25012663 To what extent has mestizaje meant that racial barriers have lost their force in contemporary

Latin America?

Introduction

The term mestizaje is the Spanish word for the process of racial and cultural mixing, its meaning and
significance as a concept has remained highly contested since the European colonisation of the Americas
(Wickstrom and Young, 2014) (La Cadena, 2001). In contemporary Latin America, the phenomenon of
mestizaje can be viewed as an ideology or a movement (Wickstrom and Young, 2014) which has
continually reconstructed categories of race and culture (Wade, 2004).

It has been argued that mestizaje has facilitated a shift towards a racial democracy where racial
identities are not responsible for significant social divisions or exclusions (Wade, 2008), through the
minimization of racial difference (Wade, 2017) and the construction of a unified national identity (Kent
and Wade, 2015). However, antithetical to the ideology of racial democracy and the absence of racial
discrimination, the concept of mestizaje has simultaneously led to the progressive marginalisation of
indigenousness and ‘blackness’ (Wade, 2004) and a transition towards ‘whiteness’ through the process
of blanqueamiento (whitening) (Wade, 2017).

The concept of racial democracy is in actuality a myth which has not superseded existent racialized
social hierarchies or the privileging of ‘whiteness’ and has instead served to perpetuate racism by
denying its existence (Kent and Wade, 2015). This notion is inextricably linked to the racialization of
culture in Latin America, where cultural differences and as such ethnicity have become the basis of
discriminatory practices (Cadena, 2001). It is clear that in contemporary Latin America, racial barriers
remain established, however it is also evident that the concept of mestizaje has altered racial relations,
as such this essay looks to critically examine the extent to which mestizaje has changed the form of
racial discrimination and prevailing racial barriers.
Racialization of culture

In order to understand the phenomena in contemporary Latin America of discriminatory practices

coexisting with the denial of racism exists, it is fundamental to first understand culturalist definitions of
race. The culturalist definition of race is a paradox which is able to naturalize difference while
simultaneously facilitating racial discrimination, it does this by opposing existing racial hierarchies while
enabling discrimination stemming from purist racial-cultural perspectives of morality, experienced most
notably by mestizos who were historically viewed as immoral and corrupt due to being regarded as the
impure result of rape or female promiscuity (Cadena, 2001).

The racialization of culture in Latin America derives from an intellectual and political history where
culturalist definitions centered on the spiritual aspects of race, which has empowered culture as a
marker of difference to such an extent that culture has supplanted biological phenotypic markers as a
determinant of race. These cultural determinants of race consisted of what were considered superior
racial characteristics such as intelligence and morality, as a consequence, discriminatory behaviour
within the region is generally perceived not to be racism because it is based on cultural differences as
opposed to skin colour or other biological markers (Cadena, 2001). It is this transition of the concept of
race, from biological category to a social construct, that has engendered in contemporary Latin America
a new form of racism coined ‘cultural racism’ (Wade, 2008).

History of racial discrimination in Latin America

In order to properly gauge the extent to which the concept of mestizaje has transformed racial barriers
in contemporary Latin America, it is first necessary to discuss the state of racial barriers and the
discrimination towards mestizos which existed during the colonial period. In colonial Spanish America,
society’s hierarchy of power and social status had a stratified pyramid structure which saw Europeans as
supreme, indigenous people and black slaves as the lowest category and a middle category of mixed-
raced people in which social standing was influenced not only by race but also by ancestry and other
characteristics such as wealth, occupation and appearance (Wade, 2008). This hierarchical system was
illustrated most notably in the casta paintings of 18th century Mexico which depicted racial
combinations and also highlighted the racist underpinnings of the system (Wade, 2004). Such racial
classification was fluid in nature, as not all mestizo individuals were placed in the same racial category
and whether an individual was classified as mestizo was not definitive, being influenced also by the
other aforementioned characteristics (Wade, 2008), exemplified by the elite who were not considered
mestizo despite cultural mixture or skin colour due to their education and social standing (Cadena,
2001). Nonetheless, within the hierarchy remained a dominant emphasis on biological markers of
genealogy and ancestry as markers of status (Wade, 2008).
During the postcolonial period, when Latin American countries had become newly independent, the
agenda of political and intellectual elites shifted towards issues of race and nation-building, from which
emerged two dominant ideologies (Wade, 2008). The first saw indigenous and black populations as
inferior while the mestizaje populations were viewed as an ungovernable burden to the nation which
threatened its stability, as such it fell upon the superior white populations to guide the nations into
modernity (Wade, 2008) (Cadena, 2001). To the contrary, the other viewed mestizaje as the foundation
for national identity, promoting it as a superior ‘cosmic race’ which had achieved the transcendental
mission of merging indigenous, African and European peoples both spiritually and ethnically which had
become the founding myth of the nation (Wade, 2008)(Cadena, 2001). However, this was ideology
remained based on mixture as process of whitening, where it was the perceived superiority of the white
Europeans responsible for improving the biological and cultural balance of this ‘cosmic race’ (Wade,
2008).

These ideologies of mestizaje have reconstructed the concept of race, reflected in the nations of
contemporary Latin America. The effect, however, has varied across countries, from Brazil where
mestizaje has been fundamental to creation a unified national identity (Kent and Wade, 2015), to
Argentina where mixture and national identity has been systematically whitewashed (Karush, 2012).
What becomes evident is that the meaning of mestizaje and the effect it has on racial barriers is
dependent on the country's nation-building ideology, mestizaje can undermine primordial racial
categorisations, preventing the systematic discrimination and segregation (Wade, 2004) and facilitating
the transition towards racial equality through the erosion of racial difference (Wade, 2017) or it can be
the manifestation of racism which facilitates the elimination of ‘blackness’ and indigenousness in a
transition of national identity towards ‘whiteness’ (Wade, 2008). Therefore, to determine to what
extent mestizaje has changed racial barriers in contemporary Latin America the following section will
explore both elements, weighing out the different positive and negative impacts the concept has had on
racial relations and barriers in different nations.
Mestizaje and Indigenous culture

In Guatemala, the term mestizaje is often used to denote the progressive marginalisation of its
indigenous population (Wade, 2004). The process which was driven by assimilationist policies, such as
education programmes aiming to promote Spanish literature and in turn diminish the use of indigenous
languages and culture, was seen also in countries such as Mexico and Bolivia (Cadena, 2001). Such cases
serve to epitomize Jose Matos Mar’s definition of mestizaje as "an imposition from the colonial past, an
idea replete with racist prejudices, aimed at the extinction of indigenous cultures." (Cadena, 2001, p.19).
However, the term mestizaje has more than one meaning to the Andean people, with the mestizo
identity also being used to represent indigenous people who have achieved literate and economic
success and still claim indigenous culture and heritage. This is to differentiate from the indigenous
identity of ‘Indio’ which is associated with being uneducated and inferiority which stems from colonial
stigmatisation (Cadena, 2001) (Wade, 2004). The concept of mestizaje in this case is celebrated as the
empowerment of indigenous identity, an ideology which has removed barriers between the native
indigenous and Hispanic culture, with indigenous mestizos in Peru utilising a combination indigenous
practices and languages with the national language of Spanish and formal education (Cadena, 2001).

The identity of mestizaje for such indigenous populations symbolises their rise from poverty and adverse
social conditions, however while empowering indigenous identity mestizaje also serves to discriminate
against those classed as ‘Indio’, who are viewed as a separate ethnic group if indigenous people which
have yet to reach the same level of development as mestizos and are culturally distinct (Cadena, 2001).
Those classified as ‘Indio’ are subjected to racist insults by indigenous mestizos, highlighting the
contemporary divide constructed by mestizaje (Wade, 2008). Furthermore, this demonstrates how the
concept of mestizaje has driven “de-Indianization”, a term used to describe the process through which
indigenous populations renounce their roots and distinctive cultural identity (Batalla and Dennis,1996),
and as such mestizaje has not weakened the force of racial barriers in contemporary Latin America but
rather has reconstructed them and marginalised new groups of people.
The notion that mestizaje can facilitate a transition towards a racial democracy through the construction
of a unified identity (Kent and Wade, 2015) is full of contradictions, exemplified most notably in Mexico.
Mexico had made mestizaje central to its national identity in the 20th century while also advocating the
ideology of indigenismo which was fundamental to its nation-building project (Wade, 2017). In
contemporary Mexico, native indigenous culture and heritage is celebrated as a national symbol,
however, simultaneously present-day indigenous people are racially discriminated against and excluded.
The marginalisation is on such a scale that it has sparked the rise of the Zapatista social movement
which fights for the rights of indigenous people, that at the hands of neoliberalism have been lost and
led to the economic exploitation and dispossession indigenous communities (Postero and Zamosc,
2006). This large-scale marginalisation of indigenous people within proposed mestizo ‘racial
democracies’ demonstrates the clear absence of a unified national identity. Furthermore it draws
attention to the racialized class struggle of indigenous people within the social hierarchy of mestizo
nations and reinforces the idea that the racialization of culture in contemporary Latin America has
meant that social classes are no longer based just on markers such as income and wealth but also
education and origin (Cadena, 2001)

Mestizaje and black identity

While it is argued that in Latin America mestizaje has minimised racial discrimination and social divisions
based on phenotypic markers, the blurring of racial differences and unification of racial identities
promoted in the concept of racial democracy has not superseded the existing racialized social
hierarchies or the privileging of ‘whiteness’. Racial inequalities remain rooted in Latin American societies
and as such mestizaje has served to perpetuate racism by denying its existence (Kent and Wade, 2015).
This notion is exemplified most notably in Brazil, where society is promoted as a racial democracy but
has clear economic and social divisions between the white and black (and other non-white) population.
Policy-makers in Brazil used genetic data which indicated the ‘‘biological nonexistence of race, and that
all Brazilians are mestizos’’ (Kent and Wade, 2015, p.187) to argue that racial exclusion could not exist
due to the absence of biologically distinct racial categories. In this case, the ideology of mestizaje was
used to undermine black social movements which were fighting against structural social inequalities in
Brazil, social inequalities which were experienced based on differences in skin colour and as such race
(Kent and Wade, 2015).

Paradoxically, the political utilization of genetic data in Brazil had denied the existence of biological race
and racial differences while re-essentializing mestizaje, a concept which is profoundly racialized and
privileges European ancestry along with ‘whiteness’, in order to undermine black identity. However, the
pertinence of genetic data to race relations has been rejected on the basis that, due to the racialization
of culture, race is social construct as opposed to biological category and discrimination is experienced
due to differences in appearance as opposed to genotype. The case in Brazil, demonstrates that while in
mestizaje is claimed to erase racial difference and discrimination, in contemporary Latin America it has
instead supported existing racial barriers which exclude the black population from social and racial
equality by denying the existence of racism (Kent and Wade, 2015).
Conclusion

In contemporary Latin America, discriminatory behaviour is justified on the premise that it is based on
cultural differences as opposed to phenotypic markers. In this sense, it cannot be racism as biology has
been replaced by culture and race has been superseded by ethnicity as the basis of discrimination
(Cadena, 2001). However, race remains as relevant as ethnicity because culture and race are inextricably
linked and as such in Latin America the identification of for example ‘blackness’ would also be
dependent on cultural markers such as clothing, speech and social class while at an individual with an
indigenous appearance could be subjected to discrimination based solely on phenotypic markers (Wade,
2008). As such any discrimination experienced due to either racial or cultural differences is still racial
discrimination.

Mestizaje can be experienced as both inclusive and exclusive, dependent on the context and the
country’s ideology, more specifically whether skin colour is perceived as important to social and power
relations (Wade, 2017). However, the ideal that notion that mestizaje has facilitated shift towards a
radical democracy which avoids issues of racism and segregation is absolutely incorrect and while it is
true that mestizaje undermined the racial barriers established within the colonial racial hierarchy, it has
not superseded racialized social hierarchies in contemporary Latin America (Kent and Wade, 2015).

Mestizaje has not meant that racial barriers have lost their force in contemporary Latin America, but
rather has reconstructed them, as demonstrated by the case where appropriation of mestizo identity by
the indigenous people led to the formation a new racial barrier between the indigenous mestizos and
those they deemed ‘indios’ (Cadena, 20010). The myth of racial democracy serves to conceal the
existence of racism within Latin American societies where race, culture and class and inextricably linked
and rather than facilitating the construction of a unified national identity, mestizaje has driven the
progressive marginalization of indigenous and black populations to such an extent that is has sparked
the rise of social movements such as the Zapatistas in Mexico and the Movimento Negro in Brazil.
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