The feeling of a nation: ideology of mestizaje (racial/cultural mixing) in elementary school textbooks in Mexico

Abstract

In Mexico, mestizaje (racial/cultural mixing) was proposed as a symbol of identity that posited the existence of a new citizen, one that combined ideas about the cosmic race and the existing popular culture in the country. This mestizaje is understood as a displacement of the undesirable that promotes processes of segregation, discrimination, and racism, as it is established based on one of its main dichotomies: barbarism-civilization. These processes are related to the deindianization, whitening, and assimilation of the indigenous population into the nation as part of the projects of modernity for the consolidation of the State.