The Lack of Indigenous Representation in the Americas
The topic of race or ethnicity has and still is a major topic of confusion among many people in the Latin American and Spanish speaking communities of the Americas. Many people become confused or only know some of how to answer that question on any document that this is asked or when asked by someone. Spanish speaking countries and Latin American countries have different ethnic groups and racial makeups. This is especially affected depending on which specific country or region one comes from. One of the main issues in this topic among Spanish speaking countries or regions is the lack of Indigenous people’s representation. There is a lack of identification and cultural knowledge such as: language, belief, and history.
The lack of Indigenous or Native (both words mean the same and are interchangeable) people in the Americas is a major negative result of colonialism during the 16th to the 19th century. And is still prevalent during the current post-colonial time period. As mentioned before not all Spanish speaking countries or regions have a significant native population. However, the ones that do typically don’t self-identify as native or indigenous. Many of the people who live in these countries such as Mexico, Central America, and the Western Andean countries typically go by their nationality or consider themselves Hispanic or Latino.
The issue with this is that neither Hispanic or Latino is an ethnic race or group. Hispanic means deriving from the Iberian Peninsula (mainly Spain but also including Portugal). And Latino is a term meaning someone who speaks one of the Latin languages. In Latin America mostly being Portuguese or Spanish however French and Italian can also be included. Many would think that identifying as such isn’t negative, but it is when most of the people who identify as this are native or considered mixed native to the Americas (also known as mestizos and other terms). This can create another issue as terms as mestizo, castizo, cholo, and mulatto are all derogatory terms used during the Spanish Casta system to denote or label people of their racial mixture or genetic makeup.
My family derives from Mexico (mainly North Eastern and some Central areas). As a kid growing up my family had always just like most of the others in our communities either identified as Mexican American, Hispanic or Mestizo. However, this shifted as I became a teenager, and my Tia took me to my first Powwow. A powwow for those who don’t know is a festival and gathering where native people of different tribes gather to dance and celebrate their culture. I was inspired by this and discovered many prevalent educators and writers on social media who identified as Native/Indigenous and made the decision to no longer call themselves Hispanic or Latino since they felt it wasn’t an accurate description of themselves.
Now there’s the discussion of language. I have written this essay in English (a Northern European language) but for a Spanish class (a southern European language). These are the two most widely spoken languages in the Americas and the reason behind this is purely the colonization of the Americas by Europeans. Therefore, so many people self-identify as Hispanic or Latino. Because of a common language and somewhat of common ancestors but more so language.
However, this does in fact take away from Native culture as well since many Native languages are still spoken today but not by most of the people living in those countries. In fact, this is one of the main reasons people don’t identify as Native since they don’t speak a Native language. Even if they are Mostly or only Native in their genetic makeup. This would be like an African American considering themselves English or of more dominant European culture simply because they only speak English or another European language (since many Africans do speak Portuguese and Spanish as well depending on which country, they’re in).
I personally am only currently fluent in English since I was born and raised in the in the United States and comprehend and speak Spanish at a moderate level since my family comes from Mexico. However, I have taken DNA test (although I deem this to be unnecessary given my own personally knowledge on my family going from my grandparents and further) and they further prove that I am genetically mostly Native American. Just like most other people who come from Mexico, Central America, and Western Andean countries.
Another main issue with the lack of representation and identification of Native people is the lack of knowledge of our own personal history and beliefs. Many of the people who are native in the Americas have either been assimilated into the more European dominant cultures or have been severely suppressed in their economic and political control of their hometowns, cities, and nations. Many of us all know about the history of Europeans beginning their colonization here in the Americas after 1492 with the sailing of Columbus and onward. But what about the thousands of years of history of the people who were already here? And their beliefs. There was already history, languages, and beliefs long before any European ever thought of setting foot here in the Americas.
This is simply another example of the suppressed representation. What we are taught in our public schools is important. All over this continent. Not just here in the U.S. And I can say personally that growing up learning about the history of my own people’s and their beliefs seems twisted from another perspective that simply doesn’t care about preserving this culture. School systems in the U.S. along with media platforms pay hardly to almost no attention to the millions of Natives still living in the Western Hemisphere. Since after all, there are still millions of Native Americans. Not only a few or almost “extinct” as the common narrative has gone.
I learned more from my own family members, friends, and teachers of our culture than in the public-school systems. I would love for this to change and plan to be one of the people to demand a change to this. Regarding other perspectives, I understand that this may not be as significant to those who feel this is not very important. I myself growing up as a kid would not have cared much for these topics either. This is because I was ignorant to a lot of things and especially this. How I identified really did not matter much nor did I really consider it much other than what others told me.
It was the usual Hispanic or Latino or even Mexican. However, I think it is important to understand fully who and what you are. This helps you to better understand yourself and others around you. Your family, friends, communities you grow up in. To me no wrong can come from someone celebrating and embracing their culture. Just if they don’t look down on others which is what has been done in this part of the world in the recent centuries and in other parts of the world.
This is very important for people like me who are native or mixed Native to the Americas. The goals and changes planned would certainly be a struggle as is just about anything else. However, I feel that a sense of growing communities and investing in the youth through cultural education is the start to this. Afterall, humans are a social people. And social people must interact in order to reach a common goal.
I personally want to thank many of the fellow relatives I have learned and gained knowledge from. I am tagging some of their accounts below for any who is interested.
