New Books in Latin American Studies

Anthony Russell Jerry, "Blackness in Mexico: Afro-Mexican Recognition and the Production of Citizenship in the Costa Chica" (UP of Florida, 2023)


Listen Later

Through historical and ethnographic research, Blackness in Mexico: Afro-Mexican Recognition and the Production of Citizenship in the Costa Chica (UP of Florida, 2023) delves into the ongoing movement toward recognizing Black Mexicans as a cultural group within a nation that has long viewed the non-Black mestizo as the archetypal citizen. Anthony Jerry focuses on this process in Mexico's Costa Chica region in order to explore the relational aspects of citizenship and the place of Black people in how modern citizenship is imagined. Jerry's study of the Costa Chica shows the political stakes of the national project for Black recognition; the shared but competing interests of the Mexican government, activists, and townspeople; and the ways that the state and NGOs are working to make "Afro-Mexican" an official cultural category. He argues that that the demand for recognition by Black communities calls attention to how the mestizo has become an intuitive point of reference for identifying who qualifies as "other." Jerry also demonstrates that while official recognition can potentially empower African descendants, it can simultaneously reproduce the same logics of difference that have brought about their social and political exclusion. One of few books to center Blackness within a discussion of Mexico or to incorporate a focus on Mexico into Black studies, this book ultimately argues that the official project for recognition is itself a methodology of mestizaje, an opportunity for the government to continue to use Blackness to define the national subject and to further the Mexican national project.

Anthony Russell Jerry is Assistant Professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. 

Reighan Gillam is an Associate Professor in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the ways in which Afro-Brazilian media producers foment anti-racist visual politics through their image creation. She is the author of Visualizing Black Lives: Ownership and Control in Afro-Brazilian Media (University of Illinois Press).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/latin-american-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in Latin American StudiesBy Marshall Poe

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

34 ratings


More shows like New Books in Latin American Studies

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,445 Listeners

The Book Review by The New York Times

The Book Review

3,892 Listeners

Political Gabfest by Slate Podcasts

Political Gabfest

8,483 Listeners

New Books in History by Marshall Poe

New Books in History

207 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,054 Listeners

99% Invisible by Roman Mars

99% Invisible

26,246 Listeners

Alt.Latino by NPR

Alt.Latino

677 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

191 Listeners

New Books in Law by New Books Network

New Books in Law

14 Listeners

New Books in Military History by Marshall Poe

New Books in Military History

161 Listeners

New Books in African American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in African American Studies

162 Listeners

New Books in Environmental Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Environmental Studies

23 Listeners

New Books in Literary Studies by New Books Network

New Books in Literary Studies

22 Listeners

New Books in Philosophy by New Books Network

New Books in Philosophy

111 Listeners

New Books in Native American Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Native American Studies

103 Listeners

New Books in American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in American Studies

30 Listeners

Philosophize This! by Stephen West

Philosophize This!

15,124 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,883 Listeners

El hilo by My Cultura and iHeartPodcasts

El hilo

844 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,490 Listeners

What's Left of Philosophy by Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, and William Paris

What's Left of Philosophy

258 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,539 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

2,299 Listeners

Reuters World News by Reuters

Reuters World News

249 Listeners

The Global Story by BBC World Service

The Global Story

121 Listeners