Mestizaje Readings Response

These readings imply this idea of not a single Latin America, but a diverse region with people with different cultures. The mestizaje ideology is another layer to the culture and existence of Latin America, because it means the mixing of the European, Black, and Indigenous people. From this mixing comes new traditions and new norms, and a disruption of the homogeneous regions within Latin America.

I think from these readings we see that mestizaje is Latin America’s super power. Latin America appears to be in the lead for creating one meta-race. To continue down this path would mean eventual equality of race, which could mean a rethinking of what race is. Still, there are racial tensions that exist and are relevant, but the fact that there is an ideology to consider the “mixing” that is happening means that there is a movement towards creating a more diverse region. It would mean a region with cultures that would not only be diverse, but also interconnected. This of course, would mean an even more complicated understanding of the cultures with Latin America.

Maybe though, one could look as mestizaje as a part of culture that unites all of Latin America. There have been people who have called for a “Latinoamerica unida”, but from taking into the cultural differences that exist even in one country in Latin America it becomes difficult to pinpoint what that would look like. And, would it mean one homogenous region? Everyone will have their different views on the subject, and still it seems that one thing that might bring Latin America together is the way that these countries seek and bring together cultures and people that are different.

As a result of this mixing, there have been new rituals and new music that have sprung up. These new rituals and genres of music are part of this ever-growing cloth of “Latin American culture”. The mestizaje is both separate from the indigenous cultures, the Black culture, and the European culture and dependent to them. And so, the mestizaje is a call for something new and something old within Latin America. Mestizahe is relevant in that it sets Latin America apart from other regions, and it sets up a place for constant discovery—a discovery of new cultures and traditions because of the constant mixing of its people.