Bureaucratic Dilemmas of Statistical Race-Making: The Politics of Indigenous Identification in Mexico, 2000-2024

• In Event: 30420 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Racial State and City Dynamics

Abstract

Since 2000, Mexico has incorporated self-identification as an additional criterion for enumerating the Indigenous population in its censuses alongside the traditional language-based measure. Like other Latin American countries, Mexico's statistical agency has also revised the wording of this question in subsequent census rounds, leading to a general increase in self-identification as Indigenous. Research on state race-making has largely focused on the politics of why states engage in ethnoracial measurement and the creation of census categories. However, less attention has been given to how the state develops identification technologies and employs the resulting statistics in their routine tasks. This oversight is significant, as these data are not merely technical tools but mechanisms that shape resource distribution and burdens. This study examines why Mexico’s statistical agency adopted self-identification and how other government agencies have applied both identification methods in three key areas: electoral districting, Indigenous infrastructure planning, and demographic reporting. Drawing on 24 years of archival data and 51 in-depth interviews with top-level decision-makers, I demonstrate that variations in the production and use of ethnic statistics result from negotiations among state actors with competing priorities—bureaucratic neutrality, recognition, and redistribution. These objectives often conflict, yet the actors advancing them remain interdependent, creating contradictory dependencies. This study identifies two central dilemmas that permeate decision-making across agencies: the neutrality–recognition dilemma and the recognition–redistribution dilemma. By identifying the dilemmas arising from inter-agency negotiations and how they are addressed, the study contributes to debates on the plasticity of race and ethnicity, showing how heterogeneous and conflicting state politics shape the boundaries of racial categories. Mexico’s case highlights how the bureaucratic politics of race-making unfold in contexts where the legacies of colonialism intersect with contemporary multicultural reforms, offering insights for comparative research in Latin America and beyond.

Author

• Braulio Guemez, Duke University