Mestizo Racial Identity Essay

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When my Mexican compatriots are asked if they consider themselves racist, the most common answer is ‘no, there are no races in Mexico’. This rhetoric erases the indigenous ethno-racial identity through an assimilation delusion and hinders academic and political projects from confronting structural discrimination. The obliteration of indigenous identity has taken place since Mexico’s independence; the ‘mestizo’ identity was paradoxically appointed as the core of the nation-building process. ‘Mestizos’ adhere to the pre-Colonial majestic monuments and mythical past as a testimony of their indigenous heritage whereas they ground the nation collective values, practices and institutions in the Euro-Catholic framework1. The paradox of ‘mestizo’ identity …show more content…

Politically, ethnicity could be considered a homologous for ‘race’ which takes into consideration socio-cultural attributes (instead of biological) that are primordial for defining someone’s identity (language, values, etc.)8 Using ethnic categories the State hierarchs its population’s identities9; it privileges or denies access to infrastructure, political goods and rights according to its discourse of national identity. This rhetoric constructs a correlation between cultures and bodies, presupposing that certain identities have a fixed behavior therefore will have similar outcomes, based on the way they use their body to experience societal life10. The binary categorization of body-culture results in systemic violence against indigenous identities; this institutionalization of ethno-racial prejudices, is entrenched within the ‘racelessness’ discourse. The fallacy of a ‘raceless and culturally homogenous Mexico’ leads to structural marginalization (by the State) and to indigenous populations being blamed for their own oppression (by the citizenry).11 In this project, I intend to challenge the ethno-racial homogeneity (racelessness) discourse12 and examine its role within the systemic discrimination and structural violence towards indigenous

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