UC San Diego

Almost no recent study has looked at the identity formation among indigenous college students in a transnational perspective. This present study looks at how Zapoteco college youth in Oaxaca, Mexico and Los Angeles, California reclaim and re-create their indigenous identity against stereotypical notions of what it means to be indigenous. As children these discriminatory remarks used by their peers in school have made them feel ashamed of being indigenous. Much of the stereotypical and discriminatory notions of indigenous people come from preconceived notions of state creation of racial hierarchies, such has been the case of the Mexican nation state. This study seeks to explain that the youths' early civic and/or cultural participation in their pueblo influences them in college to identify as Zapotecos/as. I attempt to describe that Zapoteco youth transform their identity through their political participation as college students. Since most of my interviewees study liberal arts courses in history, politics and other contemporary indigenous issues of Mexico and Latin America their indigeneity has been further reinforced with the knowledge they gain in the classroom. As the first in their family or pueblo to go to college these students feel proud of being Zapoteca/o from their pueblos in Oaxaca. Nevertheless, the states where both Zapotecos live change some of their perceptions of how they describe their indigeneity. Based on qualitative and participant observation field work in Oaxaca City and Los Angeles metropolitan area youth's educational experiences, political and civic participation, are considered as reasons for their indigeneity in the 21st century