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What is the concept of "de-Indianization" and how is it tied with colonialism & Eurocentrism?
How does it help us understand the marginalization of indigenous peoples in México?
Critical Discourse Analysis:
a socio-politically conscious and oppositional way of exploring language, discourse, and communication (text and talk).
In other words, a tool for exploring power in language and the impacts on representation.
* 14 percent of the population living in poverty
* 17 percent of population living in extreme poverty.
(de Dios, 2020)
[...]Some upper-class sectors are derived more or less directly from the Spanish colonizers and tend to conserve non-Indian cultural forms” (Bonfil-Batalla, p. 43).
3 poorest states in Mexico:
Chiapas: 76.2%
Oaxaca: 66.8%
Guerrero: 65.2%
10 Richest people in México
"Looking straight ahead, at equals, the skin is white and the hair and eyes are light. No one speaks Nahuatl, but many speak French, [...] and English" (Batalla, p. 56).
10 Richest people in México
"Looking staright ahead, at equals, the skin is white and the hair and eyes are light. No one speaks Nahuatl, but many speak French, [...] and English."
Casta System: A legal system that distinguished Mexico’s population based on race and gave or denied legal rights to individuals based on their status.
Was abolished after independence from Spain in 19th . Century
The "presumption of inferiority"- at the ideological level- was turned into real social inferiority via caste system, segregation, and various mechanisms of exclusion.
Nearly 50 different racial castes were recognized in Mexico and Guatemala by the end of the 18th century (Keen 1996, p. 248).
Coloniality: Even as “colonialism” comes to an end, ”coloniality” and resistance to coloniality continue. Coloniality refers not just to political or economic conditions but the marginalization or erasure of knowledge, culture, traditions ,and indigenous institutions and to the ways that interpersonal relations are structured.
Cities becoming more the "center of foreign power and of discrimination"
Gentrification of the cities- Ghettoization
Poor people are shamed, ridiculed --->
One of the worlds most dangerous Barrios- Tepito
De-Indianization
Mestizaje: “Ideologically, it may be maintained that we have a mestizo society that harmoniously combines the racial background and culture of the two primary sources. However, the reality is different, because the majority of the popular classes and sectors have Indian origin, often very recent [...] Some upper-class sectors are derived more or less directly from the Spanish colonizers and tend to conserve non-Indian cultural forms” (p. 43).
José Vasconcelos (1925): "Raza Cosmica" the 3rd Race- Mestizaje
Some see this as a result of "acculturation" but it is "ethnocide and de-Indianization"
The Museum of Anthropology is a reflection of the de-Indianization process
The Rupture: A mechanism of identification that has been broken
Rural communities: "These communities have Indian culture, but have lost the sense of identity that goes with it" (p. 44).
Use of "Milpas": Mesoamerican farming - where corn, beans, and squash, chiles are grown together.
What distiguishes non-Indians from Indians? Language
Spain: cometa
Mexico: Papalote
Mexico: Papalote
Papalotl
Spain: Cometa
Spain: Buo
Mexico (and Central America): Tecolote - derives from Tecolotl (Nahuatl)
People of Corn:
“So essential was corn to the evolution of indigenous civilizations that indigenous people attributed divine properties to it. Corn drove the evolution of the mode of production, mobilizing labor to meet the challenges of population growth and environmental change. Corn like pyramids, was a product of human labor and ingenuity” (Acuña, p. 1, 2011)
European invasion put the corn cultures in danger-- this danger continues today.
Genetically Modified Organisms
Corn imports from the USA
NAFTA: High subsidies for US Corn
- displacement of farmers-- increase in migration
Bonfil-Batalla: "What was the model around which the nation should unify? It was a purely Western one" (p. 63).
Desired nation was to imitate the European "motherland" & the model of the neighbors to the north.
"Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos"
- Porfirio Díaz (Motto of "Order & Progress")
Diaz's dictarship significantly impacted the Mexico/US relationship
"Defensive modernization"
"Golden age of Mexican economics" for the elite
Develped Mexican northern states & railroad
The sacrifice that comes with "Modernity" is the "Others"- the Indian who is backwards & immature- "negated as guilty victim" (Lander, 1993, p.30).
"Civilization"- In Mexico= De-Indianization
Mexico Profundo V. Imaginary Mexico
"El Indio: flojo y revoltuoso" - Angelica Rivera, 1st Lady of Mexico and famous telenovela actress
"If Indians want to better themselves, they need to work and not be lazy and unruly"
Twitter: "No, los Zapatistas eran revoltosos que estaban poniendo en peligro la estabilidad de las empresas Salinas hizo bien en mandarles al Ejercito" (Acteal in 1997).
Neo-colonialism: The old structures of domination with their supporting ideologies continue in effect in many parts of contemporary society
“I’d be breaking the stereotype that because we’re Indigenous we can’t do certain things because of our skin color....Receiving that nomination would be a break from so many ideas. It would open doors to other people — to everyone — and deepen our conviction that we can do these things now.” – Y. Aparicio
“I am proud to be an Oaxacan indigenous woman and it saddens me that there are people who do not know the correct meaning of words,”- Aparicio, 2018
"Las Marias"
"Nopaleros"
"Pata rajada"
Language: "No tiene la culpa el Indio, si no el que lo hace compadre"
Easy to fool and exploit
1. What impact does popular culture have on the creation and normalization of anti-Indian sentiments?
2. How do we use a critical perspective to unpack anti-indigeneity and the impacts on Indigenous people in Mexico and non-indigenous perspectives/relations towards indigenous communities?
3. What impact do these sentiments have on immigrants crossing México from Central America?
Language
Activism & Organizing
Popular education
Political
Resist a "colonized mentality"
https://www.forbes.com.mx/los-10-estados-con-mas-pobres-en-mexico/
http://www.coneval.org.mx/coordinacion/entidades/Documents/Informes%20de%20pobreza%20y%20evaluación%202012-2013_Documentos/IPE%20CHIAPAS.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.mx/2017/08/09/cada-pueblo-indigena-segun-el-estado-de-la-republica-en-que-habi_a_23072814/
Hall, G., & Patrinos, H. A. (Eds.). (2006). Indigenous peoples, poverty and human development in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lander, E. (1993). La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales: perspectivas latinoamericanas. Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales.
Based on what I presented today, as well as lectures on Tuesday, and readings:
What is an area that you would like to learn more about in Mexico?
Design a possible research question for a project in Mexico
Good research question is: open-ended (what, how, why), not too narrow, not too broad, answerable
*If you are not going, work as if you were*
"In terms of dominant ideology, Indian civilization does not exist"
Colonization lives in bodies & minds
Consent: People buy into anti-brown/Indian ideologies
"A colonized mentality, based on a scheme of domination from which they benefit, has kept the ruling groups from considering any cultural alternative. They rigidly promote Western schemes, through inabiity, for convenience's sake, through submission, or, most, probably, through simple blindness to reality itself" (Bonfil-Batalla, p. 64).
Popular culture has deep impact on the inferiority of Indigenous peoples
Colorism: "Within-group and between-group prejudice in favor of lighter skin color" (Teaching Tolerance)
Alternative: "We should learn to see the West from Mexico, instead of México from the West" (Bonfil-Batalla, p. 168).. build "an autonomous national development plan" (167).