The Three paradigms of "mestizaje": realizing democracy in a transnational world of crossing borders
- Autores: John Francis Burke
- Localización: Portularia: Revista de Trabajo Social, ISSN 1578-0236, Vol. 8, 2, 2008 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Idiomas, diversidad y trabajo social), págs. 33-47
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
Mestizaje, a Latin American heritage focusing on the mutual transformation of the European and indigenous peoples in the Americas has had two predominant interpretative paradigms. South of the U.S.-Mexico border, both ruling elites and scholars have frequently used made je to justify a mixing of European, indigenous, African, and other peoples that nevertheless have the European culture ascendant. Conversely, in the Chicano (Mexican- American) heritage north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the conquest of the U.S. Southwest by predominantly Anglo (European-American) settlers - "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us" - leads Mexican-American scholars to render mestizaje as resistance and as a way of seeking agency.
This article explores this conceptual divide and suggest why both paradigms should be found wanting. We gain little by vilifying one side or the other exclusively in such exchanges.
Given that mestizaje is supposed to be about a mixing of indigenous and European cultures, is it possible to envision a mixing that does not privilege any of the contributing cultures? This article offers a third integration paradigm of mestizaje. Drawing upon the work of Jorge Gracia, Virgil Elizondo, and Jacques Audinet, mestizaje is recast as the pursuit of realizing lateral, egalitarian intersections between diverse peoples and cultures on the transnational stage. This study will be relevant to social workers, not just in the United States, but also to those anywhere in the developed world wrestling with how to service migrants from the developing world in the post-colonial era.
