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Mallon Constructing Mestizaje
Mallon Constructing Mestizaje
i.
In discussions of ethnic identity, hybridity, and mestizaje, what does it
mean to "go home"? Gloria Anzaldua (1987:22), a poetic spokesperson for
hybridity and resistant mestizaje, says in Borderlands/La Frontera: "if go-
ing home is denied me then I will have to stand and claim my space, making
a new culture—una cultura mestizo." So even for Anzaldua, mestizaje is a
second choice, to be taken only if
she is not permitted to go home.
So what does "going home" mean
in this context? And who gets to
decide who is allowed and who is
not? These questions of belong-
ing and authenticity, with their
multiple layers and conflicts, lie
at the heart of our reflections.
If being a mestizo a is, by
definition, betwixt and between,
neither Indian nor Spanish, then
what is the relationship of
mestizaje to questions of authen-
ticity and belonging? The essays
in this volume present us with
some tantalizing answers to this
question. Two conceptually con-
tradictory visions or discourses of mestizaje inhabit these pages, and the
social relationships the authors are describing.
journal of latin american anthropology 2(1)170-181 copyright© 1996, american anthropological association
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