The cultural identities consolidated by writers like José Vasconcelos, Fernando Ortiz, Nicolás Guillén, Gilberto Freyre, and Oswald de Andrade, and naturalized as national discourses from the 1920s forward, are derived from earlier formulations. But their cultural emphasis is new, as are their proclamations that the mestizo is superior rather than degraded. The mestizo nation of this era appears inclusive, and its representations are festive and exuberant. Such identities are also considered counterhegemonic in much postcolonialist work, as well as in some scholarship on race and ethnicity in the United States. Critics of these mestizo identities point out that despite their mixed origins, they are as essentialized and monocultural as are other, “purer” racial and national categories. Positing a unified culture and a national race, they work toward homogeneity, dissolving otherness or engulfing racial others. The images they have created are still powerful, though, and mestizaje in the national mold is still considered by some as a solution to racism and racial division.
Axé.
Still problematic.
Ideas are exciting, and writing is clear. I like “festive and exuberant.” Too much passive voice? I feel there is a dynamism in the idea missing in the prose:
“Beginning in the 1920s, Latin American writers like … began to formulate new theories of cultural identity, based on earlier models but with a reversed emphasis: in their festive and exuberant representations, the mestizo became superior rather than degraded. The result was a seemingly more inclusive mestizo nation. Post-colonial critics and scholars of race and ethnicity have welcomed these theories as counter-hegemonic. Mestizaje in the national mold is still one of the prevailing models for those wanting to overcome racism and racial difference. Critics of mestizo theories, however, have pointed out that despite their mixed origins, they are as essentialized and monocultural as are other, ‘purer’ racial and national categories. Positing a unified culture and a national race, they work toward homogeneity, dissolving otherness or engulfing racial others.”
GRACIAS Jonathan, truly!!!