Oaxaqueño is Not a Bad Word: Racial Sense-Making and Resistance

• In Event: Towards Altermundos: Racial Literacies and Racial Sense-Making of Latinx/e/o/a, Indigenous, Latin American-Origin Youth

Abstract

Purpose
“Little short dark people,” “tan feos” were the racist words that Nury Martinez, former Los Angeles city council member and first Latina to be council president, was recorded saying privately in 2021 about Oaxacans living in Los Angeles. Martinez’s private conversation reflects the deep-rooted anti-Indigenous racism among Latines in the U.S. and Abiayala (Latin America). Martinez, in her statement of resignation, asked for space and privacy to “look inward and reflect.” We are still unsure if Martinez needed space to look inward and reflect on her anti-Indigenous racism. I start this paper with Martinez’s words to introduce the purpose of my paper: 1) show how recently arrived Indigenous youth from Mexico and Guatemala experience anti-Indigenous racism in their countries of origin and the U.S, and 2) illustrate how Indigenous youth persevere in spite of anti-Indigenous racism across contexts.

Theoretical Framework
I employ a Critical Latinx Indigeneities (CLI) analytic (Blackwell, Boj Lopez, & Urrieta, 2017) and raciolinguistic perspective in this paper to describe how recently arrived Indigenous youth experience racialized contexts in the US and Abiayala. CLI examines how Indigenous subject formations evolve over time, across regions, within, and across colonial contexts that often overlap (Blackwell, 2010). Raciolinguistics allows me to explain how Indigenous youth understand language as one key component of racialized and ethnic group membership. A raciolinguistic perspective exposes how racialized and languaged systems interact and travel with Indigenous migrant youth across borders.

Points of View/Argument
I have learned in interviews I have conducted with recently arrived Indigenous youth (12-21 years old) from Mexico and Guatemala over the last fourteen years that Yuri Martinez’s comments reflect deep-rooted beliefs and behaviors within Latines that impact Indigenous youth’s sense of self and belonging within and outside of schools. For instance, years ago, I met eight-year-old Angela, born in the U.S. to Oaxacan parents. When I asked her if she was Oaxaqueña she responded affirmatively but clarified, “I thought that Oaxaqueño was a bad word.”

Indigenous youth learn Spanish and English, both colonial/colonizing languages, as strategies to navigate unwelcoming settings. For instance, Indigenous youth in the U.S. use Spanish because they understand the significance of this language in facilitating linguistic interactions with Latine individuals. Youth also learn English because they know that this is the language of racial and economic power in the U.S. While Indigenous youth understand the detrimental effects of learning colonial languages, they utilize them strategically to achieve their financial goals and persevere.

Scholarly Significance
Did Martinez have in mind children like Angela when she called Oaxacans ugly? How does the anti-Indigenous racism rooted in Latinidad enable Martinez to call Oaxacan children ugly while at the same time permitting her to state in her resignation that she hoped she had inspired Latina girls to dream beyond that which they can see? Imagining a future for Indigenous youth requires us to examine how colonialism is not a thing of the past, but a collective project that Latines reproduce and that Indigenous Peoples continue to resist.

Author

• David W. Barillas Chón, University of Northern Colorado