Beyond Mestizaje: Contemporary Debates on Race in Mexico

Racism has historically been a taboo topic in Mexico. This is largely due to the nationalist project of mestizaje which contends that because all Mexicans are racially mixed, race is not a salient political issue. In recent years, however, race and racism have become important topics of debate in the country's public sphere and academia. This book introduces readers to a sample of these diverse and sometimes conflicting views that also intersect with discussions of class. The activists and scholars included in the volume come from fields such as anthropology, linguistics, history, sociology, and political science. Through these diverse epistemological frameworks, the authors show how people in contemporary Mexico interpret the world in racial terms and denounce racism.



About the Author
Milena Ang is assistant professor of political science at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. She is interested in democratization, transitional justice, and inequality in the Mexican criminal justice system. Her work has appeared in journals such as World Politics and Crime, Law, and Social Change.

Tania Islas Weinstein is assistant professor of political science at McGill University. Her research focuses on how art and aesthetics shape the way people experience the world as politically significant. This work has been published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and the Journal of Latin American Studies, among others. She collaborated on a translation of poems by the jazz musician Sun Ra into Spanish (Bom Dia Books, 2019).

With translations by Ellen Jones.