Mestizo Analysis

In The Disappearing Mestizo, the central question that Joanne Rappaport proposes is "when and how is someone a mestizo" (p, 4). In this analysis, I will explain about how she examines mestizaje as a negotiable category that is constructed based on the relations between class, social networking, and permeability of the gender. In terms of mestizaje, the concept makes reference to the racial mixture from a European and indigenous individuals. However, in her investigation Rappaport, alludes to a different definition of mestizaje, one that is not only genealogical. She refers to a mestizaje that was the result of " activities” in which individuals were part or put on specific circumstances where their race formed. In this sense, she proposes mestizaje as the result of both, a social and a racial category that depends on the context, and that is also a transitory category. What is important to consider in her proposal …show more content…
In the case of Doña Catalina due to her identification with a lineage of the noble class and honor, she belongs to a higher social group. For what we can infer, she probably was also a mestiza. We really don´t know. Especially, due to the reaction of her brother, and the threat to the family honor that her actions represented. In fact, an interesting aspect of her story is that her calidad” was more than a sociaracial label on her lineage; it was a type of social performance which nature was defined by a constant change. In the case of Francisco Suarez, he represents the individual that uses different camouflage of identity, such as passing "through literate communication". (Rappaport, 31). In other words, he was able to transit from one racial category to another before he met Doña Catalina due to a passing camouflage (calidad) of his