Intra-Racial and Ethnic Othering among the Mexican-Origin Population in the Southwest Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Labrie, Diana Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 14:24:19 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/630180 1 INTRA-RACIAL AND ETHNIC OTHERING AMONG THE MEXICAN-ORIGIN POPULATION IN THE SOUTHWEST by Diana Labrie __________________________ Copyright ©Diana Labrie 2018 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN SPANISH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2018 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Diana Labrie 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the members of my dissertation committee: Dr. Malcolm Compitello, Dr. Anita Huizar-Hernandez, and Dr. Lydia Otero for their encouragement, patience, understanding, and feedback during the writing process. I am also thankful to Dr. Robert Fiore and the many other professors who have participated and encouraged me during my academic journey. Additionally, I wish to thank the staff from the department: Mary Portillo, Isela Gonzáles, Mercy Valente, and Nichole Guard for their welcoming presence and assistance in many matters. Lastly, I am grateful for my New Mexico family, my Arizona family, and my colleges and friends who loved me and supported me along the way. 5 DEDICATIONS To my parents— William & Irma Aceves 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………….7 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...9 CHAPTER I. ESTABLISHING HIERARCHY: EXAMINING PHENOTYPIC CATEGORIZATIONS AMONG SPANISH, ANGLO AMERICAN, AND MEXICAN GROUPS…………………………………………………………………………………50 White Allure: Recognizing the Cause and Effect of White-Skin Privilege in Oscar “Zeta” Acosta’s The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo…………………………77 CHAPTER II. DECLASSED SKIN COLOR: ASSESSING CLASS, LANGUAGE, EDUCATION, AND POLITICS IN RICHARD RODRIGUEZ’S HUNGER OF MEMORY………………………………………………………………………………...95 CHAPTER III. DEFINING BORDERS: EXPLOITATION, ETHNIC DISUNION, AND LEGAL VS. ILLEGAL AFFAIRS……………………………………………………..147 Mexican Divergence: Migrant Encounters in Victor Villaseñor’s Macho!...................154 Fighting Words: Ethnic Disunion among Mexicans……………………………………176 Exposed Disaffiliation: Mexican Exclusivity in “Ana Gaines Racist Mexicana”……...182 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………194 “History of the Present”: The Continued Ramifications of a Racist Rhetoric………….201 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………………..204 7 ABSTRACT This dissertation observes Mexican Othering to demonstrate the influencing characteristics of intra-racial and ethnic tensions among the Mexican-origin population in the Southwestern U.S.-Mexico Border. While acknowledging the systematic sociopolitical and economic relations that participate in the formation of racial paradigms, I argue that Mexican intra-racial and ethnic tensions sustain and manifest towards the formation of the Other. I consider three main study themes and their respective texts: 1) phenotypic factors (such as skin color, physical appearance, indigeneity, and whiteness) in Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico (2006) by Camilla Townsend, and The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) by Oscar “Zeta” Acosta; 2) class-consciousness (such as language, education, mobility, and politics) in Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982) by Richard Rodriguez; 3) national and regional ideologies (such as border politics, migration, Americanness, and Mexicanness) in Macho! (1973) by Victor Villaseñor, the ethnographic study of “Fight Words: Latina Girls, Gangs, and Language Attitudes” (1999) by Norma Mendoza-Denton, and YouTube video of “Ana Gaines Racist Mexicana” (2009) by Carlos Galindo. Furthermore, I observe that Mexican intra-racial and ethnic tensions invoke a search for belonging that can be traced to several epochs. These eras date from the 16th Century during the Spanish invasion of Mexico, the 20th Century during the Anglo American invasion of the Southwest, and the 21st Century of current interactions. I consider an interdisciplinary approach and recollect from important historical occurrences such as the Spanish-Indigenous contact and the arrival of Hernán Cortés (1519); the Mexican-American War (1846-1848); World War II (1939-1945); and the Chicano Movement (1960). This dissertation contributes to the broader conceptual framework in understanding the complex ways racial and ethnic attitudes 8 form and persist among the Mexican population. This study will provide further knowledge of differences to understand intragroup relations, political behaviors, and subjective processes. Additionally, it contributes to the literature on Othering and its formation by emphasizing the contextual transformative nature of social constructs. 9 INTRODUCTION While Mexican resistance has been historically present, full acceptance continues to be defied. The unrelenting answers to questions of: “What are you?” “Where are you from?” assist in the everlasting measures of racial and ethnic anxieties and tensions. The theme of racial and identity constructions make way of understanding how tensions form among groups. Race did not signify biological differences in people, but rather differences in cultures or affiliations. Race implied a group of people who possessed distinct languages, habits, and religion. This meant that two groups of people with no distinction in physical appearance could have different customs and speak differently. However, the application of race began to modify, and debates about the number of races surged and people were to be categorized by the color of their skin. Race classification was then organized by the grouping of people for the color of their skin and physical attributes. This order was then integrated in societal interactions for the purposes of inclusion and exclusion. Within time, people began to internalize race as a justification to allow colonialism and slavery towards those who were seen as belonging to an inferior category. As social constructs settled and according to Omi and Winant, racial or racists tendencies began to ground themselves on the contemporary paradigms of ethnicity, class and nation (Racial Formation in the United States). Race then became a normalized way of understanding, explaining and behaving in society. This understanding of race allows for the constructing and deconstructing of power relations and suppressions in interactive social contexts. It can be said that racialized identities are developed, understood and reproduced in socially constructed contexts; this refers to society in general, whether it is a person or a group of people. It is applied to intra-racial tendencies as the power relations no longer scale from race to race, but formed within. 10 The terms race and ethnicity are often interchanged, they can be distinguished in accordance with Mario Barrera’s explanation in Race and Class in the Southwest: A Theory of Racial Inequality (1979). “Race” attributes to “physical characteristics,” one of major importance is skin color and particular physical features (4). “Ethnic” entails cultural aspects such as “language, customs, or religion” and is used to classify a group of people who share the basis of a group identity (4). It is further understood as a product of process based on culture and descent. “Descent” implies heredity and a sense of belonging to a group, this suggests that “ethnicity was socially ‘primordial,’ if not biologically given, in character” (Omi and Michael 15). Since race and ethnicity are commonly used interchangeably, their meanings are subject to change and modifications in different social movements and settings. Understanding identity labels is a complex matter that is greatly due to the countless generations that are prominent in the Southwestern United States.1 Various degrees of nationalism exist due to continuous migration and historical territorial shifts. When Mexico lost a large part of its northern territory to the United States in war,2 the former citizens of Mexico who remained in this area had the choice of becoming American citizens.3 The acquisition of the Southwestern lands led to many queries about citizenship and national belonging. One delay in making the Southwestern Mexican territory part of the United States was due to “what was to become of the more than 115,000 Mexicans who lived