Reddit mentions of Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization

this is an amazing thread. i too am a cultural anthro major and would like as much reading material as possible. keep the suggestions coming guys!

here's my contribution. i read it for my final essay in my ant102 class

I believe you don't understand the term 'mestizo'

Mexico is a mestizo nation as only 10-14% of the population is indigenous (amerindians). The rest of the population is a mixture of Indian-White-Black ancestry, it even has been postulated that no pure race exists today as hundreds of years since being conquered (1519) and the import of 600,000 black slaves (early 16th century) has had an impact on all of the population.

An indigenous (amerindian) dressed in western clothing would be called 'mestizo' and that would be correct, as mestizo not only refers to the racial mixture of amerindians-spaniards (or amerindian-white european). But also to a phenomenon exclusive to Mexico called "mestizaje".

As you probably know, Mexico's indigenous culture was pretty much destroyed during the spaniard invasion, language and religion were imposed on the population and after the revolution the elite developed the construction of the mexican national identity, the "Mestizo identity".

It pisses me off to no end to write about this and I don't want to elaborate in the destruction of my (our) culture, suffice to say that mestizo is a correct term for any mexican not identifying fully neither with any indigenous culture nor with a particular non-Mexican heritage, but rather identifies as having cultural traits and heritage incorporating elements from indigenous and European traditions

> We Mexicans need to stop clinging to this idea that we have white blood in our veins because that's not the case for most Mexicans. And for those that do, it shouldn't be a point of pride.

I don't see where you are heading with this. Just being factual, mexican population does have white (European) ancestry just like it has Black ancestry as well (1.8% (±3.5%) of African, and 1.2% (±1.8%) of East Asian ancestry).

It is estimated that on average the population is 41.8% (±15.5%) of European ancestry, towards the north of the country the percentage is higher (northern Sonora is 61.6% European ancestry) and towards the south indigenous ancestry is higher (the southern state of Guerrero showed on average 71.5% of indigenous ancestry)

Most mexicans do have white (European) ancestry (blood) in them (remember that you need ~25% haplotype in order to show up phenotypically), I don't know why it should or shouldn't be a point of pride as you say...

> I highly recommend the book Mexico Profundo as it talks more about this. [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0292708432

top lel

We've been culturally enriched beyond salvation throughout the last 5 centuries, let our history be an example of the dangers of multiculturalism on homogenous populations as Europe is facing right now lest their culture be forever destroyed too.

> And just to make it clear, I'm not saying that white Mexicans don't exist. They clearly do. Just turn on the TV.

2013, still watching TV. Anyways, Mexico is racist (towards the indigenous population, in large part because of the damned mestizaje) and mexicans want to see on TV that which they like (not being indigenous) and the TV networks happily oblige.

It's not that those actors aren't mexicans or are pure blooded aryan master race, it's just that their mixture has less Indian, Black and Asian ancestry.

Forgive me for answering in English, but unfortunately Spanish is not my first language. I feel like I can make my point clearer in English.

The idea of Mexico being a mestizo nation is a myth. That's because any indigenous person that dresses in western clothing is automatically labeled as mestizo. Many indigenous communities underwent a process in which they lost most of their native language and customs, which were replaced by Spanish and western clothing. But they are still indigenous people.

We Mexicans need to stop clinging to this idea that we have white blood in our veins because that's not the case for most Mexicans. And for those that do, it shouldn't be a point of pride.

I highly recommend the book Mexico Profundo as it talks more about this.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0292708432

And just to make it clear, I'm not saying that white Mexicans don't exist. They clearly do. Just turn on the TV.