CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Paz Ramirez, Andres |
|---|---|
| Title | Awakened Savages: Ladino-Mestizo Racial Categories in Honduras in Transition to the 20th Century |
| Summary | Officially declared a “pluricultural and multiethnic” state in 1994, Honduras has long experienced the systematic dispossession of its human and non-human diversity through land concessions, resource extraction, violence, and displacement. Public discourse often frames these processes as affecting only “ethnic minorities” leaving the “majority” population unaddressed and broader social structures unexamined. Yet in a country shaped by centuries of mestizaje (racial mixture), how do certain populations come to be defined as racial minorities or majorities? And how have state instruments such as censuses produced, naturalized, or obscured these distinctions? This thesis examines the logic and function of racial categorization in Honduras during the liberal nation-building era, focusing on national censuses between 1880 and 1950. Rather than tracing biological or genealogical notions of racial mixture, it analyzes how categories like ladino and mestizo were deployed to structure national identity and mediate integration into global economic circuits. It asks: What role did these categories play in the political and economic ordering of the nation at the turn of the 20th century? Could an “Indian” also be a “Ladino,” and under what conditions? How did official censuses of the period between 1880 and 1950 intersect with notions of “mestizaje” and “national identity”? The central argument is that racial classifications in Honduran censuses during this period, particularly ladino and mestizo, functioned less as markers of phenotype or ancestry and more as relational markers of economic position, forms of land tenure, and cultural assimilation. This challenges prevailing assumptions, particularly in Anglophone contexts, that emphasize ethno-racial identity over class and material relations. By analyzing the intersection of racial ideology, economic structure, and state enumeration practices, the thesis sheds fresh light on the material foundations of racial identity and the historical construction of the Honduran nation. |
| Supervisor | Cardim, Pedro; Kontler; Laszlo |
| Department | Historical Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/paz-ramirez_andres.pdf |
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