Event Description
Professor Diana Negrín of UC Berkeley’s Department of Geography will speak on her new book, “Racial Alterity, Wixarika Youth Activism and the Right to the Mexican City,” in the second event of the semester in our series Novedades/Lançamentos: New Scholarship @ Berkeley. This series highlights new work from Berkeley scholars about Latin America and the Caribbean by inviting a faculty member and a graduate student to discuss the recent work of a Berkeley faculty member.
“Racial Alterity, Wixarika Youth Activism and the Right to the Mexican City” examines the legacy of the racial imaginary in Mexico, with a focus on the Wixárika (Huichol) Indigenous peoples of the western Sierra Madre from the colonial period to the present. Geographer Diana Negrín analyzes the production of racialized urban geographies and reveals how Wixárika youth are making claims to a more heterogeneous citizenship that challenges these deep-seated discourses and practices. Through the weaving together of historical material, critical interdisciplinary scholarship, and rich ethnography, this book sheds light on the racialized history, urban transformation, and contemporary Indigenous activism of a region of Mexico that has remained at the margins of scholarship.
Speakers
Diana Negrín is Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley, specializing in topics related to territory, ethnicity, and social movements in Western Mexico.
Pablo Gonzalez is a Chicanx Latinx Studies Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, and also the director of the Ethnic Studies Changemaker project. He studies the political and cultural resonance of social movements. In particular, the resonance of indigenous social movements on Chicanas/os and “people of color” in the United States.
Maria Pettis is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at UC Berkeley. Her research looks at racial geographies and geospatial representation.