaps a gap in the information provided.

Organization and Writing Quality
The organization from topic to topic seemed to flow well and I felt like it made sense. On the other hand, I felt like the names of some of the sections were less then helpful in their vagueness, especially the section entitled "Afro-Mexicans." I also feel that, due to the extremely vague and ill-fitting sub-headings, the content doesn't always seem to match up with the implied topic. For example, the title "Regions of the Insurgency" implies to me that I will learn about some specific battle grounds or something similar. Instead, the reader is presented with the history of how various races were introduced to the "Revolutionary Coast" emphasizing Asian, indigenous, and Black population's stories. I felt that, not only was this title and content ill-matched, but also, that it was rather unnecessary to discuss the origin of Chinese slaves in Mexico in an article about Africans in the War for Independence.

Images and Media
It seems that the images included in this article makes sense where they are and have good descriptions. The only thing I might add is another picture of Vicente Guerrero at the end in his section.

Talk Page Discussion
It doesn't appear that this page has much discussion going on behind the scenes. I can see that it is a part of three different WikiProjects including "African diaspora," "Mexico," and "Military history." I can also see that the article has been edited by a student editor in the January of last year.

Overall Impressions
This article has a good starting base, however, I feel that it is lacking some important information and a diversity in resources. In addition, I feel the piece could be streamlined and the irrelevant information removed. Organization and clear, precise content are my primary concerns with this article.