Xican@s/Mexican Americans Can Classify as “Native American” on 2010 Census

February 14, 2010 by Admin 2 Comments

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2 Responses to “Xican@s/Mexican Americans Can Classify as “Native American” on 2010 Census”

  1. Roberto Flotte Reply February 15, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Do not agree. I think that if want to solve issues of our communities we need to sacrifice FOR ONCE and choose Latino/Hispanic category. We are speaking of funding and representation. I think that choosing both options would be great. In addition, many Mexican-Americans and Latinos have no Indian blood. It is reluctant to say that Mexican American have “little or no white race DNA” whatever that means biologically or anthropologically speaking.

  2. tejaztlana Reply February 15, 2010 at 4:11 pm

    I just posted a picture of what the question will look like in the actual Census and you ARE able to claim Latino/Hispanic AND Native.

    I am not sure where your point about many Mexican Americans or Latinos not having indian blood is coming from, and while I can agree that is not the reality for ALL of us, the many shades of brown skin we bear come from our indigenous ancestry.

    However, colonization, and particularly the colonization, decimation by disease, and racism/racial prosecution of the many native tribes in Tejaztlan have helped erase our tribal affiliations from our familial and collective memory.

    Thus, in my own opinion, the phrasing of these questions allow us to claim our European lineage along with our native identity, regardless if we have had the privilege of retaining our tribal names/identity or not.

    Keep in mind too, that although many of us have Spanish surnames NOT all of them directly due to a Spanish ancestor. The way Christianization worked (particularly here in Texas) was that once an indigenous person was Christianized, they were given “Christian” names…and their last name was that of the the father or priest that converted them.

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