Mexica Movement [Schwaller]

[Jos=?ISO-8859-1?B?6SAg?=Rabasa]

Dear Pancho: You could not be clearer about Vasconcelos. I would add that he
is on record for thanking the Spaniards from curing the nation of the
"vices" of sodomy and cannibalism. We are certainly beyond the idealization
of mestizaje as a nationalist ideology. Suerte, Jose


On 4/17/06 4:02 PM, "David Becraft" <david_becraft at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Thank you for commenting on my paper.
> I agree with you that identities can in the future become modified and
> reappropriated, this in a sense is what the Mexica Movement is doing.  It is
> taking people who have lost a knowledge of their indigenous identity
> [obviously as a result of colonialism] and reintroducing them to an identity
> that can rebuild their sense of worth as an indigenous person.  Many do not
> know whether they are Otomangue or Maya, or even Yuto-Nawa, yet people are
> adopting not only Mexica as an identity, but others as well.  Those who are
> adopting or "reappropriating" other indigenous identities,[Yaki, Raramuri,
> Pore'pecha, etc] many times do so as a result of the oral tradition or
> geographical location as to what indigenous group they "probably" descend
> from.
> I disagree with you and JOSE VASCONCELOS though, Mestizo [latin for mixed]
> is a sociopolitical construct used by the elite to dominate the Indigenous
> population into "taking pride" in their "Spanish blood" while "taking shame"
> in their "Indigenous blood."  Europeans are also a Mixed [Mestizo] people,
> yet they are not viewed as a "Cosmic Race".  The race concept itself is a
> social construction with roots in early "American colonialsim".  Considering
> that "Mestizo" means mixed, a child of a Mixtec and Maya parents would also
> be considered Mestizo/Mixed.  Yet, under the sociopolitical construction of
> biological differences, this is never a matter of debate.
> The majority of Indigenous people have not had Spanish "inter-marriage" or
> Spanish blood "raped" into them in the last 200 + years, hence [if one wants
> to follow a biological concept of race], so-called Mestizo's are not
> actually "mixed" anymore.
> 
> Thank you for your critique, I will take your considerations into account in
> the future, as well as Frances Karttunen's.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Pancho Becraft
> 
> 
>> From: ROBERT SCHWALLER <rcs218 at PSU.EDU>
>> Reply-To: Nahua language and culture discussion <NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU>
>> To: NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU
>> Subject: Mexica Movement
>> Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 11:48:20 -0400
>> 
>> 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