Multiculturalism, Indigenism and New Universities in Mexico: a case of intercultural multilateralities

Abstract

ABSTRACTExplicitly multicultural programs and/or institutions are a growing, but still very recent phenomenon in Mexico in particular and in Latin America in general. However, the long-standing tradition of indigenismo is a kind of ‘multiculturalism avant la lettre’, a set of policies that still shape the institutions specifically designed for the country’s 68 indigenous peoples. In the following, the different phases of ‘Mexican style’ multiculturalism are sketched, before I analyze the contemporary emergence of so-called intercultural bilingual education, an institutional arena in which indigenous movements and organizations participate, but which is still state-led and state-dominated. An empirical example from so-called intercultural higher education in Veracruz highlights how intercultural multilateralities (Guilherme, in this issue) shape emerging discourses on culturally and linguistically pertinent educational programs through emerging, novel and rather hybrid academic institutions. As will be shown, however, pre-existing structural path-dependencies limit the scope and depth of the resulting intercultural multilateralities.