Estelle Tarica "Mestizo Nationalism" March 7, 2005

Estelle Tarica speaking in the CLAS Conference Room on March 8.

Nations and Narrations: Mestizo Nationalism, or the Power Behind the Powerless
By Mónica González

The intimacy of Frida Kahlo and the all-encompassing vision of Diego Rivera are, perhaps, the most emblematic examples of the antagonism involved in the discussion of the legitimacy of national narratives. After decades spent deconstructing the imagined epic foundation of modern nations, some scholars seem to be content having replaced Rivera’s ruined vision with Kahlo’s small, fragmented voice. This context legitimated the idea of a nationalism built on fragments, a mestizo nationalism, a nationalism whose authority comes precisely from listening to “small” voices, to those voices silenced by the loudness of the traditional account of the nation. This nationalist strategy was thoroughly developed by the Mexican, Bolivian and Peruvian states at different moments in the 20th century and, to a lesser extent, by the rest of the Latin American republics.

But these fragments are not immune from suspicion. The policy of diversity sustained by mestizo nationalism is charged with being a mere façade, trying to hide the still existing inequities and discrimination. Mestizo nationalism would not represent the turn of the small voices in the every-day task of narrating the nation. It would be just a populist construction, a new fictional projection of the national community. Beyond the realm of the imagined, present both in fragmented and epic national narratives, Estelle Tarica, Professor of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, enters this discussion in order to explore the configurations of power that lay behind mestizo nationalism. Her talk draws our attention to reconsidering the potential effects of the voices of women and indigenous people in creating new (national) subjectivities. In addition, she asserts the need to redefine debated terms such as mestizaje and indigenismo.

Rethinking mestizaje and mestizo

One of the first ideas that come to mind when thinking about mestizaje is the fusion of different races. During the first half of the 20th century, mestizaje was defined as the phenomenon of biological miscegenation between Europeans and indigenous people that took place in Latin America during the colonial period. Afterward, the term was expanded to describe the mix of Western and non-Western races or cultures. In this context, it has been used as a synonym for syncretism, transculturation, colonial mimicry and hybridity. Nonetheless, Tarica sees mestizaje in terms of the individual’s relation to the law and the land. Mestizo would be that type of person not classified by the law because he or she is neither a descendent of Europeans nor an indigenous American associated with the land. Subsequently, mestizaje can be defined as the process through which some states regularize the legal status of these individuals in order to include them in the national process of modernization. ”Mestizaje, states Tarica, is what makes industrialization possible, since industrialization requires that people loosen their ties to the land, and hence undercuts rural communitarian life.” Mestizo nationalism, she adds, authenticates and normalizes the transformation from a rural to an urban society — at the expense of the indigenous people. In addition, it turns the stigma of being mestizo into a situation of normalcy, pride and innocence.

At this point one might ask what does “being mestizo” mean, or where does mestizo identity reside — if such a thing exists. Referring to the modern Andes, anthropologist Olivia Harris defines mestizo identity from an anti-ethnic perspective because, according to her, it has to do with “not being Indian.” This conception implies a process of rupture and amnesia based on a racist denial. In his discussion of the Mexican case, Roger Bartra has affirmed that mestizo identity “is basically a myth.” A similar position is sustained by Bolivian historian Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, who refers to the imagined nature of the community created around mestizo identity. Yet Prof. Tarica approaches the debate from a different perspective. She points out that these scholars may be underestimating the effects of the modern nation-state in the formation of subjectivity. Once more, the question for her has to do with the impact of mestizo nationalism in shaping the society into a particular image. Tarica asserts that mestizo nationalism’s attribution of powerlessness to certain types of individuals, such as women and indigenous people, is a particularly effective way to destigmatize them. The association of these individuals with the Good and the True (these values being uncorrupted) has “a cleansing effect, stripping its object of inherited guilt and rendering it innocent.”

Anatomy of indigenismo

Indigenismo constitutes an important branch of mestizo nationalism, and is defined by Tarica as “the discursive formation charged with attributed powerlessness to Indians.” The anatomy of indigenismo, or the parts which Indians have represented within the symbolic body of the nation, reveals the role they have played in the official narrations of the nation. In his book Forjando patria (1916), Manuel Gamio figured the Indians at the foot of the body of the Mexican nation, placing them at the root of the national identity. This perspective, adopted by several nations during that period, implied a discursive trap related to temporality. While being located in a mythic origin of the nation, the contemporary Indians were still being ignored or considered invisible. In El laberinto de la soledad (1950), Octavio Paz moved the Indians out to the core of the Mexican national body, a migration which invested them “with a voice… to which you must listen in order to be true,” says Tarica.

The incorporation of the Indians into the body of the nation responds to what Peruvian anthropologist Marisol de la Cadena calls “racial optimism,” which is “the belief that races could be bettered through education.” This nationalist attitude is necessary to establish what French philosopher Etienne Balibar calls “fictive ethnicity,” or the narration able to bind individuals together as a people. Indigenismo is an example of this fictive ethnicity, whose plot consists of the incorporation of the Indians into a civilizing national project in order to achieve their redemption. In addition, indigenismo is an example of what de la Cadena distinguishes as “subaltern or subordinated racism.” Subordinate racism, explains Tarica, sees “culture not as a vessel of immanent qualities but rather of transferable, mobile qualities which individuals can assume or reject as they move through society.” Ultimately, the creation of new subjectivities would be possible due to the mobility of the fictive ethnicities circulating within the cultural imaginary of a society. Such is the case of Mexican writer Rosario Castellanos. In her book Balún Canán, Castellanos articulates an inner feminine voice that recalls the voice of the Indians at the core of the body of the nation. Since both voices are marginal, they would share the place of the Good and True. This inner voice allows her to return to the place of her birth without assuming her position as a landowner. “Her trajectory,” concludes Tarica, “from cosmopolitan disdain to sentimental regionalism to functionary of state, signals the possibilities of individual self-transformation opened by mestizo nationalism.”

Estelle Tarica is Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Berkeley. She presented her paper “Mestizo Nationalism or Listening to Small Voices” at CLAS on March 7, 2005.

Mónica González is a graduate student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Original Event Description

In the mid-20th-century, a group of writers from Mexico, Bolivia and Peru attempted to describe what might be called the “inner life” of mestizo nationality. Prof. Tarica will examine particular instances of this mode of narrating the experience of modern nationality; discuss the important role played by indigenismo in making these attempts possible; and address them as forms of what Marisol de la Cadena terms “subordinate racism.”

Estelle Tarica is Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Cornell University and is currently finishing her first book, Intimate Indigenismo.