Constructing le Rouge and le Noir: Race and State in Mexico and Brazil, 1920–70

This paper analyzes the politics of state construction in the formation of national identities based on race and ethnicity in Brazil and Mexico during the 20th century. Afro-Brazilians, like indigenous Mexicans, have been represented in aspects of national identity in these two countries. I explore the ways this selective process on the part of the state, intellectuals, and members of these ethnic sectors themselves have negotiated the role of race in the imaginary of these nations, while ethnic “others” have been denied a place in the construction of a specific racialized national identity.

Adopting Jonathan Warren’s phrase “the burden of not being black,” I compare the ways racialized national identities are constructed and privilege one set of ethnic identities over others. In Brazil, indigenous groups carry the “burden of not being black.” That is to say, Afro-Brazilians are privileged with a place in the national imaginary. Since the 1930s, during the rule of Getulio Vargas, Brazilian identity for consumption was constructed through adopting and adapting cultural aspects attributed to the Afro-Brazilian cultural repertoire: feijoada, samba, and candomblé. Thus, the state opted for promoting national identity along racial lines. In Mexico, the process of national identity construction produced a similar project, but focusing on the representations of indigenous peoples as part of the cultural and racial arsenal as indigenous images were consecrated on various national symbols and physical spaces (archaeological zones, monuments, museums). Conversely, Afro-Mexicans have been ignored in the national imagery and historical memory and they carry the “burden of not being indigenous.” By comparing the projects of national formation in Brazil and Mexico during the 20th century through selective racial identities my intent is to analyze the complexity of official constructions of racialized political identities while simultaneously questioning the lenses of the myths of mestizaje and racial democracy.