"Four hundred years ago," Garry Leech writes on Colombia Journal, "Afro-Colombians living along Colombia's Caribbean coast would cry when a child was born because the youth was destined to suffer a life of slavery under Spanish colonial rule. And when an Afro-Colombian died, people would engage in a nine-day and nine-night wake to celebrate the deceased's return to Africa. Back then it appeared that death was the only path to liberation. But today, parents in the remote village of San Basilio de Palenque no longer cry when their children are born thanks to the bravery and resilience of their ancestors, who successfully gained freedom from the Spanish crown in 1603. The contemporary residents of San Basilio de Palenque-simply called Palenque by locals-claim to live in the first free black community in the Americas and they have sent a letter to Barack Obama inviting the first black president of the United States to visit their village. "We are inviting Barak Obama and we hope he will visit us," explains community leader Enrique Marquéz. "We are not going to ask him for anything. We only want him, and all the blacks and all the people of the world, to learn about Palenque."