Colonization, Race, and the Caste System
All of North America was inhabited by native peoples before the invasion of European empires. (10, Harvest of Empire) In what is now known as Mexico, there are currently at least 68 indigenous languages that are spoken. The Spanish colonized the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan in 1519. Hernan Cortez invaded the Aztec empire and claimed it for the Spanish crown. The Spanish brought plague to the native peoples, they fought with iron swords and arms, and got surrounding native peoples to join their army. Since the Spanish claimed central mexico they claimed land all the way up to what is now known as the Southwest, Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.
The Spanish set up a system of caste, to not only justify the stolen lands, but also carry out an institutional domination of native land and peoples.The Spaniard was on top of the caste hierarchy, with the native and black enslaved at the bottom. The mestizo classification was created, and became closer approximated to whiteness. Brown was inferior and white superior according to this system. (1, Mexico Profundo) This caste system withheld the right to land ownership, and made black and indigenous people the workers of the land through a system of haciendas. These labor groups became campesinos and the agricultural workers of the land.
In the book, Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization (1, Mexico Profundo) , the late Mexican writer and anthropologist, Bonfil Batalla, states that in Mexico, there are two civilizations that are parallel, not fused, but rather live in constant conflict . Batalla speaks of these two civilizations and called them, Mexico Imaginario, made up of those who impose westernization, and Mexico Profundo, those who are rooted in Mesoamerican ways of life and resist. The country is mostly run by the Mexico imaginario, one who looks at progress as westernization.
“What has been proposed as a national culture at different moments in Mexican history may be understood as a permanent aspiration to stop being what we are… The task of constructing a national culture consists of imposing a distant, foreign model, which in itself will eliminate cultural diversity and achieve unity through the suppression of what already exists. In this way of thinking about things, the majority of Mexicans have a future only on the condition that they stop being themselves. Its origin lay in the installation of the colonial regime almost five hundred years ago.”
- Bonfil Batalla, Mexico Profundo (1) p. 63
References:
1, Mexico Profundo
10, Harvest of Empire
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