Mesoamerica and Indigenous Experiences, Essay Example

Notions about ethnicity are intrinsically linked with about race and racial formation, which eschews biological definitions in favor of political and cultural ones  (Carrasco 76). Of paramount importance in Mexican culture is the concept of mestizaje, which refers to the cultural and racial mixture that was both a symbolic  meaning and a specified social locale through which Mexicans view the world through.  Mexican national identity is unique from most racial group because it is constructed in terms of the notion that Mexicans are a product of Europeans and indigenous peoples mixing together.  As such, from a theoretical perspective, this contention revolves about fusing two different cultures together, although in practices it gets confused and often conflated with notion of race mixing, which is what the concept of  “mestizaje” refers to in Spanish lexicon. This notion became an official state doctrine devised in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and it was expressed in official mythology, rhetoric, and public ceremony. The place of mestizaje in Mexican culture represents the historical struggle Latin Americans occupying present-day Mexico had in defining their identity because of the historical legacy Spain had in the region, and the formation of defined racialized identities in the region remained problematic. Its historical and cultural currency is reflected in the fact that it has survived into the present day in some manifestation since the colonial era and continues to inform Mexican cultural identity.

In 1925, a Mexican pedagogue and philosopher named Jose Vasconcelos penned La Raza Cosmica as a means of undermining Western hegemony and claims to racial purity and superiority in order to proffer a counter-narrative about how the indigenous peoples in Mexico mixed with Europeans and Africans in addition to others throughout Latin America. Vasconcelos sought to undermine the maligned status of the indigenous peoples living their and how, since the European conquest of the indigenous, they suffered from western material hegemony  and proved unable to become severed from the civilizing impulses and motives of New Spain. Mestizaje emerged as a central political ideology of modern Mexican national identity which became the fulcrum of social progress and unity. However, Vasconcelo’s narrative pinpointed Christianity as the major source for progress and modernization, which is why Mexican nationalism persists in delineating Mexican citizens as mestizos. As a result, Mexican culture would always reflect its colonial past and the violent takeover of the indigenous peoples at the hands of the Spanish conquerors and explorers.

The Spanish conquest of the indigenous people in modern-day Mexico bears a lot of ideological and material weight, which is why it was so difficult to shed it in the nascent formations of mestizaje as a central political ideology. Even when the indigenous peoples were subject to Spanish rule, creoles lauded the Mesoamerican past/legacy while deprecating  European conquest, yet they nonetheless celebrated mestizaje to an extent. Such a celebration eschewed the cultural genocide, the eradication of economic hegemony, and political disempowerment that accompanies western domination over indigenous populations. Claims of mestizaje within the area labeled New Spain were intended to signify an association against the Spanish colonists who retained exclusive rights in political office in the region. Indeed, mestizaje retained a prominent role in the caste system that developed in Mexico, especially with regards to the diversity and power respective social and racial groups had during particular epochs. Within the caste system in New Spain, there were other groups of mixed raced people that were not venerated, and the status of mix-raced people was looked down upon, ignored, or not taken into consideration (Acuna 32). As such, scholars concur that during the three distinct periods in Mexican history—the colonial, independence, and revolutionary epochs—the very concept of mestizaje functioned as a mechanism to abate linguistic, cultural, and political diversity within Mexico in order to enhance the privileged status of the elites ruling in Mexico.

As such, the original concept of mestizaje underscored the significance of appropriation and assimilation of indigenous cultures into the hegemonic (conquering) one and promise of cultivation, civilization, justice, and progress for the indigenous under European auspices. This very paradigm of hybridity thus became unequivocally veiled under the flag of national unity. Indeed, the concept of Aztlan, a symbolic homeland for the indigenous inhabitants of Mexico, is so central current public discourses in Mexico attests to its potency in the present day and the very legacy of colonial hegemony that changed the course of Mexican history (Carrasco 183). By Mexicans today claiming Aztlan, various problems and possibilities emerge because  the very notion transgresses the nation state by framing those of Mexican heritage in the United States as being outside of the U.S., thereby resisting political and cultural structures therein.  As a result, such framing sets up possible alliances with indigenous people in addition to possibilities with other social and racial groups who are oppressed by western overlords. Situating new identity enables them go across a broad range of issues. However, doing do also creates problems with regards to promoting a new brand of nationalism and who is included and excluded. As a result,  some Mexican scholars such as twentieth century thinker Octavio Paz have written about the trenchant trauma that mestizaje has hitherto functioned in Mexico, as it is a trope of illegitimacy and a concept that germinated in a manner that does not serve its historical currency justice. Others, however, postulate that mestizaje retains currency because of the potential to revitalize theology and culture in America (Carrasco 192).  Despite one’s viewpoint of mestizaje, it is unequivocal that it retains a prominent role in Mexican culture and Mexican history, which is tainted by the legacy of violent colonialism, cultural clashing, and forced cultural acculturation.   As a result of its colonial legacy, Mexicans look to mestizaje as a means to resist hegemonic structures in cogent and covert ways.

It is unequivocal that mestizaje was forged into Mexico’s national identity, meaning a mixed cultural heritage is laid claim to. The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico celebrates the greatness of pre-Hispanic civilizations such as the Mayas, Zapotecs, and Aztecs on its very first floor, which testifies to the enduring legacy of mestizaje.  Despite claiming mestizaje as Mexico’s cultural heritage, it has emerged as a point of contention with regards to national identity, which various contemporary songs and poems convey. The very concept of mestizaje is saturation with intimations and reminders about over five hundred years of colonial domination, which changed the perception of who indigenous Mexicans are as a people and a culture and has rendered Mexican cultural identity indecisive (Acuna 339). As such, during the twentieth century, a group of culturally conscious Mexicans known as the Chicanos resisted against mestizaje, claiming that it was nothing to tout because it is pernicious and an abomination to the indigenous heritage and indigenous dignity. Indeed, it continues to promote self-hate amongst Mexicans rather than cultural community. A mixed heritage was forced upon indigenous Mexicans, which has result in the psychological and spiritual degradation of a once proud and dignified peoples. Because mestizaje has rendered nebulous the indigenous people’s comprehension of themselves as a culture and further denigrated their cultural past vis-a-vis “cultural rape” and “rape of the land,” Chicanos resist such a legacy through protest and systematic appropriation of institutions in order to claim a unique and dignified identity.

Works Cited

Acuna, Rodolfo. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Longman, 2007. Print.

Carrasco, David. Religions of Mesoamerica. United States: Waveland Press, 2013, Print.

Clendinnen, Inga. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print.