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Transcript

De-Indianization & Representation in Mexico

American Frontiers, F. 2021

Dr. María Isabel Morales

Guiding Questions

Guiding Questions

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?

The theoretical framework

The theoretical lens:

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.

Batalla, G. B., & Dennis, P. A. (1996). México profundo: Reclaiming a civilization. University of Texas Press.

Pueblos Indigenas en México

  • The indigenous population of Latin America consists of 50 million people and over 500 different ethnic groups.
  • Income levels among this group, as well as human development indicators such as education and health conditions, have consistently lagged behind those of the rest of the population” (Patrinos & Hall, 2006).

  • Largest populations are in México, Guatemala, Perú and Bolivia.

  • Discrimination against indigenous peoples is one of the biggest social problems in México

Pueblos Indigenas en Mexico

Look into Guatemala

Guatemala

  • Population is approximately 11.2 million people
  • 39.5% self-identify as Indigenous
  • Statistics show that the figure on the percentage of indigenous peoples should be considered to be 60%
  • Immigration: There were 139,702 Mayan-speaking immigrants in the US (Guatemala Office of the International Organization of Migration, 2004)

Poverty & Racism

Poverty

* 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."

Colonialism & Coloniality

Colonialism

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.

"La Vecindad"

Popular Culture

Cities becoming more the "center of foreign power and of discrimination"

Gentrification of the cities- Ghettoization

Poor people are shamed, ridiculed --->

Nacos y Fresas: The Case of Tepito

One of the worlds most dangerous Barrios- Tepito

  • Neighborhood in central Mexico City, known for informal business, products that pirated and often illegally smuggled into country
  • Associated with violence, crime, and prostitution
  • The image of the "naco"
  • placed in contrast with los "fresas"

Nacos y Fresas: The Case of Tepito

De-Indianization

Rejection, Negation, and Silence

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

  • "This is an Indian Mexico for external consumption" (p. 55)
  • The only accepted Indian is that which is consumed and profited off by elites

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)

Corn Cultures

The case of corn

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

Guadalupanismo

Guadulapanismo

Hegemonic Civilization Model

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

Racial Inferiority of the "Indio"

Racial Inferiority of "Indio"

"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

"Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda."

Aunque la Mona...

“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

Tortillas= Indianness, backwardness

Pan: Progreso

El Indio- Caricature

"Las Marias"

"Nopaleros"

"Pata rajada"

Caricature & Mockery

Ignorant & Criminal

Language: "No tiene la culpa el Indio, si no el que lo hace compadre"

Easy to fool and exploit

Discussion

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?

Resistance

Language

Activism & Organizing

Popular education

Political

Resist a "colonized mentality"

Resistance

References

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.

Looking Forward

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*

Colonized Mentality

"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).

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