Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Carolina Aguilera
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Javier Ruiz-Tagle
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1
Decolonizing geographies of race and ethnicity in Latin
America.Debates and evidence of racial and ethnic residential
segregation in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.
(150-200) Racism has not generally been taken into account in Latin American
social sciences until recently due to the predominance of class-system
perspectives, although differentiations among the population based on ethnic
origins began with colonialism. In this context, though with important exceptions
for Brazil and Colombia, residential segregation has been studied in terms of
class differentiations and has not involved race and ethnic aspects. However,
ethnicity and race have recently become main issues in the region because of the
increasing adoption of multiculturalist paradigms, the impact of postcolonial and
postmodern perspectives, the challenges posed by black and indigenous social
movements, changes in state policies, and issues on integration raised by new
trends of migration by indigenous and black people. This paper aims to address
the intellectual gap in residential segregation studies in Latin America, reviewing
intellectual and political debates, and empirical evidence from Argentina, Chile,
Colombia, and Mexico. We conclude tharurban studies must include the
significance of the ethnoracial dimensions in the construction of local
stratification systems and spatial sorting patterns. The ideology of mestizaje, a
concept coined at the invention of national populations with a common past
characteristics, has still permeated urban studies in the region. A new research
agenda must leave those colonial traces behind and adopt new perspectives
taking into account local realites of the construccion of otherness and social
exclusion. We show that contrary to the ideology of mestizaje, still popular in the
region, the seeming all-class segregation in Latin America is strongly influenced
by cultural and phenotypic dimensions. Although race and class are intertwined
in the production of material and symbolic differentiations in urban contexts, they
should receive separate analytical attention, especially regarding historical and
socio-political developments.
Colour matters
In the last decades, Latin American states have begun to recognize their multicultural
identity through changes in their national constitutions and in how they count their
population with national censuses (Loveman, 2014). The early twentieth-century
national imagination of a mainly mestizocontinent (i.e. composed by an ethnic and
racially homogeneous population), has been effectively challenged through
visualization policies of Afro-descendant and indigenous communities in most
countries. As Loveman (2014) shows, if in 1980 only three countries included in their
census a question related to race, colour or ethnic origin (Cuba, Brazil, and Guatemala),
in the 2010 round, 18 countries did so.This move was the result of various political and
social processes in the region, taking place in domestic and international arenas.
Loweman (2014) identifies the following: the influence of recommendations made by
development agencies, like the World Bank, to include such questions as part of
measures designed to tackling ethnic and racial social inequalities in the region;
grassroots campaigns among indigenous and Afrodescendant to raise consciousness
about the importance of being measured as such, as part of broader indigenous and
2
black people social movements; and UN campaigns and actions to promote a
meaningful participation of indigenous and Afrodescedants in the census-making
processes in the 2000s.1so.2 Even in countries like Argentina, Chile and Mexico, which
have considered themselves as not having Afro-descendants (and the first two with
relatively marginal indigenous populations) had to accept the presence of significant
numbers of ethnic groups as part of their nations.3 A recent photographic exhibition of
northern Black communities in Chile, placed in the basement of Chilean La Moneda
Government Palace4,Palace, makes the point: “race is back”.
1
Although there were no formal agreements between countries to adopt these kind of questions
in the 2000 or 2010 census rounds, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) recommended Latin American countries to include questions to
measure ethnic and racial populations in the 2010 census round, in order to have reliable data
to conduct public policies for those populations (CEPAL, 2009). Formatted: English (United States)
2As we explain in more detail in the sections dedicated to the national cases, between the 1980
and 2010 most Latin American countries shifted their approach to construct ethno-racial
classifications in their censuses, adopting perspectives aimed to officially recognize those
distinctions within their populations. This move was the result of various political and social
processes in the region, taking place in domestic and international arenas. Loweman (2014)
identifies the following: the influence of recommendations made by development agencies, like
the World Bank, to include such questions as part of measures designed to tackling ethnic and
racial social inequalities in the region; grassroots campaigns among indigenous and
Afrodescendant to raise consciousness about the importance of being measured as such, as part
of broader indigenous and black people social movements; and UN campaigns and actions to
promote a meaningful participation of indigenous and Afrodescedants in the census-making
processes in the 2000s. Although there were no formal agreements between countries to adopt
these kind of questions in the 2000 or 2010 census rounds, the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) recommended Latin American countries to include
questions to measure ethnic and racial populations in the 2010 census round, in order to have
reliable data to conduct public policies for those populations (CEPAL, 2009).
3
In Chile, the question about ethnic origin was already included in the 1980s round. Still, the
national census does not explicitly asks for Afro origin, although black people communities
have struggled for their inclusion since 2010 (Loveman, 2014). In Argentina, both questions
were included in the 2010 round, and the visibility of indigenous people was achieved in the
census of the previous round (Loveman, 2014). Mexico had a long tradition of identifying their
native population through language (since the 1890s round), but only included a question to
include Afro-descendants in the 2010 Census (Loveman, 2014).
4
See: http://www.ccplm.cl/sitio/afrodescendiente-mas-alla-de-africa/ Formatted: English (United States)
3
Social scientists in the region are beginning to incorporate multiculturalist
perspectives in their research, and nowadays there is an important amount of literature
on race and ethnicity in Latin America among mainstream texts. ThoseAs recent studies
have noted that, differences in skin colour, facial traits, hair colour, height, talking style,
place of origin, first names and last names, still give way to patterns of social
differentiation (Aguirre & Castro, 2009; Waldman, 2004; Merino, Quilaqueo &
SainzMerino, et al., 2008; Aguirre and Castro, 2009; Telles and& Paschel, 2014;
Waldman, 2004;).In terms of segregation, and in comparison to the US, 2014).Although
Latin American societies appear as more mixed, than in the US, with a more benevolent
Catholic ethos, and lacking clear racial borders. However, racialborders, their
segregation exists,and it started with a harsh racial differentiation between the
supposedly 'pure white' elites and the rest. As a result of this first racial segregation,
race became a genuine descendant marker forThen, the big differences in income, status
and power between the elite and the rest of the population. Moreover, those differences
havepopulation, became a genuine descendant of this first racial segregation and it has been
maintained relatively stable due to the lack of significant social transformations, as it
happened in Europe after World War II, and in the US after the Great Depression.
According to genetic studies in Chile for instance, due to the segregation that exists from
colonialism, upper classes have 20 per cent indigenous genes and lower classes have up to 56
per cent, approximately (Rocco, et al. 2002).
However, some areas of research have stayed well behind in taking race and
ethnicity as a crucial dimension of, like the analysis, among themare the studiesstudy of
cities and in particular, studies on residential segregation. This is a key research subject
if one takes into account that the majority of the population in the region now lives in
cities. In fact, unlikeUnlike the US, the dominant literature in Latin American urban
studies has been blind to colour discrimination and exclusion among the population in
the region. Strikingly, although Although slaves brought from Africa arrived massively
along the whole continent, and indigenous populations pose a strong presence in several
countries of the region, urban planners -until very recently- considered that ethnic/racial
residential segregation patterns were exclusive to the United States. As a researcher
stated in 1991:
[“…the residential segregation of disadvantaged groups (…) is not structured, as it
happens in the United States of America, around the racial factor”]
(Rodríguez 2001:35, self-translation)
Many times the argument has revolved, with a seeming nationalistic pride and a
constant distinction with the reality of United States, around the idea the legal basis for
segregation. Edward Telles (1992), a leading researcher who recognizes the presence of
race segregation in Brazil, made these distinctions:
"Unlike the United States, Brazil has had no race-based laws that encourage
residential segregation since Abolition in 1888" (p. 186)
"...the absence of extreme segregation in Brazil has precluded the formation of
parallel institutions, a condition that was fundamental to the rise of black social
movements in South Africa and the United States" (p. 195)
The argument has persisted and has extended among Latin American scholars. As the
Chilean sociologist Francisco Sabatini stated in an international report:
4
"[i]n Latin America, we focus our attention on socioeconomic segregation, (…)
considering that the distinct social inequalities, of income and rank or social class,
represent the most salient characteristics of social structure in Latin American
countries - more than poverty, in any case." (Sabatini, 2006: 7).
However, somerecent studies have begun to address race and ethnic dimension ofshown
that residential segregation based on perceived race or colour does exist in Latin America.
Discrimination is observed not Not only against those considered Afro-descendants, but
discrimination is observed against all kinds of people with perceived phenotypical traces
of non-European ascendancy, and interactsascendancy. As somehave shown, race plays
animportant role in residential segregation, interacting with other social stratification
patterns, like class and educational levels(Barbary, 2001; Fontana & Wellington, 2016;
Gissi, 2004; Pedemonte et al. 2015; Telles, 1992; Urrea Giraldo and& Quintín Quílez,
2000; Barbary, 2001; Vivas Pacheco, 2013; Villamizar (2015); Fontana and wellington,
2016; Gissi, 2004; Pedemonte et al. 2015; Telles, 1992).
As we will argue in the paper, the invisibility of race in urban studies of segregation obeys
to a broader trend in Latin American social sciences refereeing back to the consolidation
of the capitalist world system based on colonial partnerships between Europe and the rest
of the world around the sixteenth century (Wallerstein, 1991; Quijano, 2000; van Dijk,
2009). This paradigm has survived to this day and has been sustained by ideologies of
scientific racism, Eurocentric worldviews of modernity, and a national imagery based on
the idea of mestizaje (Segato, 2007; Wallerstein, 1991; Quijano, 2000). The paper aims
to push forward a decolonizing research agenda on the geographies of race and ethnicity
of cities in the region, highlighting the need to take racial and ethnic issues seriously
within the field of Latin American urban studies.
Residential segregation
Etymologically, the concept of segregation comes from the Latin word ‘segregatus’,
which means ‘to set apart from the flock’, as opposed to 'gregarious', which means
‘belonging to a flock’ (Online Etymology Dictionary, n.d.). It The word was originally
meant to designate ‘the religious notion of separating the flock of the godly from
sinners’ (Online Etymology Dictionary, n.d.). That origin evidencesDictionary),
evidencing the discriminatory connotation of the concept since its beginning.
5
Nowadays, racial/ethnic residential segregation refers to the relegation of racially or
ethnically discriminated groups to separate areas within cities.5
The deeply held beliefs, ideas and customs about race and ethnicity are
manifested in individual, collective, institutional and societal practices of spatial
relegation and residential segregation. Thus, segregationSegregation based on perceived
physical or cultural traces exists since cities were established, and can refer to various
social stratification systems. In sociological terms, the physical separation in diverse
spheres of life, including residential places, is considered problematic when it implies
the lack of interaction between social groups. Despite the usage of different names and
categories, it is possible to identify four clear forms of racial and ethnic residential
segregation in the international literature: classic ghettoes, hyper ghettoes, ethnic
enclaves and self-segregated communities. The classic ghetto corresponds to a spatially
delimited place where a single stigmatized ethnic-racial group is enclosed against their
will, and where parallel institutions and internal economic relations are created, mainly
due to their multiclass character (Sennett, 1996; Marcuse, 1997; Gans, 2008; Wacquant,
2012). The two most cited historical examples are the Jewish ghettoes of the
Renaissance in Europe and the black ghettos of the industrial United States. A second
category, derived from the first, is represented by what has been called hyper ghettoes,
outcast ghettoes, mono class ghettoes or territories of post-industrial relegation
(Marcuse, 1997; Wacquant, 2016). These spatial forms represent a radicalization of the
‘old communal ghetto’ due to processes of out-migration of middle-class residents,
deindustrialization, depopulation, welfare state retrenchment, institutional
abandonment, territorial stigmatization, further impoverishment and more repression
(Wilson, 1987; Wacquant, 2008). The main internal characteristics of these hyper
ghettoes are the mono class composition of their population, the individual
demoralization of their residents, and the disintegration of their communal ties.
Examples of these spaces of relegation are abundant, from the current South and West
sides of Chicago, to the red banlieues in the periphery of Paris, or favelas in Brazilian
metropolises.
Ethnic enclaves and self-segregated communities differ from the two cases
mentioned above because of their voluntary character of aggregation, and for the
positive outcomes they might cause to their residents. The ethnic enclave is an area
where a specific ethnic group, i.e. a community who shares a common language, a
religious tradition and/or a national origin (Laguerre, 2010), develops its own cultural
identity and economic activity providing themselves with different modes of
incorporation (Wilson and Portes, 1980). In other words, those are districts where
dwelling, labour, recreation and internal social networks intersect (Harding and
Blokland, 2014). These places are usually located at the lower end of a city’s social
hierarchy. Similar to the classic ghetto, their spatial concentration provides protection
from the host society’s hostility and allows the development of social capital. But unlike
the former, an enclave's economy and cultural activity can encourage self-segregation of
residents that are neither socially nor financially forced to live there (Portes and
Manning, 1986). The most commented examples in the international literature are
Jewish quarters, Spanish barrios and Chinatowns in cities of the Global North.
5
Later in the paper, we elaborate more on the concept of race and ethnicity.
6
Interestingly, current migrations on several directions have converted the ethnic enclave
into an artefact of contemporary globalization in most corners of the world.
7
segregation. Large migrations, institutional practices, private behaviours and explicit
public policies and interventions are the most frequent ones (Massey and Denton, 1993;
Hirsch, 1998; Massey & Denton, 1993).
Ethnic enclaves and self-segregated communities differ from the two cases
mentioned above because of their voluntary character of aggregation, and for the
6
The two most cited historical examples are the Jewish ghettoes of the Renaissance in Europe
and the black ghettos of the industrial United States. Formatted: English (United States)
7
Examples of these spaces of relegation are abundant, from the current South and West sides of
Chicago, to the red banlieues in the periphery of Paris, or favelas in Brazilian metropolises. Formatted: English (United States)
8
positive outcomes they might cause to their residents. The ethnic enclave is an area
where a specific ethnic group, i.e. a community who shares a common language, a
religious tradition and/or a national origin (Laguerre, 2010), develops its own cultural
identity and economic activity providing themselves with different modes of
incorporation (Wilson & Portes, 1980). In other words, those are districts where
dwelling, labour, recreation and internal social networks intersect (Harding & Blokland,
2014). These places are usually located at the lower end of a city’s social hierarchy.
Similar to the classic ghetto, their spatial concentration provides protection from the
host society’s hostility and allows the development of social capital. But unlike the
former, an enclave's economy and cultural activity can encourage self-segregation of
residents that are neither socially nor financially forced to live there (Portes & Manning,
1986).8
8
The most commented examples in the international literature are Jewish quarters,
Spanish barrios and Chinatowns in cities of the Global North. Interestingly, current migrations
on several directions have converted the ethnic enclave into an artefact of contemporary
globalization in most corners of the world.
Formatted: English (United States)
9
In Latin America, hierarchical divisions of cities were part of the colonial practice
established in all European colonies around the world, to provide special privileges to
the incoming settlers. In particular, Spanish colonizers created a complex caste system
based on racial mixture classifications, putting Spanish and their descendants at the top
of the hierarchy and dividing urban space accordingly (Loweman, 2014). This created
patterns of residential segregation at various scales, which have extended for centuries.
However, the issue of the spatial sorting of social groups only came into the
research agenda in the last decades. During most part of the twentieth century, the main
issues studied by social scientists in the region were driven by a concern around the
processes and consequences of the policies of state-led industrialization and fast
urbanization.urbanization, with more or less strength. Urban studies worried about the
high urbanization rates brought by the industrialization processes generating a
widespread phenomenon of marginality,marginality. Thus, marginality was understood
as a lack of connection between the advancement of modern capitalist social relations
and the creation of informal economies of subsistence (Quijano, 1968; Germani, 1969;
Quijano, 1968;). Cities grew at high rates, and their population settled in differentiated
spaces, creating the basis for some authors to begin speaking of a phenomenon of
segregation (Santos, 1975; Germani, 1988a; 1988b; Santos, 1975). While these authors
had had influences from foreign literature about similar problems in the North, their
main focus was not about socio-spatial sorting across metropolitan spaces. Instead, their
focus was on explaining the production of large marginal masses in Latin American
cities.
The direct and empirical study of segregation in Latin America did not come to
mainstream debates until the 1990s since scholars were concentrated in other related
matters. According to Carrión (1991), there were two main research paradigms for
social studies on spatial dynamics in Latin America on those times were during the
twentieth century. On the one hand, there was an empiricist paradigms represented by
ecological, demographic, anthropological and cultural works, somewhat influenced by
the Chicago School. The main approach here was the collaborative efforts of many
authors working under the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(CEPAL, in Spanish). The works of CEPAL took modernisation theory and adapted it
to a Latin American developmental paradigm. These works were the main influence for
the impulse of Import Substitution Industrialisation Policies9 promoted by several states
between the 1930s and the 1970s in the region (Prebisch, 1986; Williams, 2006). This
empiricist paradigm evolved as a more positivist approach, highly influenced by US
theoretical frameworks and predominates today in segregation studies. Thus, direct and
empirical study of segregation in Latin America did not come to mainstream debates
until the 1990s. Thus, while these authors had had influences from foreign literature
about similar problems in the North, their main focus was not about socio-spatial
sorting across metropolitan spaces. Instead, their focus was on explaining the
production of large marginal masses in Latin American cities. Williams, 2006). On the
9
Economic policy for the replacement of foreign imports by domestic products. The idea from
CEPAL is that Latin American countries should reduce their foreign dependency by producing
in local industries.
10
other hand, there has been a generalizing paradigm that did not present much territorial
differentiation. Two approaches are highlighted here. Firstly, there are Latin American
functionalism and marginality theories, which were highly connected with the work of
the Chicago School; particularly Louis Wirth’s and with Oscar Lewis’ culture of
poverty (Germani, 1969; 1988a; 1988b;Jaramillo, 1990). Secondly, there were authors
working on the Dependency Theory, influenced by Marxism and the World Systems
Theory, which were highly influential even outside of Latin America (Quijano, 1968;
Nun, 1988; Slater, 1988;Singer, et al. 1988).
So far we have been using the concepts of race and ethnicity without presenting a
definition of those evasive and normatively loaded concepts. Briefly, we agree with
most sociological and anthropological literature which proposes that race and ethnicity
are social constructs, i.e. "embedded in academic, popular and political discourses that
are themselves a constitutive part of academic, popular and political relationships and
practices" (Wade, 2010, p. xxx). It is commonly assumed that both concepts refer to two
different aspects of a social group; that is, race refers to physical body traces and
ethnicity to cultural traces. But as Mara Loveman (2014) has argued, the distinctions are
not that easy to detect and both tend to overlap. In fact, ethnicity is also constructed
considering ascendancy and physical traits, and there are "racial" communities
organized in cultural forms, like black communities do today in many parts of Latin
America. Further, following Bonilla-Silva specifications who states that "races are not
'things' but relations", we agree that the content of both race and ethnicity "can only be
recognized in the realm of racial relations and positions" (Bonilla-Silva, 2011, p. 472).
In this sense, "races are the effect of racial practices of opposition at the economic,
political, social, and ideological levels" (Bonilla-Silva, 2011, p. 472). This constructivist
perspective of the concept does not mean, however, that the concepts are malleable in
its signification, but once constructed they work as real 'things'.The social and historical
determination of both concepts are backed by the fact that the words ‘black’, ‘white’
and ‘race’ were relatively unused before the 17th century.
In Latin America, as in most parts of the world, the concept of race was
developed through the European practices of converting particular biological aspects
into vital signifiers of difference during the colonial period (Wade, 2010), although
there were some previous forms of discrimination among indigenous people before.
From the 16th century on, the Spanish crown mandated by many decrees of law a kind
of cast structure that introduced a separation between Spaniards, native people, people
with African origin, and their various mixtures. Although there is a discussion around
the effective rigidity of the system, given the high rates of cross-marriages and some
social mobility, the structure introduced an imaginary boundary of difference based on
11
physical traits, favouring European features and culture over the rest of the population
(Mörner and& Gibson, 1962; Smith, 1996; Pike, 1963; Smith, 1996). This reproduce a
social and economic stratification structure were white elites concentrated most of the
resources in their hands.
The adoption of those terminology came along with ideologies that sustained the
colonization of America by Europe (Wallerstein, 1991), later sustained with the so-
called ‘Scientific Racism' which emerged in the 17th and 18th century. As Wallerstein
(1991) argued, racism is not at the core of the attitude of disdain and fear of people
perceived as different for their skin colour or cultural patterns, but a way that capitalist
societies adopted in their time of big expansion during the colonization of the so-called
New World. It was a discourse that allowedWorld, to include the wealth of the labour
force of the dominated people (native people and slaves), but minimizing the cost of
that labour force and the cost of a possible political opposition. In this sense, racism is
structurally tied to the capitalist world system which emerged and consolidated with
colonialism.10
Quijano (2000) argues in the same line, “Over time, colonizers encoded as
colour the phenotypic traits of the colonized and assumed them as the emblematic
feature of the racial category. … As a consequence, the dominant ones called
themselves White". (p.203, self-translation).
Moreover, he argues:
"… Western Europe's success in becoming the centre of the modern world-
system, according to Wallerstein's apt formulation, developed in Europeans a trait that
“was common to all colonial and imperial rulers of history, ethnocentrism. But in the
European case, this trait had a peculiar basis and justification: the racial classification of
the world's population in America. … Europeans generated a new temporal perspective
of history and re-located the colonized peoples, and their respective histories and
cultures, in the past of a historical trajectory whose culmination was Europe”.Europe.
(Quijano, 2000, p. 210-211, self-translation).
10
There are other authors who disagree with this strong association between racism and colonial Formatted: Font: 11 pt
capitalism?. For an interesting discussion about racism in Latin America see (Hering Torres, Formatted: Font: 11 pt
2011) Scientific racism, on its part, was a paradigm that intended to scientifically demonstrate
the existence of racial hierarchies among the world population based on their geographical
origin (European, Asian, African, Native American, and so forth). It was a hegemonic
perspective until the turn of the twentieth century in Europe that used biological arguments to
legitimize the practices in the imperialist conquests of foreign territories (Arendt, 1973). Thus,
scientific racism was able to elevate race to a crucial position among global politics' concepts
and was mainly used to justify white European imperialism and to extend racial segregation
around most regions of the world (Arendt 1973). Some authors of the scientific racism
perspective put Latin American countries as an example of the negative effects of the mixture
between supposedly high-level races (whites) and lower rank ones (indigenous) (Loweman,
2014).
12
Scientific racism, on its part, was a paradigm that intended to scientifically demonstrate
the existence of racial hierarchies among the world population based on their
geographical origin (European, Asian, African, Native American, and so forth). It was a
hegemonic perspective until the turn of the twentieth century in Europe, that used
biological arguments to legitimize the practices in the imperialist conquests of foreign
territories (Arendt, 1973). Thus, scientific racism was able to elevate race to a crucial
position among global politics' concepts and was mainly used to justify white European
imperialism and to extend racial segregation around most regions of the world (Arendt
1973). Some authors of the scientific racism perspective put Latin American countries
as an example of the negative effects of the mixture between supposedly high-level
races (whites) and lower rank ones (indigenous) (Loweman, 2014).
AfterDuring the second half of the 20th Century, after the experiences of World
War II and the Holocaust, the concept of race was no longer in use among scientists in
explicit forms, and the concept of ethnicity was coined (Appelbaum, et al.al, 2003;
Loweman, 2014). At that point, scientists and States began preferring culture over
biology to classify groups of people with different origins. However, the concept of
ethnicity still groups people along their place of origin, phenotypical traits and their
culture, reaffirming those characteristics (Appelbaum, et al. 2003).
13
We may find four main imageries regarding the ethnoracial Latin American
foundation, the so called myth of mestiaje, indigenismo, white excepcionalism
and racial democracy.
Themyth of mestizaje
Mestizo is a Spanish word meaning racial mixture. Originally, the term was
associated with illegitimacy and was almost synonymous with 'bastard', due to
practices of rape and concubinage11 between male Spaniards and female natives
during the Conquista. However, since mestizos became the majority of the
population by the time of independence in the 19th century, and the influence of
intellectuals that proposed the mestizo as the constitutive race of Latin America,
their identities in the nation-building period took on a very different character
(Smith, 1996). This more positive view of racial mixture is widely known as ‘the
myth of mestizaje’: an intentional and symbolic idea of racial homogeneity,
created by the cultural apparatus and public intellectuals of each country, for the
construction of a nationalistic identity (Alvarado & Fernández, 2011; Smith,
1996; Waldman, 2004; Alvarado and Fernández, 2011). For instance, the
archetype of the Chilean mestizo was a synthesis of two patriarchal and warrior
races (Swedish immigrants from Spain and Araucano indigenous people), which
was whiter than that of other Latin American countries (Palacios, 1904). This new
race became part of a modernization project, a symbol of nationalist ideology, and
a source of popular culture (Alvarado & Fernández, 2011; Subercaseaux, 2007;
Garabano, 2009; Gutiérrez, 2010; Alvarado and Fernández, 2011Subercaseaux,
2007).However, the myth of mestizaje obscured the main purposes of the new
national elites: whitening, improvement of inferior races, diluting minorities,
creating policies of extermination, and promoting selective immigration policies
(i.e. bringing more Europeans and fewer blacks). It became then, a nationalistic
project of biological upgrading (Smith, 1996; Dulitzky, 2005; Gutiérrez, 2010;
Richards, 2010; Smith, 1996Gutiérrez, 2010). In general terms, the endurance of
the myth has led to a broad denial of racial discrimination in Latin America,
raising the virtues of mestizaje with nationalistic pride, especially when compared
to the strict segregation and lack of interbreeding in the US (Dulitzky, 2005). In
countries of the southern cone (Argentina, Uruguay and Chile), nations were
imagined with a very little, marginal, participation of indigenous and
Afrodescendants in their population (Loweman, 2014).
"… in a broad sense, the authors of Latin American census reports converged in
identifying race mixture as an unstoppable demographic dynamic that worked to
transform populations in a desirable direction [whitening]. … National census
11
The concept refers to ongoing relationship but unable to marry, due to differences in social
rank status, an existing marriage, religious prohibitions, etc.
14
reports projected the gradual improvement of populations. And the demography of
metizaje featured centrally in these "optimistic" projections." (p.154)
Mestizaje also gave more room to an idea of a particular social bond between different
social classes and groups with power differences in Latin America, the so-called lazo
social (SojaSorj and& Martuccelli, 2008, p. XX). That bond was not based on modern
political institutions but on informal ones like patronages and tutelages, and was
sustained by the existence of spheres of non-conflictual encounters and interactions
between people of different social classes. It was a sui generis conception of integration,
halfway between the community and societal relations, where vertical hierarchic
interactions could be maintained at the same time as sustaining more horizontal and
egalitarian ones. In this context, Sorja and Martucelli (2008) argue that "the praise of
mestizaje was not only a biased way of denying racism but was also the will to affirm
the permanence of the lazo social in other bases." (Sorja y & Martuccelli, 2008: XXI,
self-translation).
During the 20th century in Latin America, the ideology of mestizaje prevailed among
liberal elites, promoting the idea of the existence of high levels of mixture, sustaining a
national imagery based on a racial continuum (Álvarez, 1951; Beals, 1953). It is
important to note that mestizajewas thought as a one-way process into whitening
(Loweman, 2014).
Although the myth of mestizaje was strong among political and intellectual
elites, there was another racial perspective that emerged at the same time, indigenismo
(Appelbaum, et al., 2003). This paradigm stressed that “pure” native population were
racially or culturally superior to the mestizo. This perspective was strong in Peru, and
coexisted along with mestizo ideologies in Mexico (Appelbaum, et al., 2003).
Interestingly, the promoters of those ideologies were concerned with the integration of
native people, by education and modernization, and finally "whitening" them
(Appelbaum, et al., 2003; Loweman, 2014).
15
Every country in Latin Americahas developed their own understandings of how race
and ethnicity have giving form to their populations, influencing the dynamics of
residential segregation. Although there as few studies on the latter, weTo assess the
socio-spatial significance of racial and ethnic relations in Latin American providingwe
provide evidence of four countries whichthat have experienced diverse trajectories in
regards to the formation of their population:population, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina
and Chile, Colombia and Mexico.Chile. We organize the analysis around four
dimensions: (a)
16
diseases, thus assuming that blacks disappeared from the population and justifying the
lack of racial categories in the census (Loveman, 2014). In the 1930s and 1940s, with
the ascendance of Peronismo and industrialization, there was a strong internal migration
to Buenos Aires, which opened room for new socio-ethnic appellatives like cabecita
negra and descamisados, and the re-signification of older ones, like criollo or even
Argentinian (Grimson, 2016). Immigration from bordering countries was treated as a
problem from the beginning, and the cabecitanegra character in particular, became the
stereotype of ignorant and uncivilized provincianos (CurtisCourtis et al., 2009).
By the end of the 19th century, indigenous peoples were geographically and
politically marginalized (Loveman, 2014), with a territory that was separated between
civilized territories on one side, and territories under the indigenous rule on the other
(CurtisCourtis et al., 2009). The Argentinian elites never had interest in identifying
indigenous peoples and their territories, despite the commercial, cultural and political
interactions they had with them (CurtisCourtis et al., 2009). The military campaigns of
the late 19th century and early 20th century relieved the elites from the indigenous
problem, and opened those territories for white agriculture, where natives were
incorporated as labor power (CurtisCourtis et al., 2009). At the same time, census
reports insisted in the decrease of the indigenous population, and especially their
mixture, dilution and assimilation within the general mass (Loveman, 2014). Thus,
indigenous people and European immigrants were treated as two poles of the transition
from barbarism to civilization (CurtisCourtis et al., 2009).
In the same vein, the national identity construction created the belief that Argentina was
a nation without Afro-descendants (Jensen, 2013). Their presence was erased from
records and consciousness, despite evidence of hundreds of thousands of Africans
arriving to Argentina during colonialism, especially to Buenos Aires (Ghosh, 2013).
They were brought to work in agriculture and domestic service and their number was
very high in Northern provinces (Ghosh, 2013). In fact, black slaves were about one
third of Buenos Aires’ population in the early 19th century (Ghosh, 2013). After
independence, black population indeed waned, but their heritage was also repressed and
distorted by a hegemonic imaginary (Solomianski, 2003). Two factors played a role in
the decrease of black population: the deadly war against Paraguay in the mid-19th
century (where blacks were part of the Argentine military), and the yellow fever in
Buenos Aires in 1871 (Ghosh, 2013). In addition, other blacks fled to Brazil and
Uruguay, places that were somewhat less hostile to them (Ghosh, 2013). In this context,
Argentina never included a query to capture race or color after independence (Loveman,
2014). The 1865 official census report said: "happily in Argentina we don't have this
serious reason for concern [as in the US]; here the race is completely white; we have
blacks only as an exception." (Loveman, 2014, p. 193).
TheHowever, the intellectual climate of the last part of the 20th century has
changed the previous images, contribuityingcontributed to the expansion of studies on
the afro-Argentinian and indigenous heritage (Solomianski, 2015), and several recent
17
changes have been done in that direction, suggesting the country is in a process of
changing its concept of citizenship towards interculturality (Grabner, 2012). Thus,
indigenous peoples were constitutionally recognized in 1994 and their autonomy was
acknowledged in 2000. Between 2003 and 2005, the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (CEPAL, in Spanish) partnered with the World Bank to
encourage the incorporation of racial questions in the statistics of several countries,
among them Colombia and Argentina (Loveman, 2014). In that sense, the bicentennial
census (2010) included the categories of Afro-descendants and indigenous for the first
time since 1887, including a racial sensitivity campaign that had to demonstrate the
existence of Afro-Argentinians (Ko, 2014; Jensen, 2013; Ko, 2014). The inclusion of
ethno-racial categories was surrounded by negotiations and disputes between different
actors, in a context of internationalization of black movements in the previous decade
and a conference against racism organized by the United Nations (López, 2006). In
addition, new school textbooks have started to include the history of indigenous and
Afro-Argentinian peoples (Ko, 2014).
Nevertheless, as several authors have stressed, while the change in the racial
paradigm is undeniable, there has always been resistance from conservative sectors and
from social inertia (Ko, 2014). As it had happened in several countries with racial and
affirmative action policies, in Argentina, differences passed from invisibility to hyper-
visibility (Kaminker, 2011). Due to different portrayals of Afro-descendent groups by
different actors, Afro-Argentinians have not had much ability to show their own selves,
and have been replaced by the history and traditions of Afro-Uruguayans and Afro-
Brazilians (Frigerio, 2000). In addition, there are racist discourses against indigenous in
schools, in the parliament, and in everyday discourses against Latin American
immigrants (CurtisCourtis et al., 2009). Mapuches, an indigenous group that inhabits in
southern Chile and Argentina, are considered an ethnic, excluded minority, live under
linguistic and cultural domination, and thus some emancipatory movements have been
created for historic reparation and for the application of international agreements
(Vásquez, 2002). Latinamerican foreignersForeigners are treated as a different race
(Kaminker, 2011). For instance, they have coined The terms bolita and boliguayos are
pejorative appellatives, likebolita and boliguayos used to refer to Bolivians,
Paraguayans and any dark-skinned immigrant, without a real definition of national
origin (Kaminker, 2011; Ko, 2014). Furthermore, almost the entire working class is
racialized as ‘black’, with the resulting assumption that villas miseria are populated by
dark-skinned immigrants, and that all dark-skinned residents are foreigners (Ko, 2014).
According to a survey, the most discriminated immigrants are Bolivians, then
Peruvians, then Paraguayans and then others like Chinese, Chileans, Koreans, etc.
(Loveman, 2014).
As can be inferedextracted from the above mentioned, the racial question has
been absent from urban studies. Studies of segregation have focused on the self-
segregation of the rich, the emergent world of the poor, and the generation of dual or
fragmented cities (Kaminker, 2015). Some studies have highlighted the existence of
excluded ethnic neighborhoods (especially Bolivians, see Grimson, 2006), but without
much internal differentiation (Kaminker, 2015). However, there is increasing awareness
of how the socioeconomic segregation of Argentinian cities involves ethno-national and
racial aspects as well (Kaminker, 2011), from the racialization of villas miseria
(Margulis, 1997) to the formation of nationality clusters, where conflicts are developed
around the construction, use and disposition of urban space (Kaminker, 2015). An
18
investigation in the city of Rosario, describes how Afro-Uruguayans are concentrated in
a port zone since the late 19th century, and are discriminated for their association to
backwardness, which is now more visible because of the rapid urban changes happening
in the area (Broguet, 2016). A study in the city of Puerto Madryn delineates the cultural
imageries around the poor and non-white North, the rich and white South, the touristic
East, and the concealed West of that city (Kaminker, 2011). More detailed works
(Lucero, 2003) have showed important levels of immigrant segregation, including
individuals from bordering countries (e.g. Bolivians, Paraguayans, etc.) and non-
bordering countries (e.g. Europeans). Immigrants from non-bordering countries are
primary located in central areas, and immigrants from bordering countries are
concentrated in minor localities and dispersed settlements of rural areas (Lucero, 2003).
Therefore, as Javier Auyero (2007) stresses, the silence around the racial question
should be converted into a serious examination of the relationship between race, space
and the State.
The Mapuches that had resisted the Spanish invasion were first extolled as
warriors and fighters by the newly independent Chileans, but then discriminated as
uncivilized and relegated into small territories (Richards, 2010). Mapuche are not the
only native descendants in Chile, but the most populous indigenous people in the
country. Rights of citizenship for Mapuche,Mapuches, granted after independence,
could not be exercised south from the Bio-Bio River, where they remained independent
from the Chilean state until the end of the 19th century, which in turn reinforced the
binary identity construction between the white and the non-white. The violent
indigenous resistance excluded them from the national project and from the political,
scientific and academic ideals of superiority with which Europe was associated. The
term indio was reserved to people living in southern regions and denoted traits of
violence, poverty, rebellion, lack of history, and so on (Waldman, 2004).
19
was denied, and indigenous were counted separately since they were living outside of
the national community. Census officials believed that queries on religion, race or
language were irrelevant (Loveman, 2014). The myth of mestizaje was already present
in census reports in the 19th century (Estefane, 2004).
"...religion and language are only one among Chileans. In addition, the census
of the United States of America determines the black-slave population, the free
and the color-free. Happily in our country there is a unique race, free and equal,
the same with skin colourcolor and their political rights and duties, which
excuses us from the task of distinction that uses several pages in the American
census" (Estefane, 2004, p. 57. Translation from the authors)
Throughout
Slavery existed in Chile until 1811, just after gaining independence from Spain. But the
strategies of identity construction also involved consequences for African-descendants;
they were disappeared from statistics and most of them were forced to migrate to Peru
(Fundación Oro Negro, 2001). Regarding the few that remained, they were ‘whitened’
and ‘diluted’ by practices of mestizaje, and reduced in numbers and visibility. More
recently, prior to the 2012 Census, there was a mobilization of Afro-descendent
communities for their inclusion and visibility. The only achievement was that census
officials were trained to write 'Afro-descendent' in 'other'. In 2017, the census was
repeated in an abbreviated fashion, but there was no training for officials to write 'Afro-
descendent'. The only ethnic question was about membership in indigenous peoples.
During the first half of the 20th century, Chile continued believing that its population
was not multiracial or multi-ethnic,multiethnic, and thus, did not include any racial
category in the census (Loveman, 2014). Indigenous were counted separately from the
national census. In opposition to Mexico, inIn Chile, there was no mestizo nationalism
as the base for popular movements of the 20th century. Chilean movements privileged
class ideology over ethnic content (Richards, 2014). Thus, Chile's multiculturalism
privileged redistribution over recognition, but policies were only ameliorative and did
not bring redistribution (Richards, 2016).
20
incorporated into the political system. However, their access to natural resources was
not granted, their voice in the decision of new hydroelectric dams was not taken into
account, and their insertion into the agroforest industry was highly disadvantaged
(Waldman, 2004).
Within the Chilean census, in 1992 indigenous were first Chileans and then
members of some indigenous culture. In 2002, the idea of 'indigenous people' was
incorporated. In anvel way, in 2012, a new question about language was included, and a
question on nationality was opened, to include an indigenous nationality. Although the
political situation is better than in 1992, there is more tension associated with processes
of ethnic vindication. Thus, today more people assume itself as indigenous (around
11.1%), of which 1.5 million are Mapuche (De la Maza, 2014).
Slavery existed in Chile until 1811, just after gaining independence from Spain.
But the strategies of identity construction also involved consequences for African-
descendants; they were disappeared from statistics and most of them were forced to
migrate to Peru (Fundación Oro Negro, 2001). Regarding the few that remained, they
were ‘whitened’ and ‘diluted’ by practices of mestizaje, and reduced in numbers and
visibility. More recently, prior to the 2012 Census, there was a mobilization of Afro-
descendent communities for their inclusion and visibility. The only achievement was
that census officials were trained to write 'Afro-descendent' in 'other'. In 2017, the
census was repeated in an abbreviated fashion, but there was no training for officials to
write 'Afro-descendent'. The only ethnic question was about membership in indigenous
peoples.
21
In terms of immigrants, their history is marked by four particular moments.
First, after the War of the Pacific and at the beginning of the 20th century, Chile
established control over new territories in the north, which was accompanied by
increasing prejudices and discrimination against Bolivians, Peruvians, Afro-descendants
and persons of Asian origin. Second, until the first half of the 20th century, European
immigrants arrived (encouraged by the State) together with some communities from
Asia and a permanent regional immigration. Third, during the military dictatorship,
immigration decreased due to restrictive laws. And fourth, with the new democratic
governments after 1990, Latin American immigrants started to arrive attracted by a
relatively steady economic growth and political stability (Tijoux and& Palominos,
2015).
In terms of residential segregation, though they are diffused in many districts, immigrants
are concentrated in central and peri-central areas, and are relegated to an informal, illegal
and racist housing stock (Contreras, Ala-Louko, & Labbé,Contreras et al, 2015). Their
living spaces are tugurized (processes of intense turnover and degradation) and landlords
do not invest, favoring illegal markets (Contreras et al 2015; Segura y Bijit, 2014).
Immigrants in central areas occupy bourgeois buildings of the early 20th century, which
are now under serious deterioration, with their internal spaces intensely subdivided
(Segura &y Bijit, 2014). Despite those buildings have scarce living spaces, poor lighting
and ventilation, and deteriorated infrastructure, immigrants have to reside highly
overcrowded, sharing kitchens and bathrooms (Segura y & Bijit, 2014, Torres & Hidalgo,
2009). In addition, there are abusive requisites for renting, and landlords modify the rent
at any moment, especially for the undocumented (Contreras et al., 2015; Segura y & Bijit,
2014; Contreras et al 2015). Chileans living in those neighborhoods complain that they
have become insecure, and that overcrowding is a threat to their way of life (Segura y &
Bijit, 2014). But in Santiago, the intensity of immigration has extended their localities
from the center and peri-center to more peripheral, relegated and stigmatized spaces, in
22
the social housing areas occupied by the poorest mass of Chileans. Haitians have
concentrated in these spaces, and as the urban poor, they have poor access to public
services and a high exposure to insecurity (Pedemonte et al., 2015). In northern cities like
Antofagasta, high land prices and speculation associated to cupper extraction had led to
the proliferation of immigrant informal settlements in segregated peripheries (Taylor,
2014; Strang& & Stefoni, 2016; Taylor, 2014).
Abolition of slavery came in 1851, but Colombian laws only recognized the
status of indigenous (Cunin, 2004). Former slaves were considered new citizens, but
without equal rights or opportunities, without land and housing, without access to
education and political participation (PNUD-Colombia, 2012). Thus, their rights were
continuously violated. African-descendants were still considered lazy, primitive and
barbarian, and had to relocate in subordinated positions, without legal rights, stability
and adequate labor conditions (PNUD-Colombia, 2012). In that context, those who
wanted to take distance from proletarianization, to escape the stringent controls of the
dominant society, and that wanted more autonomy, moved and occupied relatively
isolated regions after abolition: the Pacific Coast, the North of Cauca, the Patia, and
other regions (PNUD-Colombia, 2012). For a long time then, Afro-Colombians were
23
able to establish themselves as a free peasantry, where they reaffirmed their racial
identity (PNUD-Colombia, 2012). Thus, the historical regional segregation of Colombia
took shape, with indigenous and mestizos occupying the Andean highlands and blacks
settling in the lowlands and the coast (Williams, 2013). The indigenous that remained in
the Pacific Coast coexisted with Afro-descendants, and both developed culturally
sensitive and non-violent forms of conflict resolution (Restrepo & & Martínez, 2004;
Escobar, 2004). This was the positive side of living in the poorest, most forgotten and
relatively isolated region of the country.
Former slaves that stayed in cities, settled under poor conditions of habitability,
socioeconomic limitations, legal vulnerability, and strong discrimination (PNUD-
Colombia, 2012). They were economically useful for a racist society, but marginal in
terms of political decision, opportunities and rights (PNUD-Colombia, 2012). From the
1960s, Afro-Colombians started a transit from peasantry to waged work. Thus, while
indigenous issues began to be taken into account (Cunin, 2004), new economic
activities gained importance in coastal regions, and blacks started to lose their autonomy
(Escobar, 2004; PNUD-Colombia, 2012).
The penetration of economic activities, and the relative isolation and weak
institutional presence opened room for the cultivation of illegal species, which brought
the armed conflict to the formerly peaceful Pacific Coast from the 1990s (PNUD-
Colombia, 2012; Escobar, 2004; PNUD-Colombia, 2012; Williams, 2013). The region
and its entire infrastructure began to be disputed, which led to a forceful and massive
displacement of black communities (Restrepo& & Martínez, 2004). Two other
processes contributed to that displacement: (1) the establishment of large projects of
development and the consequent decline of local agro-forestry activities, and (2) the
existence of rich natural resources and ideal sites for tourism (Escobar, 2004). Thus, just
when property rights were being recognized, the resistance and the advance of the
ethnic movement were weakened (Restrepo& & Martínez, 2004). The amount of
displaced Afro-Colombians increased three times during the 1990s, totaling 2.2 million
from 1985 to 2000 (Escobar, 2004). Displaced populations arrived to cities abandoned
and hopeless, which affected their struggles for territorial and cultural rights (Restrepo&
& Martínez, 2004). De-territorialized by the imposition of terror, blacks experienced a
forceful inclusion into capitalist modernity (Restrepo& & Martínez, 2004), and their
presence in cities opened room for new encounters and negotiations of space and race
(Williams, 2013). Due to their proximity to the Pacific Coast, Cali and Medellin have
historically concentrated more blacks, but from the 1990s, the armed conflict and the
economic opportunities pointed to Bogota as a new destination (Villamizar, 2015).
The pressures of the rural black movement, mostly from Colombia's Pacific
region, with a discourse based on ethnic difference, culture, territory and the need to
preserve biodiversity, led to unprecedented changes in the 1990s (Paschel, 2013). Racial
categories were included in the 1990 census (Loveman, 2014). Later, the new
constitution of 1991 and the Law of Black Communities that it mandated, gave Afro-
descendants rights for collective lands, ethnic development and political participation,
mandated the study of Afro-Colombian heritage in schools, and designated special seats
of representation (Cunin, 2004; Escobar, 2004; Cunin, 2004; , Loveman, 2014; Paschel,
2013, Loveman, 2014). The constitution officially recognized the country as 'pluri-
ethnic' and 'multicultural', and the Law of Blacks Communities has been highlighted as
the most comprehensive legislation for Afro-descendents in Latin America (Paschel,
24
2010). Both pieces of legislation provided a critical political opening, with a focus on
ethnic difference, culture and identity, instead of racial equality, as it is in Brazil and the
US (Paschel, 2010). Thus, the increased racial awareness has led to ethno-racial pride
and self-identification, which has resulted in a slow increase in self-identified Afro-
descendents in the last 20 years (Loveman, 2014).
The black identity of today revolves between the remaining stereotypes in social
memory, the indigenized mould of the 1991 constitution, and the homogenization of
diverse black ethnicities that remain in Colombia under the single badge of 'black
communities' (Restrepo& & Martínez, 2004). In addition, black towns in the Pacific
Coast remain under a veil of invisibility: no one knows where they are, and several
myths surround a potential visit (Olivero, 2004). In the city of Cali, there are accounts
of police abuse and violence, unemployment, verbal aggressions in inter-racial
bordering areas, discrimination in public transportation, and perceptions of insecurity
when passing close to whites-mestizos (Urrea & & Quintín, 2000). In a similar vein,
indigenous living in the countryside have bilingual educational programs and a
collective and self-governed territory that comprises almost one third of Colombia's
territory (Cunin, 2004). But their relationship with peasants is marked by political
isolation (Bocarejo, 2011).
Cali is the center of research on racial segregation, with the highest percentage
of blacks in cities, high levels of segregation, unequal access for several services in the
25
city, and segregation patterns that have persisted (Villamizar, 2015). In this city, blacks,
indigenous and mestizos are concentrated in the poorest areas (Urrea & & Quintín,
2000). Thus, statistics and imaginaries of exclusionary otherness, poverty and skin color
are combined (Urrea & & Quintín, 2000). In fact, the spaces of black-mulatto
concentration are called 'ghettos', a term that was transferred through the hip-hop
movement and has been incorporated from the late 1980s (Urrea & & Quintín, 2000).
The lack of mobility and social integration of blacks resulted in the development of
several homogenous spatial clusters of Afro-Colombians that have persisted through
time (Vivas, 2013).
Afro-Mexicans’ have lived in the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca from the 16th century
(Noticia BBC sobre negros, ???), and their history starts with Hernán Cortés, who
brought black slaves with him, especially for military purposes (Simms, 2008). During
the first century of colonial rule, there was a demographic collapse of indigenous
populations, due to epidemics, diseases, enslavement, and hard work, in addition to poor
living conditions, low birth rates, destructive wars, and mass suicides (Simms, 2008). In
that context, the Church put pressure to protect the indigenous from exploitation, and to
stop enslavement and mass genocides, leading the Spanish Crown to abolish indigenous
enslavement by 1542 (Simms, 2008). In addition, figures like Bartolome de Las Casas
advocated the use of African slaves to protect indigenous populations and replace their
labor power. That decrease in labor supply increased the demand for cheap labor, which
forced Mexico to import more black slaves than any other country in Spanish America
(Russell, 2011; Simms, 2008; Russell, 2011). Thus, the number of African-descendants
in Mexico grew rapidly in the 16th and 17th centuries (Simms, 2008). They were
initially employed in urban areas, and then in rural areas, and worked in agriculture,
mining, textile manufacturing, domestic service, and as artisans (Simms, 2008; Russell,
2011; Simms, 2008). African slaves were thought to have a special strength, higher than
indigenous and whites (Simms, 2008), and as a consequence, indigenous were
stereotyped as too weak for hard labor (Simms, 2008).
Some authors highlight three periods of African slavery in Mexico. First, from
1519 to 1580, blacks were brought by conquistadors, and grew in number while
indigenous populations were declining. Second, from 1580 to 1650, there was a rising
demand for African slave labor. By the end of the 16th century, for example,
approximately 50,000 blacks and mulattos lived in Mexico City, either enslaved or free
(Simms, 2008). And third, from 1650 to 1827, there was a decline of slavery trade and
enslaved black population, the indigenous population recovered, and mestizos grew
massively (Simms, 2008). After independence from Spain, European immigration was
26
promoted and was seen as a cure to improve the racial makeup. They settled specially in
the countryside, considered in need of modernity and institutional control (Castellanos
et al.,2009; Sánchez-Guillermo, 2007; Castellanos, Gómez & Pineda, 2009).
In this process, the development of anthropology was linked to the State and to
racism (Castellanos, 2000). Scientific and pseudo-scientific discourses, created by
anthropologists and intellectuals, supported cultural backwardness of the indigenous
(Castellanos, Gómez & Pineda et al., 2009). Manuel Gamio, an influential Mexican
anthropologist, installed the idea that indigenous founded Mexican culture and society,
but the nation required a common and homogenous language, character, history and
race (Brading, 1994). Health and social policies were influenced by ideas of racial
improvement (Bashford & Levine, 2010), in a period of hegemony of assimilation
discourses and policies (Castellanos, Gómez & Pineda et al., 2009). The census of 1921,
the first after the revolution, confirmed mestizos as the majority of the population,
followed by indigenous, and then whites (Loveman, 2014). In 1930, racial categories
were erased from the census, justified by the supposed integration of indigenous into
labor and politics, their cultural assimilation, and their participation in mestizaje, which
left a social stratification that does not follows ethnic categories (Loveman, 2014).
However, some questions on culture and language were added, showing an increase in
Spanish speakers (Loveman, 2014). In this context, Manuel Gamio suggested that
language questions should be replaced by questions on cultural habits, in order to
eradicate backward behavior, which turned simple poverty into a marker of indigeneity
(Loveman, 2014).
The Mexican ideology of mestizaje has been widely criticized from different
angles. First, it has concealed several processes, from forced assimilation to ethnocide
(Castellanos, 2000). Second, it ignores the contribution of Afro-descendants to the
racial makeup (Villareal, 2010). Third, it has been the base for racial discrimination
toward indigenous and foreign minorities (Sánchez-Guillermo, 2007). Fourth, it
obscures racism against internal (indigenous, blacks) and external (Chinese, Jews,
Guatemalan) ‘others’ (Castellanos, Gómez & Pineda et al., 2009). Fifth, the domination
of the Spanish language has erased more than 100 local languages (Castellanos, Gómez
27
& Pineda et al., 2009). Sixth, within the mestizo color spectrum, individuals classify
themselves as whiter, depending on education and wealth (Villareal, 2010). Finally, the
glorification of mestizos has lost legitimacy with the emergence of the indigenous as a
new political subject (Castellanos, 2000).
Several scholars affirm that the Zapatista uprising helped social scientists to renew their
interests in racism, with an impressive multiplication of such publications (Sánchez-
Guillermo, 2007; Castellanos et al., Gómez & Pineda, 2009). Racism persists in the
everyday language of schools, political discourses and the media, reasserting old racial
hierarchies (Castellanos, Gómez & Pineda et al., 2009). Today, there is evidence of
increasing racialized humor about blacks and indigenous (Sue & Golash-Boza, 2013),
prejudice against dark-skinned people (Villareal, 2014), coded employment preferences
for lighter skins (Villareal, 2014), family obstacles for the entry of dark-skinned through
marriage (Villareal, 2014), and African-descendants distancing themselves from a black
identity, among other problems (Villareal, 2014). Despite the national ideology of
mestizaje then, there is a preference for whiter skin and European features, which partly
explains why whiter Mexicans occupy higher status positions (Villareal, 2010).
Regarding indigenous in particular, there is a highly fluid boundary between them and
the mass of mestizos, based on cultural traits (Villareal, 2010). There is evidence of
indigenous in cities working in the least qualified jobs, and suffering labor
discrimination and disdain in workplaces, especially women (Castellanos, Gómez &
Pineda et al., 2009). In addition, a great part of the Mexican society believes that
indigenous have social limitations because of their ethnic background, that the best they
should do is to abandon their habits, and that they should not live close to their
community (Castellanos , Gómez & Pinedaet al., 2009). And there is also evidence of
racism against Afro-descendants as well (Castellanos, Gómez & Pineda et al., 2009).
There have been cases of deportation to other countries, since the police considered that
there are no blacks in Mexico, despite having Mexican IDs (Noticia BBC sobre negros,
12
Falta revisar esa referencia
28
???). In that context, some Afro-Mexicans have put the idea of rising up as Zapatistas
did in the past (Noticia BBC sobre negros, ???).
There was a de-jure racial residential segregation during the colonial rule in Mexico. An
explicit policy of segregation separated "two republics" for the protection of indigenous
from the exploitation and negative role models of conquistadors (Sánchez-Guillermo,
2007). During the 16th century, there were exclusive parishes and local governments for
indigenous and Spanish. And although indigenous and mestizos were not accepted in
the Spanish city, blacks and foreigners were able to enter (Cruz, 1993). The end of de-
jure segregation for indigenous put them in a disadvantageous position, since they no
longer had the legal institutions that guaranteed the possession and administration of
their goods (Cruz, 1993). Today, the patterns of segregation for indigenous follow those
of the poor employed in informal jobs, but the levels are more extreme for them, they
are more crowded and their location is more peripheral (Vilalta, 2008; Monkkonen,
2012).
In the Pachuca metropolitan area, for example, ethnic segregation increased between
2000 and 2010, indigenous are concentrated and isolated in a small scale, and the areas
of highest concentration coincide with historically marginalized areas or in process of
densification and expansion (Linares & Ramírez, 2014). The current segregation of
indigenous in southern cities of Mexico is characterized as "ethnic encapsulation": that
is, while they live concentrated in marginal neighborhoods, they present some networks
of mutual support, in a hostile environment marked by historical stigmas (París, 2003).
In those cities, indigenous are seen as foreigners, illegitimate residents, and even as
invaders or appropriators, especially in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas (París,
2003). Indigenous and mestizos do coexist in public space, but their exchanges are
mediated by prejudice, which reinforce the discrimination against the already
disadvantaged indigenous (París, 2003).
Conclusions
The aim of the paper has been to present the recent debates and evidence on racial and
ethnic residential segregation in Latin America. This, in order to stress the need for a
new research agenda on residential segregation studies, one that strongly recognises
stratification structures based not only on class systems but also along racial and ethnic
dimensions. Although the irruption of new actors in the last decades, at an international
and local level, has allowed for a widespread recognition of social inequalities between
peoples of different ethnoracial characterises, urban studies are well behind in studying
the spatial aspects of the phenomenon. There are some few studies that give evidence
about the existence of various types of residential segregation patterns based on
ethnoracial differences among the population, in countries as different as Argentina,
Mexico, Colombia and Chile. However, besides Colombia and Brasil, we lack a
systematic corpus of research on cities, metropolitan areas and at a regional level, to
understand how race and ethnicity form part of the residential segregation in our
countries.
What do we know:
ResidentialPendiente
29
In Latin America, the historical racial differences became institutionalised within aclass
system, and were consequently ‘naturalised’. This conception of class differences as more
‘natural’ than race differences comes from an increasing meritocratic ideology imposed
by the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s, and carries the problem of a decreasing state
protection, as it has happened recently in the US.
30
b) Residential segregation patterns of afrodescendants in Latin America shouldn’t
be conceptualized in similar terms as in the US, because officially they were not
excluded from citizenry as in that northern country. Thus, the practices of
exclusion and/or auto segregation must be studied recognising how blackness has
been constructed in our countries. Moreover, the classbackground and class
position of these“middelclass” The ‘ideal type’ of pure race segregation would be
between middle-class whites and middle-class blacks in the US, who supposedly should
not have expectations of deviant behaviour. However, the class background and class
position of these groups, mostly in terms of wealth accumulation and low
inheritability of status, is highly different. Likewise, the ‘ideal type’ of pure class
segregation in most Latin American countries would be between rich and poor
European descendants, or between rich and poor mestizos. But this seems to be
very unlikely given the strong barriers around the elite, and the perpetuation of
homogeneous racial traits within this group. It is important to note then, that
stratification systems work for the maintenance of the status quo, either through
legitimisation or through naturalisation of differences. Thus, if race is not possible to be
enforced as difference, then class becomes the best dividing line. But as forces to create
inequality, these two categories have never worked in a separate fashion. Sometimes
more interbreeding or better institutional treatment has helped to disconnect race from
class, as it is in some sense in Chile, but this separation has never been complete.
31
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