Utilitizing and Moving Beyond a Constructionist Approach To Trace the Emergence of Racial and Ethnic Identities Among Pre-Mexican, Mexican and Americans of Mexican Descent Utilitizing and Moving Beyond a Constructionist Approach To Trace the Emergence of Racial and Ethnic Identities Among Pre-Mexican, Mexican and Americans of Mexican Descent
the ideal type is used to support the examination of identity transitions among pre-Mexicans, Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent in the ethnohistorical analysis. This methodological approach is in accordance with Romano?s (1968) indication that the most effective way of understanding the way that Mexican persons define themselves is through a historical and not a sociological investigation. This investigation encapsulates the transition from pre-modern religious identities in the Iberian Peninsula, to the appearance of racial and national identities in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Mexican Republic. It examines a second racialization of those that lived within the northern Mexican provinces as Mexicans in the newly conquered Southwestern United States come into contact with the dominant white majority of the United States. The ethnohistorical analysis concludes with a description of the emergence of four distinct identity types among Americans of Mexican descent, each a means to combat the normative discrimination they faced.
School:Brigham Young University
School Location:USA - Utah
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Keywords:identity race ethnicity nationality mexican american cornell and hartmann constructionism
Date of Publication:12/16/2008