The memory of mestizaje. Questioning official narratives of "our" histories

CATELLI, LAURA

Camden, New Jersey

Conferencia; Spanish Heritage Month; 2022

Rutgers, The State university of New Jersey

Since the nineteenth century, the idea of mestizaje has dominated our imaginaries about Latin American and Hispanic-Caribbean identities. At the same time, many have been critical of official narratives of mestizaje, and have warned that embracing them entails not being able to think of our societies as heterogenous and diverse. Can we all actually identify with the same narratives of mestizaje? What are the implications of doing so? What is the place that “minor histories” (such as family memories like anecdotes, secrets, photographs, names) have in reflecting about who we are, as individuals and as collective groups? This activity is an open invitation, during Hispanic Heritage Month, to think and talk together about how we construe personal and collective identities and memories, both along official narratives but also against their grain.