Exploring Mestizaje-Mesticagem in Education Contexts Comparing Mexico and Brazil

• In Event: Decolonizing Transnational Education: Rethinking Curriculum Beyond Western Dominance Toward Multiplex Identities and Representations

Abstract

Dominant education systems in operation today are, without exception, the result of centuries of annihilating interactions and creating a global culture detached from nature, thus forcing Afro and Indigenous peoples worldwide to follow ‘cosmophobic’ ways of existence – an imaginary illness perpetuated by colonizers that separate nature from humanity in a relationship of mistrust (dos Santos, 2015; 2018). To this end, this paper explores the comparative concepts of mestizaje-mestiçagem, as a national discourse that defines the nation’s racial limits while portraying the nation itself as inclusive and tolerant. In reality, however, it only accepts a certain degree of mixture between European and American cultures (Ceron Anaya, 2022). Thus, we aim to discuss how the racial hierarchies affect education and the communities it is targeted to.
As mestizaje-mestiçagem promotes the erasure of Indigenous and Afro identities, such cosmophobia is evident. Meanwhile, this category has historically been central to articulating a unified national identity throughout Latin America. This form of mestizaje-mestiçagem has developed as the direct result of colonial and liberal policies that seek to segregate and marginalize non-Western communities and continues intact today across Latin American education systems. Contesting coloniality, therefore, means challenging systems of oppression in all spheres of society in transnational contexts. In doing so, we can rethink their ways of operating and their articulations of power (Escobar, 2013), providing alternatives to the modernity imposed by the West.
To comprehend the social effects of mestizaje-mestiçagem as whitening ideologies, it is crucial to describe the colonial relationship between Whites, Indigenous, and Afro-communities (Cusicanqui, 2012; Artunduaga Narváez, 2019; and Ceron Anaya, 2022). In fact, settler colonialism envisioned enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples as part of the past and, with similar tactics, prevented large-scale legal organizations that could threaten the status quo imposed by white supremacy in Latin American territory (see, for example, Wynter, 2003). By maintaining the status of Indigenous and enslaved African peoples ‘unchanged’ or ‘a past issue,’ Western ideologies fortify the notion that these populations are not apt to participate in political decisions and social organization fully. Therefore, to participate in the nation as a fully competent citizen, individuals must assimilate into modern conceptions of citizenship (Bonfil Batalla, 2020).
Whitening ideologies embedded in education systems and processes result in the assimilation of diverse marginalized peoples and the annihilation of their distinct cultures and identities. Thus, through education systems, Latin American nation-states were able to impose a mainstream culture on all their citizens, leading to the forced assimilation of minorities (Bonfil Batalla, 2020). The connection between mestizaje-mestiçagem and mainstream educational systems underscores the importance of maneuvering educational systems to impose a white settler mindset through different ‘-cides,’ such as genocide, epistemicide, historicide, and other methods that guarantee hegemony. We examine possibilities for rethinking education approaches in the context of Latin America, specifically in Brazil and Mexico, to validate and recenter Indigenous and Afro-identities and cosmovisions.

Authors

• Olga Natasha Hernandez Villar, University of Minnesota

• Washington Galvao, University of Minnesota