Title: The Three paradigms of "mestizaje": realizing democracy in a transnational world of crossing borders
Abstract:Mestizaje, a Latin American heritage focusing on the mutual transformation of the
European and indigenous peoples in the Americas has had two predominant interpretative
paradigms. South of the U.S.-Me...Mestizaje, a Latin American heritage focusing on the mutual transformation of the
European and indigenous peoples in the Americas has had two predominant interpretative
paradigms. South of the U.S.-Mexico border, both ruling elites and scholars have frequently
used made je to justify a mixing of European, indigenous, African, and other peoples that
nevertheless have the European culture ascendant. Conversely, in the Chicano (Mexican-
American) heritage north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the conquest of the U.S. Southwest
by predominantly Anglo (European-American) settlers - we didn't cross the border, the
border crossed us - leads Mexican-American scholars to render mestizaje as resistance and
as a way of seeking agency.
This article explores this conceptual divide and suggest why both paradigms should be
found wanting. We gain little by vilifying one side or the other exclusively in such exchanges.
Given that mestizaje is supposed to be about a mixing of indigenous and European cultures,
is it possible to envision a mixing that does not privilege any of the contributing cultures?
This article offers a third integration paradigm of mestizaje. Drawing upon the work of Jorge
Gracia, Virgil Elizondo, and Jacques Audinet, mestizaje is recast as the pursuit of realizing
lateral, egalitarian intersections between diverse peoples and cultures on the transnational
stage. This study will be relevant to social workers, not just in the United States, but also to
those anywhere in the developed world wrestling with how to service migrants from the
developing world in the post-colonial era.Read More
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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