Embodying La Latina, La Mestiza and the Förort: Narratives of Anti-Racist
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Embodying la Latina, la Mestiza and the Förort : Narratives of Anti-Racist Resistance of Latin American Migrant Women in Sweden. By Kruskaya Cristina Hidalgo Cordero Submitted to Central European University – Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfilment for the ERASMUS MUNDUS MA in Women’s and Gender Studies (GEMMA) Main supervisor: Nadia Jones-Gailani, PhD (Central European University) Second reader: Gerardo Rodríguez-Salas, PhD (University of Granada) CEU eTD Collection Budapest 2018 Embodying la Latina, la Mestiza and the Förort : Narratives of Anti-Racist Resistance of Latin American Migrant Women in Sweden. By Kruskaya Cristina Hidalgo Cordero Submitted to Central European University – Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfilment for the ERASMUS MUNDUS MA in Women’s and Gender Studies (GEMMA) Main supervisor: Nadia Jones-Gailani, PhD (Central European University) Second reader: Gerardo Rodríguez-Salas, PhD (University of Granada) Budapest 2018 Approval signed by the main supervisor CEU eTD Collection ABSTRACT This research focuses on the identity negotiations that women with Latin American origin articulate to resist in response to the everyday racism that they face in Sweden. My reflections are based on an archive of thirty-three oral histories that I have conducted in the Swedish cities of Gothenburg, Stockholm and Uppsala. By addressing identity through the focus on racism and intermeshed oppressions, I propose three categories to explore the tensions between the self-identification and the external representation in which these women are involved: la latina, la mestiza, and the förort. Through these three categories of identification I explore the construction of specific forms of gendered racism that women from Latin America are subjected to. Also, I study how those women forge hybrid identities in liminal spaces beyond racial mixture. Finally, I analyze women’s re- appropriation of the stigma that marginalized migrant-populated suburbs face in order to articulate a coalitional identity among other people of color. I draw upon theoretical, methodological and analytical frameworks developed within the fields of oral history, intersectionality, black feminism, decolonial feminism, Chicana feminism, and borderlands theory to position my study as an embodied research that addresses embodied experiences of gendered racism. I engage with shifting boundaries between academic and creative writing in order to transgress the borders of poetic and scholarly. Through my project I aim to reveal how identity is a battleground for articulating both exclusion and resistance. Thus, I argue that mestiza (hybrid) identity provides a powerful conceptual framework to understand how racialized women reclaim spaces and re-signify their existence. Moreover, I also show how mestiza consciousness gives rise to the creation of coalitional identities without homogenization of the multiple positions inside the matrix of domination. CEU eTD Collection KEYWORDS: Identity; la latina; mestiza consciousness; transnational migration; anti-racist resistance; modern/colonial gender system; coalitional identity; decolonial feminism; gendered racism. i RESUMEN Esta investigación se enfoca en las negociaciones de identidad que mujeres de origen latinoamericano realizan para resistir el racismo cotidiano que enfrentan en Suecia. Las reflexiones se basan en un archivo de treinta y tres historias orales que se realizaron en las ciudades suecas de Gotemburgo, Estocolmo y Upsala. Tomando en cuenta el racismo y la imbricación de opresiones para estudiar la identidad, la autora propone tres categorías para explorar las tensiones entre la auto identificación y la representación externa que envuelve a estas mujeres: la latina, la mestiza, y la förort. A través de estas tres categorías de identificación se explora las formas específicas de racismo engenerizado que las mujeres provenientes de América Latina son sujeto. También, se estudia como esas mujeres forjan identidades hibridas en espacios liminales. Por último, se analiza la reapropiación que las mujeres hacen del estigma que los suburbios migrantes marginalizados enfrentan, y que estas mujeres la realizan para revalorizar su existencia y articular coaliciones entre otras mujeres de color. Se toma como referencia los marcos teóricos, metodológicos y analíticos desarrollados en los campos de la historia oral, el feminismo negro, el feminismo decolonial, el feminismo chicano y la teoría de las fronteras para posicionar este trabajo como una investigación encarnada que trata de experiencias encarnadas de racismo engenerizado. De esta manera, esta investigación se propone sobrepasar las barreras entre el lenguaje académico y creativo para transgredir las fronteras entre lo poético y lo formal. A través de la investigación se quiere revelar como la identidad es un campo de batalla donde se articula la exclusión y la resistencia. De esta manera se sostiene que la identidad mestiza es un marco conceptual poderoso para entender como las mujeres racializadas reclaman espacio y resignifican su existencia. Además, se muestra como la CEU eTD Collection conciencia mestiza conduce a la creación de identidades de coalición sin homogenizar las múltiples posiciones dentro de la matriz de dominación. PALABRAS CLAVES: Identidad; la latina; consciencia mestiza; migración transnacional; resistencia anti-racista; Sistema Moderno/Colonial de Generó ; identidad de coalición, feminismo decolonial; racismo engenerizado. ii DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL CONTENT I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of original research; it contains no materials accepted for any other degree in any other institution and no materials previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference. I further declare that the following word count for this thesis are accurate: Body of thesis (all chapters excluding notes, references, appendices, etc.): 31,014 words Entire manuscript: 35,833 words Signed ___Kruskaya Cristina Hidalgo Cordero____ CEU eTD Collection iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been possible thanks to all the amazing women who made the time to speak to me and share their testimonies. I am immensely grateful for all the thrust, help and support that you provided me in so many different ways. This text is the result of countless voice messages with mi ñaña Carolina Santos; coffee talks with Patricia Martinez; before sleep conversations with mi ñaña Monica Benitez Caris; feedback and exciting discussion in conference panels and thesis workshops; valuable comments from my second reader Gerardo Rodríguez; challenging consultations with Sanjay Kumar; very helpful proofreading from Mark Meyts, Malachy McGovern and Liz Calhoun; generous critical feedback and peer review from Francisca de Haan, Aureliano Lopes, Karina Raña Villacura, and Carolina Santos; and the dedicated training, constant support, guide, enthusiasm, time, encouragement, care and love of the most amazing supervisor that I could ever wish Nadia Jones-Gailani. Nadia, as the amazing feminist academic that you are, you have encouraged me to continue to disrupt and disorient from within the Academy. Last but not least, I want to thank my dear Budapest community: Max, Göksu, Pablo, Ana, Kathleen and Cate for all the emotional support, care and love. Además, y muy importante, ustedes mis queridas Cristina y Paola por formar parte activa de este proceso desde Quito; sin su CEU eTD Collection ayuda no hubiera logrado terminar este texto. Y a ti querida Moni, por tanta generosidad al abrirme las puertas de tu hogar y acompañarme en todo este proceso. iv Para mi abuela, Tú mi fuerza, Olga Ramos CEU eTD Collection v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. i RESUMEN ................................................................................................................................. ii DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL CONTENT ....................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................... vi Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Literature Review..................................................................................................................... 9 Theoretical framework: Theorizing modern racism by the epistemic decolonial turn ..................... 18 Chapter 1 - Methodology ........................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 2 - Embodied la latina: Between self-representation and gendered racism .................... 43 Ser latinoamericana: Self-identification, the exile scar and the political militancy ........................ 44 “Latinare är kända för att vara heta”: On gendered racism and the construction of the category of la latina .............................................................................................................................. 49 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 58 Chapter 3 - Kneading la mestiza: