Racism in Mexico is badly rooted in Mexican society and was born 500 years ago with the establishment of a new government, a new race whose white skin becomes synonymous with power ..
According to INEGI, 10% of the Mexican population is indigenous. And what are the parameters? Well, the fact of speaking a native language, living in a community that is assumed to be indigenous for its uses and customs and accepting through a survey that is indigenous.
Based on the above, if a couple in an indigenous community had 2 children there are 4 indigenous then, but if one of those children emigrates to a city and INEGI census affirms that it is not of indigenous origin then simply and simply do not It is although its origin says otherwise.
Where are we going with all this?
Well, according to INEGI, 10% of the population in Mexico is of indigenous origin, because the descendants of this 10% simply denied their origins, once they migrated to another city or country or their community simply does not accept the category of “indigenous “ for not having that feeling of inferiority, in this way, speaking in genetic and phenotypic terms, the indigenous population in Mexico is much greater.
This is my dear reader, if your grandparents or grandparents at the time spoke a Mexican language and that made them indigenous to the INEGI , then their children were also, but at some point due to racism and discrimination in Mexico they decided to leave it to speak and automatically removed the burden of being called “indigenous” and today you are not part of the statistics of the indigenous population of Mexico.
However, here we must clarify another point, about miscegenation, which exists in a more cultural than genetic, because very few Mexicans, despite their European pride, when visiting a Nordic or Mediterranean country would never be confused with a local inhabitant when observing his physique.
“P … but I’m more white, it’s more like a little boy I was more white just because with the sun I was burning”
Let’s first review the story that some chroniclers of the sixteenth century tell us, about the fact that not all natives had a coppery color:
According to Díaz del Castillo in “The True Story of the Conquest of New Spain”:
“Cuauhtémoc had a somewhat long and cheerful face and eyes, more it looked like when they saw that it was with gravity that flattering and there was no lack in them, and it was of age of 23, 24 or 25 years, AND THE COLOR PULLED MORE TO WHITE THAT THE COLOR AND MATTIZ OF THOSE OTHER BROWN INDIANS. “
Once again Bernal Díaz del Castillo tells us:
“It was the great Montezuma aged up to forty years and of good stature and well proportioned, and cenceño, and few meats, AND THE COLOR NOT VERY DARK, BUT OWN COLOR AND MATTER OF INDIAN, and brought the hair not very long, but how much his ears covered him, and few beards, tight heads and good spaghetti straps, and the somewhat long and cheerful face, and the eyes in a good way, and showed in his person, in the look, by a corporal love and when it was necessary gravity…”
And finally, let’s see what Clavijero says, in his “Ancient History of Mexico”:
“They are balanced in such a way with the regularity and proportion of their members, who are in a fair way between ugliness and beauty, their appearance does not please or offend: BUT AMONG THE MEXICAN YOUNG PEOPLE, SOME WHITE AND PRETTY PRETTY ARE FOUND, GIVING GREATER REALITY TO HIS BEAUTY, the softness of her speech and her manners and the natural modesty of her countenance … “
Well, after the above, you will have noticed that the native features are not reduced to skin color, because even the lightest skin tones correspond to the physical characteristics of the natives before the arrival of the Spaniards, so no, maybe your whiter skin than the rest of your family is not a European heritage.
And in spite of all this, there are those who claim to have a European ancestry, and they say it in a tone of arrogance, as if that were a reason for greater pride than to accept native ancestry, but that’s a bit of the fault of television, the cinema and the magazines, in which the accepted standard of beauty is white skin, for them they are the protagonists, for those with darker skin there are the roles of delinquents, poor and superstitious, which brings two consequences:
1. If you do not fit in the beauty standard then you are from the second group of cast actors.
2. And those other actors are those who portray indigenous genetics as low class, delinquent and fucked.
However, even with these strong data, Mexico is a racist and classist country that prides itself on being prejudiced and for being the best at telling discriminatory jokes and a very cool example is the case of Yalitza Aparicio, the Oscar-nominated actress. for his role in Oscar-winning film Alfonso Cuarón “Roma”.
The only sin of Yalitza was to take the time to experiment in an acting casting and that the film was awarded internationally in several film festivals, and I say “your sin” because from its participation, the racist Mexico that does not accept a standard different in the media, she turned out with her best discriminatory offenses against the young woman.
Worse yet, she was discriminated against, as every day in every corner of the country, by people who visibly have the same racial root as her, only with a lighter skin tone. The sad thing about this situation is that those who attack her through derogatory comments, do not feel identified with the origin of Yalitza, because they falsely believe, (even if they want to hide their racism) to be superior to her and what she represents: a humble origin and pride for its roots.
Mexicans are a special case, that they can unite to rescue a city from misfortune, but also to attack with hurtful comments to whom they consider, according to their opinion, as inferior, unworthy, overvalued and the other qualifiers that you have read in comments.
Source: tull.tv
The Mazatlan Post
