Research project

"Ethnicity and Citizenship in the Mexican process of nation-building: Afro-Mexicans and indigenous peoples between slavery, sistema de castas and citizenship"

In the Age of Revolution the equality of all citizens came to be a norm, which essentially shaped the notions of the new states and nations. In colonial Hispanic America ethnic belonging was a crucial element in determining a person's judicial and social status, and therefore a central factor of inequality. That's why to nineteenth-century liberal politicians and intellectuals eliminating these ethnic boundaries seemed to be an indispensable requirement for the erection of a modern state. By abolishing ethnic labels like indio, mulato or español also the respective groups were supposed to disappear and merge into the unity of the citizens.

This project in a comparative perspective explores concepts of citizenship that emerged in communities of indigenous people and people of African descent in Mexico between 1810 and 1846. How did these communities interact with state agents? Which were their political claims and how did the legitimize them? Which was the role of ethnic ascriptions when communities interacted with state agents or among themselves?

Publications

David Grewe: Los ciudadanos y el común. El manejo de las identidades políticas en las comunidades indígenas, México, 1820-1830, in: Katharina Motzkau/ Vanessa Höse/ Antonio Sáez-Arance (eds.): Identidades nacionales en América Latina. Discursos, saberes, representaciones (= Historamericana, 39), Stuttgart 2017, pp. 63-81.

David Grewe: Ethnizität, Staatsbürgerschaft und Zugehörigkeit im Zeitalter der Revolution. Afroamerikaner und Indigene in Mexiko um 1800 (= Lateinamerikanische Forschungen, 47), Köln / Weimar / Wien 2016, http://www.boehlau-verlag.com/978-3-412-50575-2.

David Grewe: ¿Ciudadanos afro-descendientes? Disputas sobre etnicidad y ciudadanía en México, 1810–1820, in: Bejarano, Eric / Marc-André Grebe / David Grewe / Nadja Lobensteiner (eds.): Mobilizing Ethnicity – Competing Identity Politics in the Americas: Past and Present, Frankfurt am Main / Madrid 2013, pp. 129-152.

Eric Bejarano, Marc-André Grebe, David Grewe and Nadja Lobensteiner (eds.): Mobilizing Ethnicity – Competing Identity Politics in the Americas: Past and Present, Frankfurt am Main / Madrid 2013.