Historically, a term for an enslaved African person newly arrived in the Americas who had not yet learned the language or customs of the colonizing Europeans.
From Spanish 'bozal,' possibly from a West African language (some scholars suggest Wolof or similar languages). The term became prominent in colonial Spanish America during the transatlantic slave trade.
The word 'bozal' is a painful historical marker—colonial Spanish speakers created it to describe the 'newness' of enslaved people, turning cultural and linguistic difference into a dehumanizing label that made oppression seem natural or justified.
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