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Blacks may be second class, but they can’t make them leave: Mexican racial formation and immigrant status in Winston-Salem

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Abstract

In this article, I investigate how race is produced by looking at the reception experiences of Afro and Mestizo Mexican migrants to the new South. Despite the fact that Afro and Mestizo Mexicans are both phenotypically and culturally distinct from one another, they assert a shared racial identity as minorities and as Latinos. On the basis of ethnographic field work in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I argue that their perceived similarities with African Americans and pervasive discrimination owing to status drives Afro-Mexicans to assert a race-based Latino identity that is shaped by their understanding of African American experiences.

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Notes

  1. This framing acknowledges that many Mexicans in both categories of Mestizo and Afro may have African (that is descended primarily from slaves brought to Mexico through the port of Veracruz), Indigenous and European ancestry. However, I use Afro to highlight those Mexicans whose Afro ancestry is visible and/or acknowledged via phenotype, assertion of parental status, naming and context-specific understandings of race. In so far as the process of naming and belonging is complex, delving into identity formation processes within Mexico is beyond the scope of this article. For more information on Afro-Mexican identity, see: Cruz Carretero (1989); Lewis (2000); Menchaca (2001); Vinson (2005); Vinson and Vaughn (2005).

  2. Other towns in this study included: Barajilla, San Nicolas, Punto Moldonado, Buenos Aires, Llano Grande, Tierra Colorado, Ometepec, Tlapextla, Grande Tlapextla, Tecoyame, Pinotepa Nacional, Ciruelo, and Collantes in the Costa Chica, and Xalapa, Córdoba, Puerto Llave of Veracruz and Alvarado in Veracruz.

  3. Because this study carefully engages the process of racialization, detailed notes on the race and phenotype of respondents were kept throughout the project. Moreover, I also specifically engaged respondents on their racial perceptions of me as the researcher in order to keep track of potential interviewer effects. Because the majority of my respondents assumed (mistakenly) that I was of Mexican or Caribbean descent, I do not present interviewer effects in this article.

  4. See Menchaca (2001) for a more extensive historical analysis of Afromexicans in early Mexico and the Southwestern United States.

  5. All names and organizations used in this article are pseudonyms.

  6. The poverty rate is calculated nationally, without attention to differences in the cost of living.

  7. Section 287(g) authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, “permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions, pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), provided that the local law enforcement officers receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of sworn US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Under 287(g), ICE provides state and local law enforcement with the training and subsequent authorization to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.” (Faith Action International House, 2009).

  8. Only two other states have more agreements, Arizona and Virginia, both with nine.

  9. The Sheriff confirmed in a public forum sponsored by the City of Winston-Salem Human Relations Department that the Forsyth County Sheriff's department requested a 287(g) agreement in 2007 and is currently awaiting review from ICE and funding from the County Commissioners to proceed (field notes, May 2009).

  10. The speaker here refers to the African-American community.

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  1. The Ohio State University, Columbus

    Jennifer A Jones

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Jones, J. Blacks may be second class, but they can’t make them leave: Mexican racial formation and immigrant status in Winston-Salem. Lat Stud 10, 60–80 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/lst.2012.7

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