In the Blood: Black/Indigenous Refusals Against Mestizo Logics of Power

• In Event: Refusing the Nation, Theorizing Black Belonging - Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean, pt. 2

Description for Program

In her examination of the transition of empires to nation, scholar Nandita Sharma declares: “Blood is central to governmentality” (2020). Fictitious notions of blood have been seen time and time again in the creation and required constant maintenance of the nation and its citizens; Mexico is no exception. While the last twenty years have seen a variety of ways to repair hundreds of years of harm done by the Mexican state to Black, Indigenous, and Black/Indigenous communities, one particular method of reconciliation has been through the redefining the Mexican population through the language of blood and genomics, tied intimately with notions of land, geography, and power. In this paper, I utilize theory and practice from Black Studies, Critical Indigenous Studies and the growing field of Settler Colonialism Studies to examine how race vis-à-vis the notion of blood and genes are used as a technology to uphold and maintain the Mexican (mestizo) nation, its territory, and its citizens, especially during the shift in institutional recognition by the Mexican government; as well as Black and Indigenous refusals of current mestizo logics of power.

Author

• Ashley Agbasoga