Reaffirming Indigenous identity: Understanding experiences of stigmatization and marginalization among Mexican Indigenous college students

ABSTRACT

The historical discrimination of Indigenous groups within Mexican society remains relevant to the experiences of Mexican Indigenous youth in the U.S. Similar to their immigrant peers, Mexican Indigenous students face cultural discontinuities between home and school that affect their negotiation of identity. Still, Mexican Indigenous students also develop their ethnic identities against the backdrop of an existing dominant Mexican mestizo identity. This ethnographic study examines educational experiences of four Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) college graduates and sheds light on colonial structures that continue to marginalize and stigmatize Mexican Indigenous students. Participants attribute their reaffirmation of Indigenous identity partly to college experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Mexican Indigenous youth
• ethnic identity development
• colonialism
• higher education

Notes

¹ The term Latinx is used in place of Latina/o. Latinx serves as a gender-neutral term that is not limited by the gender binary (Salinas & Lozano, 2017).

² It is important to point out that the word Mixtec is derived from Nahuatl. After the conquest of the Aztec empire, Spanish authorities and missionaries used the language of this colonized group to describe other native communities, which is why most Indigenous groups in Mexico are commonly referred to by their Nahuatl name. Ñuu Savi, which means people of the rain, is the native term to define Mixtec people. In effort to honor and recognize Ñuu Savi culture, language, and resistance and as per the request of the participants of this study, I will use Ñuu Savi in place of Mixtec in this article.

³ All participants’ names were changed to protect their identity and ensure confidentiality.

⁴ Please refer to Appendix A, number 1.

⁵ Please refer to Appendix A, number 2 .

⁶ Please refer to Appendix A, number 3.