Racism and Signs of Difference between Non Indigenous and Indigenous Students in Mexico

Abstract

The mestizaje of university students, in relation to the indigenous groups or persons, is seen by our society as a place of privilege, inserted in power hierarchies determined by the closeness or the distance from whiteness. For the students, the mestizo, associated with certain physical characteristics, appears as the “normal†or the true subject of Mexican history. Nevertheless, this privileged space becomes malleable or flexible when the border between the mestizo ends and the indigenous begins is no longer clear. Under this assumption, the article develops, in three phases, an analysis that attempts to answer who is this mestizo student and how he or she differs from the indigenous.