Caught Between Latinidad and Mestizaje: Indigenous Migrants’ Sense of Belonging and Identification in the United States

• In Event: The (Im)possibility of (Re)Indigenization: Indigenous Futurities Beyond Settler Structures

Abstract

How do Indigenous Latin American migrants of different generations relate to the Latinx category in the United States? How do mestizaje ideologies carve the boundaries of Latinidad, determining who belongs and how is an outsider in the Latinx community? While scholars have examined multiple aspects of Latinx identity, research on Latinxs has largely ignored how Latinx self-identification and sense of belonging is mediated by one of the most important racial boundaries in Latin America: the boundary between those who are Indigenous and mestizo, or mixed race. Through in-depth interviews with 30 Indigenous migrants, I argue that Indigenous migrants’ sense of belonging and identification is mediated by Latino mestizaje, racial mixture discourses that uphold mestizos as the ideal Latinxs. Findings from this study show that 1st generation migrants felt a sense of belonging with the Latinx category while 1.5 generation rejected it due to experiences with anti-Indigenous discrimination from Latinx co-ethnics. Meanwhile, those in the 2nd generation either embraced a dual Latinx Indigenous identity or opted to identify as solely Latinx to downplay their indigeneity and avoid anti-Indigenous discrimination. My research contributes to the growing body of literature on Latinx identification in the United States and panethnic categories. My findings show that while individuals may mark themselves as belonging to a panethnic group in the Census and identify with it in other aspects of their lives, identification in this panethnic category may be missing important forms of marginalization within the panethnic group.

Author

• Caroline Martínez, San Diego State University