Uses and abuses of culture: mestizaje in the era of multiculturalism

ABSTRACT

In this article, I analyse how intercultural ideas, practices and policies inform Mexico’s current racial formation, and how racial categories and meanings are shaped under neoliberalism and the politics of recognition. I argue that the uncritical use of cultural and ethnic differences as the central focus of interculturalism reifies and reproduces the preoccupation with culture and ethnic differences characteristic of the racial project of mestizaje that held sway for most of the twentieth century. This focus on difference has silenced a much-needed discussion about how neither interculturalism nor multiculturalism has changed existing racial hierarchies and privileges nor curtailed the effects of racism and racial injustice on indigenous people and their communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Interculturalism
• Mexico
• mestizo fragilities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr. Emiko Saldívar is currently Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist at the Department of Anthropology and Chicana Studies in UCSB. Her work has focused on race, ethnicity, mestizaje and anti-racism and research activism in Mexico and Latin America. Her book: Practicas Cotidianas del Indigenismo (IBERO- Plaza Valdez 2008) is an ethnography of the state where she explores the connections between state formation, indigeneity and race in Mexico. She has published several articles and books chapters in both Spanish and English.

Notes

1 COPERA is a collective formed by activist intellectuals that develop different anti-racists strategies and interventions in Mexico. www.colectivocopera.org

2 Although, in the CGEIB funding, there is no reference to the work previously done by Mexican Anthropologists.

3 Nevertheless, the solutions to interrupt these asymmetric interethnic relations proposed by these anthropologists – i.e., indigenismo and assimilation to the Mestizo society, have been deeply questioned (Ohemichen 1999, Saldívar 2006, 2008, 2014).

4 Nevertheless, this thesis always was in tension with the strong nationalist trend that glorified indigenous culture and those that advocate for the conservation of the ‘good’ characteristics of indigeneity (Caso 1948).

5 Other alternative projects such as indigenous universities have existed before, but according to the CGEIB they decided that Interculturalidad was more suitable due to the negative association with the term indigenous (Casillas and Santini 2006).

6 For a detailed account, see David Lehmann (2013).

7 Schmelkes (2003), my translation.

8 Field notes, Veracruz, 11 January 2015. See Lehmann (2013).

9 Field notes, Veracruz, 9 January 2015.

10 Interview, Oaxaca, July 2016.

11 Similar responses can be found when the Centro Coordinadores Indigenistas were established by the Federal state in the 1950s. See Saldívar (2008).

12 I will use Ñoho, Hña Hñu and Otomi interchangeably depending on the term used in the region.

13 Teneek (Tepehua) is also spoken in the region, but central offices ignored that fact when the signs were made.

14 Interview, January 2015.

15 The cautious tone used by many to lay out their take on the issue, indicated that the students I interviewed had not discussed this topic among themselves before, at least not outside the institutional context. This was later confirmed to me by two of the people present (Field notes 2015).

16 In fact, in a later visit, Jacinta mentioned that since then they began to have more conversations amongst themselves (Field notes 21 January 2016).

17

Competence as an organizing principle of the curriculum is a way to bring real life back into the classroom (Jonnaert P. et al, Prospects, UNESCO, 2007). It is thus a move away from the idea that curriculum is mainly implemented by having students reproduce theoretical knowledge and memories facts (the conventional knowledge-based approach. (UNESCO-IBE, n.d.)

18 For more on the increase in third parties for social services, see Milward and Provan (2003).

19 For a detailed account of how this took place in the region, see Saldívar (2003, 2008).

20 Interview with the Director of CCI-Huayacocotla. Field notes January 2015.

21 Also, the figures of the Caudillo and Cacique are other forms of mediators. See González (2008).

22 See Pineda (1994), González (2008), Gutierrez (1999), Llanes Ortiz (2010), and Saldívar (2008).

23 The Radio is a mestizo-led, popular education project established in the late 1970s by a group of nuns inspired by the liberation theology of the Second Vatican Council (CITA). For 50 years, they have worked in the area known as the Huasteca Alta and have earned recognition as social advocates in that region.

24 See Bonilla-Silva (2003), Casaús Arzú (2006), Da Costa (2016), Dawson and Bobo (2009), De la Cadena (2010).

25 See Psacharopoulos and Patrinos (1994), Van Cott (2000) and Warren and Jackson (2003).

26 Before the conquest, Hña Hñu (Otomi) people arrived in the region after been push out of the valley by the Nahuas. In the IXI century, the Independent State gave land grants to peasants that fought against the Spaniards, during the revolution, many mestizos arrived to the region looking for refugee from the armed conflict, etc. (Interview 2015).

27 Through programs on indigenous languages, transmitting messages, inquires and other needs of the radio listeners. Also, the boarding school run by the parish started recruiting more children from indigenous communities, they developed productive projects, gave legal advice, and carried all the religious events such as weddings, baptizes, first communions, saint celebrations and corn blessings.

28 ‘se fue recorriendo, casi, casi jalada por las comunidades indígenas’ Alfredo Zepeda (Radio Huayacocotla 2012).