Mexico, from Mestizo to Multicultural: National Identity and Recent Representations of the Conquest

Abstract

Since the independence movements of the nineteenth century, political leaders throughout Latin America have struggled to construct a unified sense of identity by the creation of what Carrie Chorba calls nationalist discourses, “specific discursive strategies” used to characterize a nation. Mexico, for a myriad of reasons, including its proximity to the United States, the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 17), the strength and longevity of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and regionalism, holds the “distinction among all other Latin American nations of being one of the most tenacious producers of this brand of narrative” (p. 8). Focusing on the late twentieth century, Chorba asks: What is Mexican national identity? How is “identity discourse,” an element of nationalist discourse, constructed? Concentrating on novels, films, and political cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s, Chorba shows that the thorny debate over what should define mexicanidad (Mexicanness) continued at the end of the twentieth century. Indeed, Chorba argues that the discourse surrounding national identity shifted considerably and that, as the country underwent political and economic crises, Mexico experienced an identity crisis. She contends that politicians and intellectuals sought to move away from the essentialist concepts of mestizaje (the mixing of races) and raza cósmica (cosmic race) and began to posit lo mexicano (what is Mexican) in multicultural terms.To get at mexicanidad, Chorba analyzes works produced during the presidential administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988 – 94) by well-known intellectuals, including novelists Carlos Fuentes, Carmen Boullosa, and Ignacio Solares, as well as filmmaker Salvador Carrasco and newspaper cartoonist Rius (Eduardo del Río). Chorba discovers that these intellectuals often revisited and at times attempted to revise the European conquest to redefine contemporary mexicanidad. Chorba argues that the PRI-backed idea of a nation whose origins stemmed from the harmonious mixing of Indians and Europeans came into question at the end of the century because of a confluence of several factors and events: the loosening of the PRI’s grip, the economic crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, the 500th anniversary of the European encounter in 1992, the Chiapas uprising of 1994, and an international awareness of multiculturalism.Chorba finds that moving from a “mestizophile” to a multicultural identity becomes an impossible task for the novelists and filmmakers she critiques because they cannot overcome two pitfalls. Despite their desires to imagine a more humane encounter between indigenous peoples and Europeans, in the end the authors and artists are forced to grapple with two violent conquests, the spiritual and political. Secondly, the persistence of mestizaje as an explanation for the process of ethnic and cultural mixing has resulted in privileging the Spanish language in a country where today more than 122 languages are spoken, 100 of them indigenous (p. 120).In this useful monograph for historians, fans of literary criticism, and students of modern Mexico, Chorba illuminates the fluidity of national identity, as well as the complex relationships among history, popular culture, and the shaping of identity. Her work broadens and deepens understandings of the important role that intellectuals play in constructing national identity; how producers of popular culture use historical moments to discuss contemporary debates; and the staying power of colonial legacies and mestizaje. Further, similar to Stephen D. Morris’s work on Mexican perceptions of the United States in Gringolandia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), this volume offers intriguing examples of how intellectuals have turned to the country’s indigenous past to define lo mexicano in the face of what many citizens viewed as a new conquest from the north (through economic policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement).By choosing to focus solely on late twentieth-century texts that connect the conquest to present-day U.S. economic imperialism, Chorba bypasses historical events beyond the conquest, overlooking the colonial era and nation-building process and how they relate to national identity. She states, “Even more embarrassing for Mexico in the 1990s was the question of the indigenous population as a result of the conquest” (p. 73); statements like this draw a flawed direct line between the sixteenth and late twentieth century, fashioning a somewhat distorted view of the past.For 70 years Mexican school children had been taught that the mestizo, a unique melding of the Indian and the Spaniard, made their country strong. Former president Salinas departed from that message by acknowledging the country’s multiculturalism, and on September 2, 2007, in his first informe (state of the union speech), President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa remarked that “recognizing cultural diversity” was critical for the country’s “harmonious development.” Ironically, the newly elected president chose to deliver his speech from the National Palace instead of the traditional location, the Chamber of Deputies, in order to avert a possible violent confrontation with opposition leaders. Chorba demonstrates well that in Mexico, efforts to create a unified national identity that recognizes cultural diversity without privileging certain populations have been far from harmonious.