Mexica Movement

[micc2]

/..."What your paper fails to realize in this is that the modern Mexican mestizo identity is
in fact a construction intended to counter European racism and discrimination.
While certainly it does not leave much room for individuals of entirely
indigenous descent it does acknowledge the cultural inheritance of indigenous
groups and has helped to improve their position within the Mexican nation and
consciousness. As anyother identity it is mutable an will change..."/

Mestizo identity should be seen as  a broad continuum.  From genetically 
pure white European to Pure African, and indigenous bloods, what matters 
most is the CULTURAL life of the individual.  I have seen Lacandon 
people with Afros at the bus stop in Palenque, ruddy complected  
Huicholes selling arts in Zacatecas, and
dark skinned men passing out anti-immigrant leaflets at the local 
shopping mall.

The Spanish "castas" system is alive and well in some quarters.  Some 
idigenistas want to apply a BIA blood quantum to Chicano identity.  
Others want to subsume Chicano identity into the greater "Latino" 
pantheon.  Either choice is an ignorant approach. The reality of the 
21st century is that there are no indigenous peoples left in the world 
who are completely and totally free of outside contact.  And try and 
pray as we might,  indigenous cultures like all cultures are dynamic, 
ever-changing and not set in stone.  They were not before 1492, and will 
be even less so in the 21st century.

Those of us who are untested in helping indigenous people throughout the 
world maintain their culture, most do so not from a curator's point of 
view.  Nor from a
political strategist's.  We must do so because we value the  deep 
historical, linguistic, and spiritual  offerings that all indigenous 
cultures bring to our global  feasting table.

To lose these ancient and venerable traditions, would be a great loss.  
But to petrify them and demand that all  indigenous people submit to a 
"Hollywood"  or "noble savage" version of what it means to be indigenous 
would also be a crime.

What it means to be Chicano/Mexicano/indigenous in the U.S. will also 
change as the influence of Euro/Afro/Asian American culture interacts 
with our Chicano/Mexicano/indigenous traditions.  My children who were 
born into the Chicano indigenous world view ( as opposed to me walking 
into it at the age of 19 in 1974) are deeply proud of their culture, 
participate in our Azteca dance ritual calendar.... and enjoy pesto, 
Phó, hummus, kung pao chicken, Thai food, and hamburgers...... as well 
as their chilaquiles, tamales, pozole, chile nuevo Mexico, and guajolote 
on Thanksgiving.....

if we are what we eat.... most of us are mestizo....


mario



ROBERT SCHWALLER wrote:
> I would have to agree with Dr. Karttunen. While I agree with your paper's
> assertion that identity can be both imposed on an individual or a group or
> constructed independently. The problem I see with the paper is that it fails to
> recognize that even identities which may have been created by dominant elites
> may in later times become modified and reapproproiated. The concept of a
> mestizo identity is very interesting in this regard. During the colonial period
> it was created by the Spanish to describe individuals of mixed Iberian and
> indigenous descent. It did serve to distinguish these individuals from their
> indigenous relatives. However, by the early 20th century, the intellectual
> elite of Mexico had successfully reimagined the Mexican national identity as
> being mestizo. Was this the same as the earlier Spanish colonial label? No,
> obviously not, the major goal of this new mestizo identity was the valorization
> of both European white culture AND native indigenous culture. Jose Vasconcelos
> argued that Mexicans were "la raza cosmica" because of this unique blending of
> culture and heritage.  Was this new mestizo identity hegemonic? Yes, the
> intellectual and political elite of Mexico, many of mostly European descent,
> chose to construct this identity in order to counter largely European
> assertions that as a nation of mixed-race individuals Mexico was inherantly
> weak. This new formulation of the Mexican mestizo nation has been rather
> successful in insuring the continued survival of indigenous culture within the
> nation, because without its connection to indigenous groups, their culture, and
> their past there could be no indigenous element. For example INAH, Instituto
> Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, focuses far more of its archaeological
> time on indigenous sites than on colonial ones because of the importance that
> indigenous culture plays for the continuation of a mestizo identity. What your
> paper fails to realize in this is that the modern Mexican mestizo identity is
> in fact a construction intended to counter European racism and discrimination.
> While certainly it does not leave much room for individuals of entirely
> indigenous descent it does acknowledge the cultural inheritance of indigenous
> groups and has helped to improve their position within the Mexican nation and
> consciousness. As anyother identity it is mutable an will change. Your paper
> needs to recognize that even imposed identities may be reappropriated overtime.
>
> Rob 
>
> Robert Schwaller
>
> Ph.D. Candidate
> Penn State - Dept. of History
> 105 Weaver Bldg.
> University Park PA, 16801
>
>
>   
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