Native America Calling

One of the more visible representations of Mexican Indigenous cultures in the U.S. is Danza Azteca performances at festivals, such as this dancer at the Indian Ceremonial Parade in Gallup, NM (Photo: Andi Murphy)

Tuesday, March 2, 2021 – The complexities of Mexican Indigenous identity

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Indigenous identity is viewed differently by the Mexican government. There aren’t registered tribes but there are autonomous Indigenous communities. Indigenous Mexicans self-identify, come from Indigenous communities, speak an Indigenous language and practice traditional and cultural ways. How that translates across the border and in U.S. Indigenous communities is complicated.

Guests:

Claudia Serrato (Xicana Indigena; P’urhépecha, Huasteca and Zacateca descent) – Indigenous culinary artist and anthropologist, a decolonial scholar and co-founder of Across Our Kitchen Tables

Renee M. Chacon (Diné and Mexica) – youth program coordinator at Spirit of the Sun, co-founder of Womxn from the Mountain and Sahumadora of Danza Azteca

Roberto Fatal (Mestizo, Ute, Rarámuri, Spanish) – filmmaker

 

Break 1 music: Pangea (song) 2Mex (artist) Visionaries (album)

Break 2 music: His Spirit Reflected in the Moon (song) Khu.éex’ (artist) They Forgot They Survived (album)

Comments

  1. Elisa Marina Alvarado says

    I hope to be able to read this article (only a summary was available on this site). I am fortunate in that my grandmother emphasized with me that we are Purepecha and she spoke with pride about her parents and grandparents (a great grandfather refused to speak Spanish and, she said, insisted on only wearing the traditional ‘manta’ instead of European style clothing). She had many stories about them that inspired pride in me even though many of my cousins were embarrassed to reveal that we are Indian, hiding in a ‘Mestizo’ or ‘Mexican’ identity. My grandmother also taught me our traditional food and plant medicine practices and encouraged me to embroider (a Purepecha women’s tradition). Many of my Chicano peers have no idea where specifically their family is from (due to impact of cultural genocide) and cling to an ‘Aztec’ identity when in reality, the Aztecs were late-comers, arriving from the north to find well established, very old nation/tribes. Because of my grandmother, I have always identified as Indian (or, indigenous). I am grateful to her.

  2. Alicia Mercik says

    My dad was from Puebla and never passed on his family heritage, which is regretted to this day. I do know his dad was a ranch hand.

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