Mixtec Transnational Migration - Mixtec Identity

Mixtec Identity

The use of ethnic labels has enabled migrant workers to distinguish themselves in local ethnic hierarchies and to differentiate themselves from other Mexicans, Central-Americans, and others. According to Kearny the use of pan-ethnic labels has also provided a way for so-called illegal or alien Mixtec migrants to construct a new form of identity based on their transborder existence. Mixtec identity arises as an alternative to nationalist consciousness and as a medium to circumscribe not space, but collective identity precisely in those border areas where nationalist boundaries of territory and identity are most contested and ambiguous. Mixtec migrants have continued to be based in their historically marginalized lands in the state of Oaxaca and face an ongoing struggle for their rights as indigenous peoples and immigrant workers and as socially valued citizens of Mexico. However, according to Stephen (2007) culturally Mixtecs and other indigenous migrants of Latin American origin are still not seen as part of the Mexican’s state. Indigenous population continues to struggle against the racism imported from Mexico which labels them as inferior to other Mexicans in the United States.