In the colonial period in Latin America, the Spanish word mestizo was a person in the Americas of mixed Indian and Spanish descent. Later on, the term came to mean a person who adopted Spanish culture, rather than only a description of lineage. In the U.S. now, cultural critics propose and theorize multiple definitions of mestizaje: the political and cultural idea of being mestizo/a. For some, the social construction appeals to a past lineage of Indianness, rather than assimilation to either Spanish or Anglo-American cultures. That identification is thought to soothe the difficulties of increasing cultural fragmentation experienced by Chicano/Chicanas in the U.S. For others, that sort of mestizaje is too centered on loss.

In Beyond Borders:  See Guillermo Gomez-Peña, "The 90's Culture of Xenophobia: Beyond the Tortilla Curtain"; Gloria Anzaldua's "Borderland/La Fronters: The New Mestiza—Toward a New Consciousness"; and Benjamin Alire Saenz, "In the Borderlands of Chicano Identity, There are Only Fragments."

In Beyond Borders Online:  See Web Research Activities, "Identity in Cyberspace."

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