Afro-Mixe epistemic intertwines: the case of “Pluma de agua y fuego”, by Ana Matías Rendón

• In Event: Epistemologies of Africa and Latin America

Abstract

During the colonization of the territory we know today as Mexico, one of the first impositions carried out by the invaders was one of epistemic nature. The disruption of the episteme radically modified Indigenous populations’ way of existence. However, the forced migration of enslaved Africans to the "New World" gave both—Indigenous Mexicans and Africans—the possibility of building epistemic ties. This epistemic intertwine would constitute new forms of resistance. And in some cases, it would form what I have named a Yo(sostros)/I(we). This new hybrid epistemic identity would become essential to safeguard ancestral knowledge.
Based on Eduard Glissant's concept of "opacity"—an unquantifiable otherness that surpasses identifiable difference—in this article I will analyze the short story "Pluma de agua y fuego", by Mixe Afro-descendant philosopher and writer Ana Matías Rendón (1977), to show the construction of this particular Yo(sotros) in Mexico since colonial times. This construction will reveal the epistemic intertwine of the Mixe conception of space-time "ayuuk" with the conception of "muntu", or vital force, of the Bantu philosophy. Finally, I will show how this Yo(sotros) not only has resisted the test of time through five centuries of imposition but, now resurges to challenge the hegemonic conceptions of identity.

Author

• Ariadna Nohemi Tenorio Lopez, University of Florida