DOCSLIB.ORG

Intellectuals, Blackness, and Inter-Americanism in Mexico After 1910

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Intellectuals, Blackness, and Inter-Americanism in Mexico After 1910 ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: IN BLACK AND BROWN: INTELLECTUALS, BLACKNESS, AND INTER-AMERICANISM IN MEXICO AFTER 1910 Theodore Cohen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Dissertation directed by: Professor Mary Kay Vaughan Department of History “In Black and Brown” examines how blackness and Africanness became constituent elements of Mexican culture after the Revolution of 1910. In refuting the common claim that black cultures and identities were erased or ignored in the post-revolutionary era, it argues that anthropologists, historians, (ethno)musicologists, and local intellectuals integrated black and, after 1940, African-descended peoples and cultures into a democratic concept of national identity. Although multiple historical actors contributed to this nationalist project, three intellectuals—composer and ethnomusicologist Gerónimo Baqueiro Foster (1898-1967), anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán (1908-1996), and city of Veracruz poet Francisco Rivera (1908-1994)—most coherently identified Africanness in Mexican history and culture. As these state and local intellectuals read ethnographic texts about African cultural retentions throughout the Western Hemisphere, they situated these cultural practices in specific Mexican communities and regional spaces. By tracing the inter-American networks that shaped these identities, “In Black and Brown” asserts that the classification of blackness and Africanness as Mexican was in conversation with the refashioning of blackness, Africanness, and indigeneity across the Americas and was part of the construction of the Western Hemisphere as a historical, cultural, and racial entity. More broadly, it questions the commonplace assumption that certain nations of the Americas are part of the African Diaspora while others are defined as indigenous. IN BLACK AND BROWN: INTELLECTUALS, BLACKNESS, AND INTER- AMERICANISM IN MEXICO AFTER 1910 By Theodore Cohen Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Advisory Committee: Professor Mary Kay Vaughan, Chair Professor Ira Berlin Professor Eyda Merediz Professor Karin Rosemblatt Professor Daryle Williams © Copyright by Theodore Cohen 2013 ii To Joanna iii Acknowledgements Since “In Black and Brown” takes so much space tracing intellectual genealogies, it seems only natural that I sketch my own. I have been lucky to work with countless brilliant scholars, welcoming archivists, generous friends, and understanding family members who have always given me more comments, intellectual encouragement, and emotional support than I ever could have imagined. There are not enough words to express the thanks that they deserve. In unique ways, each and every one of them has improved this dissertation. In Mexico and the United States, many people and institutions supported my research. Without the archivists who provided me with documents and helped me navigate through archival collections, I would not have this dissertation. At times, I think they incredulously wondered why I wanted to peruse such a wide and seemingly unrelated set of sources. Yet everyone at the the Archivo General de México, the Coordinación de Arqueología Técnica of the INAH, the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblo Indígenas, the Archivo Municipal de Veracruz, the Schomburg Library, the Northwestern University Archives, the Smithsonian Institute’s National Anthropology Archives, and the Columbus Memorial Library at the Organization of American States always went out of the way to assist me. Several archivists went beyond the call of duty. Herlinda Mendoza Castillo sat with me while I poured over the Gerónimo Baqueiro Foster archives at the CENIDIM. At the Special Collections of the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, Claudia Jasso and Tania Martin Becerril always graciously offered to help me find what I needed and even fulfilled the dream of every historian: they let me go into the archive storage room to see what it contained. iv Most of all, I must thank Maria del Rosario Ochoa Rivera of the Archivo Municipal de Veracruz. As she helped me navigate the archives of her grandfather Francisco Rivera, she has become a wonderful friend. Also thank you to the Editorial Miguel Angel Porrúa, the Association for the Study of African American Life & History, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes/CENIDIM, the Missouri Historical Society, and the Municipal Archive of Veracruz for granting me permission to reproduce maps and images in “In Black and Brown.” Many scholars—including Adriana Naveda, Kevin Yelvington, Alejandro Madrid, Sagrario Cruz, Félix Báez-Jorge, and Alberto Hernández Sánchez—helped me navigate life in Mexico as well as specific archives in Mexico and the United States. Tore Olsson kindly found and copied Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán’s file at the Rockefeller Archive Center for me. Drew Wood helped orient me in the city of Veracruz and put me in contact with Rosario; those few email conversations shaped this project more than he ever could have thought. Much of this archival work was kindly funded by the Conference on Latin American History, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the Latin American Studies Center at the University of Maryland, and especially the History Department at the University of Maryland. Finally, many people provided suggestions and asked probing questions when I presented various aspects of this project at the American Historical Association, the Middle-Atlantic Conference of Latin American Studies, the University of Maryland History Graduate Student Association, the Smithsonian Institute, the Washington Area Symposium in the History of Latin America, and the Tepoztlán Institute for the History of the Americas. v While I am unsure when I exactly decided to become a Mexican historian or a scholar of the African Diaspora, I know that the time I years at Yale University, the University of Virginia, and especially the University of Maryland were instrumental in making me the scholar I am today. At Yale, Gil Joseph and Seth Fein pushed me to think about Mexican history and transnational history in so many innovative ways. I find myself constantly referring back to the provocative ideas that they posed for me. My research on Mexico and its relationship to inter-Americanism certainly owes so much to both of them. Thank you to the Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. Everyone affiliated with the Institute—but particularly Debbie Best and Cheryll Lewis—has given me the time, support, and space to think about my research and write my dissertation. The Woodson Institute provided me with the opportunity to converse with so many brilliant scholars of the African Diaspora. All of the Woodson Fellows from 2011 through 2013 were always willing to read and provide comments on unwieldy chapters. Elina Hartikainen and Rebecca Keegan Van Diver deserve special thanks; they read more poorly written chapters on Mexican history than they probably ever thought they would. Thank you also to Deborah McDowell, Lawrie Balfour, Roquinaldo Ferreira, Brian Owensby, Daniel Chávez, Herman Bennett, and Bryan McCann for taking time out of their busy schedules to participate in my chapter workshops. All of your insights into my work not only pushed me intellectuals but forced me to grapple with the boundaries of historical analysis and the strengths and weaknesses of interdisciplinarity. vi There are so many people at the University of Maryland’s History Department who have helped to improve “In Black and Brown.” Fellow graduate students—Sarah Walsh, Shane Dillingham, Reid Gustafson, Daniel Richter, and Will Burghart—have read, heard, and edited various iterations of this project and given so much precious feedback and support. Professors David Sartorius and Elsa Barkley-Brown helped me develop my own ideas about the African Diaspora. Finally, thank you to Barbara Weinstein for asking questions about race and nation in Latin America that have helped to shape some of the underlying issues in “In Black and Brown.” I must wholeheartedly thank my entire dissertation committee: Mary Kay Vaughan, Karin Rosemblatt, Daryle Williams, Ira Berlin, and Eyda Merediz. They have each brought their own perspectives to my project and helped me think about Cuban culture and history, slavery in the Americas, the African Diaspora, and Mexican history. From reading all sorts of drafts to discussing the intricacies of Mexican anthropology with me, Karin has been so instrumental in shaping my research. Her knowledge of Mexican indigenismo brought new discursive and cultural dimensions to this project— and her interest in the relationship between race and space have left an indelible imprint on this dissertation. I cannot thank Mary Kay, my advisor, enough. She encouraged me and did so much to help me craft this project. Without her knowledge of Mexico and her seemingly infinite connections abroad, I do not think I could have completed “In Black and Brown.” Her diligence, persistence, and enthusiasm were invaluable. The conversations that we have had over the years have not only animated this project but also my entire outlook on Mexican history, culture, and society. I would not be the historian I am today if it was not for her. vii My family has supported me through this entire process. They have listened to me talk about my project—and a daring few have even read a little of it. They have distracted me from my work when it became too much and encouraged me both when my research was going well and when it was not. As a child, I never thought I would be a historian. If it was not for the fact that my parents always encouraged me to do what made me happy, I probably would not be finishing a dissertation. Alas, I probably would not have started it. Finally, to Joanna: thank you. She has endured this project as much if not more than I have. I chose this path. She did not. Yet, with unwavering confidence in my abilities and the hope that this ordeal would briskly (or at least eventually) come to an end, she has unconditionally supported me.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Central States Bulletin
    ~- .~·,....,.,. ·" i. CENTRAL STATES BULLETIN ... Volume I January - February 1947 Number·~ MAY MEETING IN ANN ARBOR COOPERATIVE DEGREES t PROS A1TD CONS "r, The Central States Branch of the Amer­ In the preceding number of the BULtf. ican Anthropological Association and the TIN the question. ~f Cooperative Higher Society for .American Archaeology will hold Degrees was raised by Professor. Ca.tl F. · a joint meeti'rtl'; at the University of Mich• Voegelin. So much interest was aroused igan in Ann Arbor on May 16 and 17. Plans in the topic that the Editors invited are being made locally to accor:unodate mem­ the heads of several nadwestern a.n.thro­ bers at the Ndchigan Union. Since there pology departments to contribute state­ are not enough single rooms, for all, it ments of their opinions. Four teplfes will be necessary for many members to were received and these ·are presen~ed share a room with someone else. Members below. A few condensations were made are adv;.sed therefore to ma]ce plans accord .. to conserve space, but the viewpoj.nta· ingly and well in advance of the meeting. of the writers have been left inta.ot. Rates: Single roows, $2.20 and $2.75; These articles, ta:rnn jointly, con~' Double: ·$4.40; tµ,;s.50 and 06.60. stitute the feature for this issue. All persons ple.nning to attend should write to Volney H. Jones or to Leslie A. White (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) I.·To.r_~~~~?t~r~ _Qniv~:r:~~-~y who will make their reservations for them.
    [Show full text]
  • AFD Ep 331 Links and Notes
    AFD Ep 331 Links and Notes - Gaspar Yanga and the 16th/17th Century Maroon Colony in Veracruz [Bill/Nate, Nov 1] - Pronunciation note: It is “Gaspar Nyanga/Ñanga” but commonly written as “Yanga” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspar_Yanga - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanga,_Veracruz - To this day, the area still grows sugarcane. The region is filled with or surrounded by tropical forest (less now than in the past) and mountainous terrain. Veracruz was the base of operations for Cortes to conquer the Aztecs a century before. - https://www.jstor.org/stable/27654749 "El Primer Libertador de las Americas"/The First ​ Liberator of the Americas: The Editor's Notes - Callaloo, Vol. 31, No. 1, Yanga, Mata Clara and Nearby Villages: Africa in Contemporary Mexico / Yanga, Mata Clara y Pueblos Cercanos: África en México Contemporánea (Winter, 2008), pp. 1-11 (11 pages) - Citations from the JSTOR article out to other sources: - during the peak years of Mexican slavery, from 1521 to 1639, the colony [Kingdom of New Spain] ranked high among the leading New World importers, receiving roughly half of all slaves entering the Indies. Total slave imports for the period amounted to over 110,525 persons. - In 1640, the year the Portuguese slave trade to Spanish America ended, the Kingdom of New Spain (colonial Mexico) contained the second-largest [after Brazil] population of enslaved Africans and the greatest number of free blacks in the Americas - In 1570 [51 years after Cortes arrived], Gaspar Yanga led a bloody ​ ​ rebellion of slaves in the sugar fields of Veracruz .... Yanga led the rebels into the mountains, where they found an inaccessible place where they could settle and could found a small town of approximately 500 people.
    [Show full text]
  • A Cultural View of Music Therapy: Music and Beliefs of Teton Sioux Shamans, with Reference to the Work of Frances Densmore
    Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Graduate Thesis Collection Graduate Scholarship 5-1999 A Cultural View of Music Therapy: Music and Beliefs of Teton Sioux Shamans, with Reference to the Work of Frances Densmore Stephanie B. Thorne Butler University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation Thorne, Stephanie B., "A Cultural View of Music Therapy: Music and Beliefs of Teton Sioux Shamans, with Reference to the Work of Frances Densmore" (1999). Graduate Thesis Collection. 253. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses/253 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Scholarship at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Thesis Collection by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. -- CERTIFICATE FORM Name of Candidate: Stephanie B. Thome Oral Examination Date: ___W=e",dn",e",s",d""aYz."",J",un",-e"--"2"-3,~1,,,,9 ,,,,9,,,9,---________ COmmUtteeChaUpe~on: __~D~r~.~P~enn~y~D~Urun~~i~c~k ______________________ Committee Members: Dr. Sue Kenyon, Dr. Tim Brimmer, Dr. Wayne Wentzel, Mr. Henry Leck Thesis Title: A Cultural View of Music Therapy: Music and Beliefs of Teton Shamans, with Reference to the Work of Frances Densmore Thesis approved in final fonn: """"" Date: ____________:::::~ _________ Major professor: __----'D"'r"' . ..!.P-"e"'nn"'y.L...!.D"'im!!.!!.m""'ic"'k~ ___________________________ II • A CULTURAL VIEW OF MUSIC THERAPY: MUSIC AND BELIEFS OF TETON SIOUX SHAMANS, WITH REFERENCE TO THE WORK OF FRANCES DENSMORE by Stephanie B.
    [Show full text]
  • 21-40 SECCIÓN B.Cdr
    DEPORTEMAS Dios y yo hacemos equipo PÁGINA 21-B UNIFORMES PROFESIONALES “3007”. Deportivos, Escolares y Empresariales INAUGURACIÓN DE NUEVA CAMPAÑA DE JUEGOS “Tomateros” se reencuentra con su afición * En su majestuoso estadio, espectacular ceremonia de inauguración Después de una prolongada espera, todavía con el en el medio del campo. recuerdo del pasado clásico latinoamericano desarrollado con gran éxito en la capital del estado de TOMATEROS, INICIA CON TRIUNFO Sinaloa, la pasión por el “rey de los deportes” de la enorme cantidad de seguidores del equipo CULIACÁN, SIN., OCT. 12 (SANBUS). Los “Tomateros” de Culiacán. volvió a fundirse con “Tomateros” de Culiacán, en su parque, se orgullo y beneplácito en la espectacular inauguración impusieron 5-3 a los “Mayos” de Navojoa, en la de la LX Temporada 2017-18 de la Liga Mexicana del apertura misma de la LX Temporada 2017-18 de la Pacífico de Béisbol. Liga Mexicana del Pacífico de Béisbol. con tres En su majestuoso estadio, la escuadra guinda abrió un carreras en la primera entrada, una en la segunda y otra capítulo más de su brillante historia, contra los en la quinta; la “tribu”, dos en la segunda y una en la “Mayos” de Navojoa ahora, enmedio de la algarabía tercera. de los miles de aficionados que abarrotaron el El equipo sinaloense, en la primera, con hits de inmueble y se eclipsaron con una muy colorida fiesta Ronnier Mustelier, que empujó dos y Josh Fuentes; en deportiva, donde los juegos artificiales fueron por la segunda, con doblete (1) de Maxwell León; y enla demás impresionantes. quinta, mediante cuadrangular (1) de Sebastián La Banda “Los Plebes” y la actriz Rebeca Gucón Elizalde.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Toxic Landscapes in Sacred Wixaritari Territory: Chemicals and Food as Environmental Epigenetic Triggers in a Metabolic Epidemic in Mexico Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/81g1m4n4 Author Contreras, Salvador Chava Publication Date 2020 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ Toxic Landscapes in Sacred Wixaritari Territory: Chemicals and Food as Environmental Epigenetic Triggers in a Metabolic Epidemic in Mexico A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Anthropology By Salvador Chava Contreras December 2020 The Dissertation of Salvador Chava Contreras is approved: ______________________________________________ Professor Nancy N. Chen, Chair ______________________________________________ Professor Andrew S. Mathews ______________________________________________ Professor Olga Nájera-Ramírez ___________________________________ Quentin Williams Interim Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies i Copyright © by Salvador Chava Contreras 2020 ii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... III LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... V ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 7'Tie;T;E ~;&H ~ T,#T1tmftllsieotog
    7'tie;T;e ~;&H ~ t,#t1tMftllSieotOg, UCLA VOLUME 3 1986 EDITORIAL BOARD Mark E. Forry Anne Rasmussen Daniel Atesh Sonneborn Jane Sugarman Elizabeth Tolbert The Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology is an annual publication of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Students Association and is funded in part by the UCLA Graduate Student Association. Single issues are available for $6.00 (individuals) or $8.00 (institutions). Please address correspondence to: Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology Department of Music Schoenberg Hall University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA Standing orders and agencies receive a 20% discount. Subscribers residing outside the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico, please add $2.00 per order. Orders are payable in US dollars. Copyright © 1986 by the Regents of the University of California VOLUME 3 1986 CONTENTS Articles Ethnomusicologists Vis-a-Vis the Fallacies of Contemporary Musical Life ........................................ Stephen Blum 1 Responses to Blum................. ....................................... 20 The Construction, Technique, and Image of the Central Javanese Rebab in Relation to its Role in the Gamelan ... ................... Colin Quigley 42 Research Models in Ethnomusicology Applied to the RadifPhenomenon in Iranian Classical Music........................ Hafez Modir 63 New Theory for Traditional Music in Banyumas, West Central Java ......... R. Anderson Sutton 79 An Ethnomusicological Index to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Part Two ............ Kenneth Culley 102 Review Irene V. Jackson. More Than Drumming: Essays on African and Afro-Latin American Music and Musicians ....................... Norman Weinstein 126 Briefly Noted Echology ..................................................................... 129 Contributors to this Issue From the Editors The third issue of the Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology continues the tradition of representing the diversity inherent in our field.
    [Show full text]
  • Dictionary of the Chuj (Mayan) Language
    A DICTIONARY OF THE CHUJ (MAYAN) LANGUAGE As Spoken in San Mateo Ixtatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala ca. 1964-65 CHUJ – ENGLISH WITH SOME SPANISH GLOSSES Nicholas A. Hopkins, Ph. D. © Jaguar Tours 2012 3007 Windy Hill Lane Tallahassee, Florida 32308 [email protected] i A DICTIONARY OF THE CHUJ (MAYAN) LANGUAGE: INTRODUCTION Nicholas A. Hopkins The lexical data reported in this Chuj-English dictionary were gathered during my dissertation field work in 1964-65. My first exposure to the Chuj language was in 1962, when I went to Huehuetenango with Norman A. McQuown and Brent Berlin to gather data on the languages of the Cuchumatanes (Berlin et al. 1969). At the time I was a graduate student at the University of Texas, employed as a research assistant on the University of Chicago's Chiapas Study Projects, directed by McQuown (McQuown and Pitt-Rivers 1970). Working through the Maryknoll priests who were then the Catholic clergy in the indigenous areas of Huehuetenango and elsewhere in Guatemala, we recorded material, usually in the form of 100-word Swadesh lists (for glottochronology), from several languages. The sample included two speakers of the Chuj variety of San Mateo Ixtatán (including the man who was later to become my major informant). In the Spring of 1962, as field work for the project wound down, I returned to Austin to finish drafting my Master's thesis, and then went on to Chicago to begin graduate studies in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, with McQuown as my major professor. I continued to work on Chiapas project materials in McQuown's archives, and in 1963 he assigned me the Chuj language as the topic of my upcoming doctoral dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Connected by Music Dear Friends of the School of Music
    sonorities 2021 The News Magazine of the University of Illinois School of Music Connected by Music Dear Friends of the School of Music, Published for the alumni and friends of the ast year was my first as director of the school and as a member School of Music at the University of Illinois at of the faculty. It was a year full of surprises. Most of these Urbana-Champaign. surprises were wonderful, as I was introduced to tremendously The School of Music is a unit of the College of Lcreative students and faculty, attended world-class performances Fine + Applied Arts and has been an accredited on campus, and got to meet many of you for the first time. institutional member of the National Association Nothing, however, could have prepared any of us for the of Schools of Music since 1933. changes we had to make beginning in March 2020 with the onset of COVID-19. Kevin Hamilton, Dean of the College of Fine + These involved switching our spring and summer programs to an online format Applied Arts with very little notice and preparing for a fall semester in which some of our activi- Jeffrey Sposato, Director of the School of Music ties took place on campus and some stayed online. While I certainly would never Michael Siletti (PhD ’18), Editor have wished for a year with so many challenges, I have been deeply impressed by Design and layout by Studio 2D the determination, dedication, and generosity of our students, faculty, alumni, and On the cover: Members of the Varsity Men’s Glee friends.
    [Show full text]
  • What Are the Great Discoveries of Your Field?
    International Journal of Education & the Arts Editors Christine Marmé Thompson S. Alex Ruthmann Pennsylvania State University University of Massachusetts Lowell Eeva Anttila William J. Doan Theatre Academy Helsinki Pennsylvania State University http://www.ijea.org/ ISS1: 1529-8094 Volume 14 Special Issue 1.3 January 30, 2013 What $re the *reat 'iscoveries of <our )ield? Bruno Nettl University of Illinois, USA Citation: Nettl, B. (2013). What are the great discoveries of your field? International Journal of Education & the Arts, 14(SI 1.3). Retrieved [date] from http://www.ijea.org/v14si1/. IJEA Vol. 14 Special Issue 1.3 - http://www.ijea.org/v14si1/ 2 Introduction Ethnomusicology, the field in which I've spent most of my life, is an unpronounceable interdisciplinary field whose denizens have trouble agreeing on its definition. I'll just call it the study of the world’s musical cultures from a comparative perspective, and the study of all music from the perspective of anthropology. Now, I have frequently found myself surrounded by colleagues in other fields who wanted me to explain what I'm all about, and so I have tried frequently, and really without much success, to find the right way to do this. Again, not long go, at a dinner, a distinguished physicist and music lover, trying, I think, to wrap his mind around what I was doing, asked me, "What are the great discoveries of your field?" I don't think he was being frivolous, but he saw his field as punctuated by Newton, Einstein, Bardeen, and he wondered whether we had a similar set of paradigms, or perhaps of sacred figures.
    [Show full text]
  • Reframing Mexican Migration As a Multi-Ethnic Process
    UC Santa Cruz Reprint Series Title Reframing Mexican Migration as a Multi-Ethnic Process Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nn6v8sk Author Fox, Jonathan A Publication Date 2006-02-23 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Article REFRAMING MEXICAN MIGRATION 1 AS A MULTI-ETHNIC PROCESS 1 A longer version of this paper was presented at the Latin American Studies Association in Jonathan Fox 2004. Some sections draw University of California at Santa Cruz, CA from Fox and Rivera-Salgado (2004). Abstract The Mexican migrant population in the US increasingly reflects the ethnic diversity of Mexican society. To recognize Mexican migration as a multi-ethnic process raises broader conceptual puzzles about race, ethnicity, and national identity. This essay draws from recent empirical research and participant-observation to explore implications of the indigenous Mexican migrant experience for understanding collective identity formation, including the social construction of community member- ship, regional and pan-ethnic identities, territory, and transnational communities. Keywords indigenous; migration; Mexico; collective identity Introduction In the US, when the terms ‘‘multi-ethnic,’’ ‘‘multi-cultural,’’ and ‘‘multi- racial’’ are used to refer to Mexican migrants, they refer exclusively to relationships between Mexicans and other racial and national origin groups. Yet Mexican society is multi-ethnic and multi-racial. From an indigenous rights perspective, the Mexican nation includes many peoples. To take the least ambiguous indicator of ethnic difference, more than one in ten Mexicans come from a family in which an indigenous language is spoken (Serrano Carreto et al., 2003). Many of the indigenous Mexican activists in the US on the cutting edge are trilingual, and for some, Spanish is neither their first nor their second language.
    [Show full text]
  • TEXT and COMMENT on the MORAL ORDER: a TESTIMONY from the TZOTZIL of CHAMULA, CHIAPAS GARY H. GOSSEN Y Introduction) at the Peri
    TEXT AND COMMENT ON THE MORAL ORDER: A TESTIMONY FROM THE TZOTZIL OF CHAMULA, CHIAPAS GARY H. GOSSEN Y JUAN MÉNDEZ TZOTZEK Introduction) At the periphery of the distribution of folk Catholic traditions of Hispanic Latin America lie tens of thousands of local religious traditions that belong neither to the pre-Columbian nor to the Christian moral universes. These highly localized spiritual expressions —called by Robert Redfield "little traditions" to contrast them with the "great traditions" of the universal or national religions— are best understood as unique belief systems. Each community represents an ever-evolving present that derives from particular pre-Columbian roots and particular experiences with Hispanic-Catholic missionization. A Voice from the Hinterland This is a native Tzotzil Maya text that testifies to popular faith and belief in a community of this type. San Juan Chamula is one of thousands of contemporary peasant communities in Mesoamerica and South America that still speak Native American languages and retain significant elements of pre-Columbian custom and belief This community and its religion, cosmology, ritual, and oral traditions are described at length elsewhere (Gossen 1971, 1972, 1974a, 1974b, 1974c, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1985, 1989; Pozas Arciniega 1959; and Vogt 1973). Also, for comparative purposes, the reader may be interested in several other major studies that consider religious belief, ritual practice, and related art forms in Tzotzil -speaking communities that are adjacent to San Juan Chamula (see Bricker 1973 and 1981; I The introduction is based on that in Gary H. Gossen, Telling Maya Tales, Tzotzil Identities in Modern México, New York: Routledge, 1999, which in turn is drawn from "On the human condition and the moral order: A testimony from the Chamula Tzotzil of Chiapas, Mexico", in South and Mesoamerican Native Spirituality: From the Cult of the Feathered Serpent to the Theology of Liberation, edited by Gary H.
    [Show full text]
  • Constructing 'Race': the Catholic Church and the Evolution of Racial Categories and Gender in Colonial Mexico, 1521-1700
    CONSTRUCTING ‘RACE’: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE EVOLUTION OF RACIAL CATEGORIES AND GENDER IN COLONIAL MEXICO, 1521-1700 _______________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Alexandria E. Castillo August, 2017 i CONSTRUCTING ‘RACE’: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE EVOLUTION OF RACIAL CATEGORIES AND GENDER IN COLONIAL MEXICO, 1521-1700 _______________ An Abstract of a Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Alexandria E. Castillo August, 2017 ii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the role of the Catholic Church in defining racial categories and construction of the social order during and after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, then New Spain. The Catholic Church, at both the institutional and local levels, was vital to Spanish colonization and exercised power equal to the colonial state within the Americas. Therefore, its interests, specifically in connection to internal and external “threats,” effected New Spain society considerably. The growth of Protestantism, the Crown’s attempts to suppress Church influence in the colonies, and the power struggle between the secular and regular orders put the Spanish Catholic Church on the defensive. Its traditional roles and influence in Spanish society not only needed protecting, but reinforcing. As per tradition, the Church acted as cultural center once established in New Spain. However, the complex demographic challenged traditional parameters of social inclusion and exclusion which caused clergymen to revisit and refine conceptions of race and gender.
    [Show full text]