Speaker
Braulio Guemez
Graduate Student, Sociology
Duke University
Abstract
This paper examines the intergenerational transmission of Indigenous classification in Mexico, focusing on how individuals reproduce, reject, or adopt Indigenous identification in relation to their parents’ ethnoracial classification. Drawing on data from a novel, nationally representative survey, I analyze factors associated with two key trajectories: de-indigenization, in which individuals with at least one Indigenous parent do not identify as Indigenous, and indigenization, in which individuals without Indigenous parentage come to identify as Indigenous. The findings show that roughly 16% of the population differs from their parents’ Indigenous status. De-indigenization is primarily associated with cultural changes, particularly the loss of Indigenous language across generations. In contrast, indigenization is more strongly associated with racialized phenotypical features commonly linked to Indigenous belonging as well as Indigenous language proficiency. Additionally, a notable subset (10%) identifies as both Indigenous and mestizo, a classification path correlated with higher levels of education. These patterns reveal the fluidity of ethnoracial boundaries in Mexico and illustrate how processes of cultural transmission, racialization, and stratification shape the social production of Indigenous identity through different pathways.