The Good Colonizer. On White Chefs & Mexican Food

The first layer is what it means to be Mexican. The technical part is to be born here or have parents born here in Mexico. Obtaining citizenship through some paperwork is another option but the legal aspect is irrelevant for this layer. However, the relevancy I want to take from this is a term I need to coin for the sake of this text: Mexican by paperwork, which will help us better understand the identity aspects of Mexicaneity.

We are forced from the kindergarten age to blindly worship a flag, and memorize and sing an empty-meaning anthem that will be later fulfilled by the time of Primaria (your equivalent of elementary school) with nationalistic discourses of who we, Mexicans, are supposed to be.

For the people that didn’t grow up here, the narrative that is taught in schools is that we ALL Mexicans are the same; that we are the breed of two origins which we are supposed to be proud of: «Spanish» and «Indigenous», the so-called Mestizaje. This is the foundation for this current layer of identities. It is a problematic approach for two reasons; it’s applied to the population with a double standard; the ultra-rich white European descendant population (Castizos) are not part of mestizaje but they can be if they want to use the Indigenous culture for profit; the second reason is because it’s based on eugenics.

The caste system established in early colonial times in this territory used Mestizaje to operate. The Castizos were all the influential, powerful, «pure» Spanish people who didn’t breed with indigenous people. Mestizos were the rest of the population. It was a way to set themselves apart from the newly-colonized hence oppressed people, but also, to cast away the descendants that would like to identify as Spanish without being powerful. Poor Spanish or anyone with Indigenous parents didn’t make the cut.

We are supposed to be proud of those two origins. On one hand, the wrongly called Indigenous roots back up the access of anyone belonging to this Mexicaneity to the benefits of extracting –no questions asked– any cultural aspect of the diverse Indigenous traditions and knowledge, for later monetization or capitalization. If you’re Mexican by paperwork you have the entitlement. That’s why other identities like Afro-Mexican are so despised and ignored in the construction of Mexicaneity, even though they have also contributed to the rich cultural traditions of this country –there was no recognition of the Afro-Mexican population in the Mexican census until 2020– Mexicaneity has to be either Indigenous or Spanish, exclusively.

According to documented experiences in social media and institutional reporting. If you are part of the Indigenous population of Mexico or have any physical resemblance, which is also, a very subjective and blurry perception based on phenotypes, behaviors, and social constructs; you will have a bad time accessing institutional services, experiencing racism, discrimination and hardship to access the benefits of the Mestizo population. It is a very complex system that I cannot extend more in this text; there are so many levels of identities, power dynamics, and exceptions that could override those statements but to sum it up, we could say that if you agree to look like or behave like the first Spanish new-comers, you’re in the clear in the power ladder.

The Mestizo bottom line is whiteness. If you are primarily inclined to act, look, and think in a European supremacist way, your posture is more Mestiza, unless you belong to the 1% richest and most powerful population of Mexico, then you’re Castizo, a term that is no longer in use. It is very clear, though, that European supremacy thinking is still very present. That’s why the term Mestizo could be tricky and slippery; even though your skin color and phenotype will determine how society treats you, if you manage to whitewash yourself, to please the European standards of behavior and thinking, then you can gain respect and even fame and prestige.

But, what are those standards? Pretty much anything that we consider good behavior to please anyone else. Speak in a way that sounds more classy; the way you treat people outside of your social class, up and down; dress with a certain style. Individualism is also part of it. Anything that separates us from the country life. Progress and upward are only possible through concrete and leaving the crab bucket behind. It’s hard to define but anything that resembles Indigenous image or behavior will be made fun of or looked down upon. Unless is performed by a white European-looking person. A good example of this is the different pueblos regalia. When an Indigenous woman wears it, it’s perceived as low class and ugly but if a white rich person steals it, it’s praised and modeled on catwalks. It’s also a way of thinking, that one that considers some people lazy based on their origins or their phenotype.

So, trying to understand all the implications of what is to be Mexican and the cultural aspects associated to it, including food and its politics is something deep, complex, and hard. Even for ourselves, this country, like all the countries and regions of the world, is composed of very different people and perspectives, shaped by history and social interactions. Trying to educate about any of these matters from a single perspective can be biased and misguided, especially if we are not critical of our position within those dynamics, and in all probabilities, to perpetuate the already existing issues. Why do we want to educate about something that is not part of ourselves? Let’s call it what it is, we just want to profit out of it, and that’s okay as long as we name it what it is.