Ask a Mexican: Are we La Raza Cósmica or are we mutts?  Dear
Mexican: This pregunta has been simmering in my brain for a
while, like slow-cooking birria, and the recent question about
whether saying "Viva la Raza" is racist reminded me to ask you.
According to José Vasconcelos, the Mexican people are La Raza
Cósmica (Cosmic Race), which to me seems like a romantic version
of the "melting pot" farce. In Guillermo Bonfil Batalla's México
Profundo, he suggests that notions like La Raza Cósmica are used
to de-Indianize the majority of the Mexican people. We have a
strong and rich indigenous history; thus, umbrella terms like
mestizo and raza cósmica further detach us from our cultural and
ethnic identity, as well as from the natural claim to our tierra
y nuestro soberanía. And for what? To produce a legally enslaved
working class that's neither Indian nor Spanish, but a mix,
mongrels, mutts? What do you think? Are we La Raza Cósmica?
Mestizos? Mexicanos? Or, as Reies Tijernia posits, are we
Indio/Hispanos?  Basta