CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Correa Cabrera, Jose Alfonso |
|---|---|
| Title | Defiant People, Stupid People: The Mexican Liberal Project, its Condescending Depiction of Amerindians, and the Acculturation of the Colonized Other |
| Summary | This thesis analyzes the discursive practices of the Mexican liberals regarding ignorance and knowledge during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. These practices infantilized the indigenous population, derided their traditions, and frantically advocated for their acculturation. The racialized portrayal of the ignorant Other cannot be understood without the colonial anxieties triggered by indigenous revolts. Accordingly, this thesis tries to explain why cultural cleansing is such an imperative for colonial projects. Simultaneously, this thesis focuses on how these colonial projects aimed to accomplish a thorough acculturation. Exclusion is never categorical in colonial projects such as the one implemented by the Mexican liberals. However, the conditional inclusion of the colonial Other demands her cultural capitulation. In order to achieve these objectives, I offer a close reading of three different sets of texts. The first one (although it is not part of the liberal canon) offers a better understanding of the origins of the liberal discourse. Sahagún's evangelizing strategy, as outlined in his Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España, offers an interesting parallelism to the civilizing strategy pursued by the Mexican liberals during the nineteenth century (chapter I). The second set of texts I analyze are the records of the Constitutional Congress of 1856-1857 (chapter II). I focus on the debates regarding religious freedom because these discussions are telling of the extent to which the Mexican liberal project was a racialized project, even when we account for the core elements of its creed. Additionally, these discussions highlight the relationship between colonial anxieties and the need for acculturation. Finally, I analyze the oeuvre of Emilio Rabasa, a key source for understanding the rationale behind cultural cleansing (chapter III). Rabasa tried to reconcile the colonial project with purported democratic convictions. His solution (i.e., the thorough and efficient cultural cleansing of Amerindian Otherness) is relevant because it underscores the importance of culture for colonizing projects, and because it offers a clearer picture of what efficient acculturation actually means. For the fin de siècle liberals (and for Sahagún), cultural cleansing cannot be accomplished by merely universalizing formal education. For acculturation to produce optimal results, an in-depth, multifaceted, and permanent disciplinary process must take place. Finally, this thesis applies the genealogical approach to better understand the discursive practices deployed by the Mexican liberals. The liberal project was neither the only rational alternative nor the inevitable outcome of historical evolution. The (re)emergence of conceptual oppositions such as civilization and barbarianism, as well as the new iterations of the will to know, cannot be fully understood without considering their conditions of possibility. If the Mexican liberals emphasized so vigorously that the inclusion of the Indigenous population in the westernized society was conditional on their acculturation, this is so because they feared that Indigenous revolts may lead to the collapse of their colonial project. However, colonial anxieties where not unwarranted: Amerindian rebelliousness may have been exaggerated by the liberal intelligentsia, but rural revolts became a constant feature of Mexican society during the second half of the nineteenth century. Thus, this thesis underscores the linkage between the trope of the uncivilized Other and the colonial interests of the Mexican political elite. |
| Supervisor | Kontler, László |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/correa-cabrera_jose.pdf |
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