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Creating the Ideal Mexican: 20Th and 21St Century Racial and National Identity Discourses in Oaxaca

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Creating the Ideal Mexican: 20Th and 21St Century Racial and National Identity Discourses in Oaxaca University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2015 Creating the Ideal Mexican: 20th and 21st Century Racial and National Identity Discourses in Oaxaca Savannah N. Carroll University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the African American Studies Commons, Latin American History Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, and the Race and Ethnicity Commons Recommended Citation Carroll, Savannah N., "Creating the Ideal Mexican: 20th and 21st Century Racial and National Identity Discourses in Oaxaca" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 420. https://doi.org/10.7275/6954668.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/420 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Creating the Ideal Mexican: 20th and 21st Century Racial and National Identity Discourses in Oaxaca A Dissertation Presented By SAVANNAH N. CARROLL Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies © Copyright by Savannah N. Carroll 2015 All Rights Reserved Creating the Ideal Mexican: 20th and 21st Century Racial and National Identity Discourses in Oaxaca A Dissertation Presented By SAVANNAH N. CARROLL Approved as to style and content by: _____________________________ John H. Bracey, Chair ____________________________ Agustín Lao Montes, Member ___________________________________ Luis A. Marentes, Member _______________________ Sonia E. Alvarez, Member ______________________________________ John H. Bracey, Department Head W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Producing this work has been a long and arduous process that took seven years in graduate school to complete. There were many people who were instrumental to my success and I am grateful for their mentorship, constructive criticism, and faith in my research. First, I must acknowledge my dissertation chair, John H. Bracey and the rest of my committee, Agustín Lao-Montes, Sonia E. Alvarez, and Luis A. Marentes. I am eternally grateful to these amazing scholars for their guidance during the dissertation process and look forward to working with them as colleagues in the future. I would also like to thank my unofficial committee member, James E. Smethurst, who was available for advice and writing recommendation letters. I am also grateful to other faculty and staff members in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This project would not have been possible without assistance from people at other institutions. Thank you to all scholars and research staff at the archives I visited in Mexico City. Your expertise was essential to the success of this iv project and I look forward to our continued relationship. I would also like to thank the residents of José María Morelos and other Afro-Mexican towns that I visited for their kindness and hospitality. Special thanks to my host family and others with whom I formed close relationships. I hope this work makes you proud and is an authentic representation of your lived experience. Special thanks to my dear friend, Kelly Barnes who made it possible for me to complete my field work. I must also thank faculty members in African American Studies, History, and Bilingual and Bicultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who provided teaching opportunities and encouraged me to plow through my moments of writers block. Members of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists were also helpful in providing mentorship, encouragement, and a platform to hone my academic skills. I am also grateful to faculty in Political Science and African American Studies at Arizona State University for recognizing my potential as a future scholar early on, specifically DoVeanna Fulton and David Hinds, who began mentoring me as an undergraduate and were the first to encourage me to pursue a doctoral degree. Also, special thanks to Karen Veni for graciously editing my dissertation free of charge. v To my family, both those who are living and those who have passed on, thank you for your continued support and examples of strength and persistence. Also, thank you to my doctoral cohort, especially Cynara Robinson who supported me through difficult personal moments and accompanied me to the library every weekend during our second year of coursework. I would also like to recognize myself for pursuing my dream with tenacity, determination, and fortitude. There were many moments I considered quitting, but remembered how much I sacrificed to have this opportunity. I am greatly pleased with the outcome of my efforts. vi ABSTRACT CREATING THE IDEAL MEXICAN: 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY RACIAL AND NATIONAL IDENTITY DISCOURSES IN OAXACA SEPTEMBER 2015 SAVANNAH N. CARROLL, B.A., ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor John H. Bracey This investigation intends to uncover past and contemporary socioeconomic significance of being a racial other in Oaxaca, Mexico and its relevance in shaping Mexican national identity. The project has two purposes: first, to analyze activities and observations of cultural missionaries in Oaxaca during the 1920s and 1930s, and second to relate these findings to historical and present implications of blackness in an Afro-Mexican community. Cultural missionaries were appointed by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) to create schools throughout Mexico, focusing on the modernization of marginalized communities through formal and social education. This initiative was intended to resolve socioeconomic disparities and incorporate sectors of the population into the national framework that had been excluded prior to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. While these efforts vii were predominantly implemented in indigenous communities located in the northern part of Oaxaca, observations from cultural missionaries related to social and educational conditions reveal ongoing disparities between what it means to be indigenous versus mestizo. The exclusion of moreno, or Afro-descended people from this state sponsored initiative indicates that blackness along with indigenity is otherized, with the primary difference being that Afro-descended Mexicans lack visibility. To gain a better perspective of the historical and present significance of blackness, my project moves from the general to the specific to include José Maria Morelos, Oaxaca, an Afro- descended community that is isolated, has no tourist attractions or services, dirt roads, and little access to socioeconomic resources. Morelos was established by blacks who escaped slavery and lived independently in their own community. People in the town strongly identify with this history and its relation to their present condition. After speaking with local activists, it became apparent that rights that were supposed to be gained from the Mexican Revolution, such as land rights and public education, did not happen in Morelos, which adversely affects people’s prospects for socioeconomic advancement. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................ IV ABSTRACT .................................................... VII CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION- DEFINING MEXICANIDAD: HOW RACIAL “OTHERS” WERE CREATED IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY MEXICO ...................... 1 2. REPLANTING THE THIRD ROOT: REFLECTIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND TRAJECTORY OF AFRO-MEXICAN STUDIES ....................... 41 3. NATIONALIZING RACISM: GOVERNMENT SPONSORED MODERNIZATION THROUGH FORMAL AND SOCIAL EDUCATION IN OAXACA, 1920S- 1930S.... ................................................ 83 4. SOMOS DE MORELOS: RACE, PLACE AND CLAIMS TO NATIONAL IDENTITY IN MORELOS, OAXACA ....................................... 113 5. EXPANDING IDEAS OF MEXICANIDAD: POSSIBILITIES FOR GOVERNMENT RECOGNITION OF AFRO-MEXICANS AS A POPULATION ............ 152 6. CONCLUSION- LOCATING BLACKNESS IN MEXICO: SOLIDIFYING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP AND ACTIVISM...196 APPENDICES A. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ................................ 214 B. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ................................... 216 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................ 217 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION- DEFINING MEXICANIDAD: HOW RACIAL “OTHERS” WERE CREATED IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY MEXICO What is going to emerge out there is the definitive race, the synthetical race, the integral race, made up of the genius and the blood of all peoples and, for that reason, more capable of true brotherhood and of a truly universal vision. - José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica, [1925] 1997 Project’s Intervention The post-revolutionary era was selected as the starting point for the investigation’s analysis due to the overwhelming majority of historical research on Mexico’s black population being concentrated on the colonial and Independence eras (1521- 1821).1 Although sociological and anthropological studies engage blackness during the post-revolutionary period
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