Universidade of Texas at Austin

Course: Race and Ethnicity in Latin America: Nation-building, inequality and invisibility
Fall 2017
Professor: Dr. Jorge Marcelo Paixão
Student: Davi Pereira Junior

Interracial Marriage in Latin America

My proposition is to use the idea emerged from the course of Race and Ethnicity to

examine marriages in the race relations in three differents countries on Latin American. I will

analyze the race relationships from interracial marriages in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. My

idea is to discuss interracial marriage relations in a comparative perspective trying to think

what the implications of this type of relationship in the this three countries.

I intend to use as a comparative methodology perspective from the data and analyzes

presented by the authors that were reading in the course such as, Teles, (2004). Race in

Another America: the significance of skin color in Brazil. Sue (2013), The Land of the

Cosmic Race for analyze Mexico, and Alberto & Elena (2013), Rethinking Race in Modern

Argentina. The methodology also includes additional literature on the subject in the three

countries. Some of issues that I want to address and analyze over the final work is, for

example, how it is related to the discuss of nation's formation? how do you negotiate

interracial marriages in societies marked by racial and social hierarchies? What are the

symbolic implications of skin color in trading and composition of couples? As the ideology

of racial democracy influence the relations of marriages between individuals of different

"races" in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

The comparison will take into consideration the factor that we are analysing three

countries with specifics singularities with respect to their ethnic composition. For example,

Mexico has a largest indigenous population in Latin America, Brazil has a bigger black

population in the Americas. In another hand, Argentine always claimed to be a white country.
Regardless, the debate about the race issues was always present as a dilemma that haunt Latin

American countries. Ideologias as mestizaje and racial democracia were used by the elites as

a way to built the discuss of national unity and the own idea of nation.

Those ideologies worked well in countries like Brazil and Mexico. Already the

Argentine case may will be the unique different. Once that, the national narrative that was

building by Argentine elites was of a white country through the denial of indigenous and

black heritage. By the way, Telles (2004, p.5), address that from the white elite discuss in

Latin America concepts of race mixture hold that blacks, Indigenous, and whites socialize,

reside together, and biologically, mix to the point that racial discrimination become

unimportant. However, in the practical terms the literature and researches about racial

relations and ethnicity has showing that these discuss about mestizaje and racial democracia

as part of the nation formation it is a kind of strategy of domination used by whites elites to

guarantee their status quo.

Brazil and Mexico are both miscegenated and unequal countries. Sue (2013) address

that is the non Mexican elites that become an efficient mechanism of reproduction of

racial mixture of ideology and how their understand and negotiate race relations such as

intermarriage. In Telles(2014, p. 25) approaches, Thus, the tradition of race mixture was

established in Brazilian society through both violent sexual relations as well informal union

and formal union. (p. 223) Brazil’s profound racial inequality, this study has also shown that

there is substantial intermarriage. Alberto and Elena (2016. p. 8) in the Argentine case

whiteness becomes even more firmly established as a natural part of nation’s identity and of

what it means to be Argentine, too became invisible as a racial construction. In addition, both

the Mexican and Brazil marry becomes often the situation to negotiate where the black and

indigenous are at all the time at a disadvantage compared with white people. While in the
Argentine case people with skin color further from the European ideal of whitening are the

ones who structure the basis of the social pyramid.

The discuss of nation's formation and intermarriage process.

In the process of formation of the national states in Latin America the discuss about

race was always present. Sue (2013, p. 14) address that the build of idea of Mexican nation

after was guided by three ideology pillars that follow post-revolutionary Mestizaje; as symbol

of national unity the embracement of race mixture and lauding of the mestizo. Non racism;

the contention that racism does not exist in the country. Non blackness; the marginalization,

neglect, or negation of Mexico’s African heritage. In addition, from that moment, the idea of

mestizaje will become very strong and will dominate to direct the racial ideal of Mexican

society. The mestizaje will becomes the main social capital in Mexican either to marry

process.

The mestizaje in Mexico society will be internalized in a way so strong that both

people of white skin color and black skin color and even the Indians will tend to self-classify

as mestizo.To Sue(2013), the Mexican anti-blackness is the result of effect of racism

ideologies that mediate the daily social relationship hierarchic by black inferiority. Yet, the

Mexican society privileges the whiteness and is stratified by race and color. Despite she not

offers clear arguments to explain why the Mexican wishes to erase the black heritage.

Unlike of other country of Latin America, in Mexico case the blacks are unwanted up as

part of the mestizaje process.

The indigenous ancestrality will be positived and triggered as central element of a

powerful narrative of formation of Mexican nation. In addition, Sue (2013, p. 58)The mestizo

ideology is even powerful enough to mold the identification of those who have no phenotypic
marker of indigenous ancestry. The actuation of the ancestrality will make the indigenous

deprecated in relation to the black in the racial negotiation that happens in the market of

marriage.

In the imaginary of the Brazilian nation the narrative of race mixture appear as main

element of national. Talles (2004, p. 16) address that Brazil had been one of the first

multiracial states to go beyond race, but it had become apparent that its racial democracy

continued to privilege whites at the expense of non whites, just as it did during most of its

history of white supremacy. The Brazilian elites had a whiteness project based in the

eugenics beliefs that through the genes combination of black and white could progressively

whitening the population of the country.

Unlike in Mexico indigenous heritage was not used as in a strong way for Brazilian

social imagination. ​In Albert & Telles point of view, over several generations, such unions

led to a large mixed race population that was widely recognized as such and its existence,

bolstered by elite nation-making narratives of mestizaje, has arguably encouraged (or not

discouraged) racial mixture in the modern period. Telles (2004, p. 226) approaches ​as

scientific theories about race began to be discredited, the Brazilian state began to promote a

self-image of a racial democracy that was based on miscegenation, a large dose of African

culture, and an aversion to racism. These factors would become central to Brazilian national

identity. Integration, although in the more abstract sense of peoplehood, nation. ​The

interracial social interactions in Brazilian society was polarized between black and whites

including the interracial marriage .

Alberto and Elena (2016. p. 7/8) addressing that racial questions is important to

understand why Argentina emerged as Europeanized nation unlike all other country in Latin
America. The Argentine State with the white elite contribute did subtle movement for

nonwhite people in Argentine disappear from national history. In the wake of the subjugation

of independent indigenous groups and the consolidation of the national territory, Argentine

observers complacently declared the almost complete disappearance of "Indians" in the

nation. "Blacks" too, official histories and statistics of the period asserted, had disappeared or

were well on their way toward group extinction, due to their supposedly disproportional rates

of death in nineteenth-century wars or epidemics and their high degree of intermixture with

the broader population.

Obviously, which behind this has racist ideologies that try erasing blackness and

indigenous existence. They belief in the national identity more close of European ideal and

without the black and indigenous presence. The racist ideologies come from scholars that

think the problems of incorporation of non white in the composition of Argentine society.

The negotiate interracial marriages

In the sphere of the social relations in Mexico the race should be negotiated daily.

In the symbolic capital that mary represents in Mexican society blacks should know as to

play the game rule to negotiate some benefits in these mekart where who has the skin color

more darker tends to have less bargaining power. The case of the black in mexico is very

similar with which happens with the Brazilian blacks who are in disadvantaged in the

competition by the preference of marriage. In the case of the brown Sue (2013) says that they

try to minimize their brownness by highlighting their European background. In the other

hand, any discuss about race seems inconvenient and cause of discomfort for reflecting the

discrimination and hierarchical relationship.

 Yet that in Mexico has a discuss that exalts the mestizaje sustained by elites

however, they were also demonstrating clear preference for whiteness and is in these context

that the marry negotiate happens. In the in these Mexican society context choose a couple to

marry can be a very complex situation. As address Sue (2013) they are always concern with

interracial relationship. And then, the marry becomes often a situation to negotiate where

the black and indigenous are at all the time at a disadvantage, unless their financial condition

is privileged. This fact shows contradictory to the dominant ideology, mostly lighter skin

aversion to marry Indigenous. The marriage preference is always white, but it is always

accompanied strategies that allow them simultaneously claim European ancestry without

compromising their mexicanness.

The theory of racial democracy becomes the Brazil a reference in the world mainly to

studies of racial relations. Telles (2004, p. 16) address that Brazil had been one of the first

multiracial states to go beyond race, but it had become apparent that its racial democracy

continued to privilege whites at the expense of non whites. Despite the Brazil be seen as the

racial paradise when supposedly does have racism or racial discrimination and where the

miscegenation is accepted historically as a natural process into the social relations of the daily

life by Brazilian society as affirms thinks like Gilberto Freyre in his book Casa Grande e

Senzala.

In fact, this view of Brazil as a place racial democracy it is a social construction by

whites elites for the purpose of mask their racism stemming from a project of domination and

white supremacy and making the social relations more rigid. As address ​Telles & Garcia

(2013 p.2) ​Although one may argue that the recent increase of black-white intermarriage

represent growing social interactions and the blurring of black-white distinctions, the fact that

they still hardly occur reveals the persistence of a rigid black-white In these sense, the racial
democracy works as a kind of myth in the process of notional narrative which alleviates

tensions in racial and social relations. The racial democracy will allow that the game played

by white elite works well once the supposed equality is at the level of discussion because in

practice it has the purpose of hierarchizing social and racial relations and making the

bargaining power of whites the largest in the marriage market.

In the Argentine case is more complicated to understand and analyse the negotiate

interracial marriages because Argentine always whether assume as a white country, so by

these logic they supposedly would not have the same dilemma as the rest of Latin America,

once everybody there is white. However, the book that was organized by Alberto and Elena

(2016) put in question some important issues about intermarriage in Argentine. Deutsch

address in her article the issues of intermarriage between Argentines and Jews. Aside she

highlighting the racial characteristics, she described how Jewish immigrants corrupted

Argentines physically and morally. Deutsch, likened this process to the spread of disease, in

which Jews and other foreigners carried the germs of materialism and of imported cosmetics,

hair dyes, and fashions that infected Argentine women and disguised her "heritage of Spanish

blood". In these sense the Jews are responsible for corrupting local women and weakening

their racial Identity, Jews were agents of barbarism. Alberto and Elena (2016, p. 30).

As the white elite Argentines solved the “racial problem” by eliminating the

Afro-descendants and indigenous in a clear official action of ethnic cleansing using the state

as instruments. The elite project of domination had the purpose of dissipating the myth of

disappearance of their racial minorities due to war victimization or epidemics such as yellow

fever and assume the European heritage as the unique cultural matrix in the country.

However, Argentines elite had to dealing with non-European immigrants such as Jews, which

as already pointed out were seen as agents of barbarism that that threatened the European
purity of the Argentine nation. Rubel (2013) address that, the mixed marriage between Jews

and Argentines was a constant process mainly in the suburban areas of the capital and this

had provoked a bigger debate in Argentine society

Intermarriage and social Status exchange

The literature about racial relations in Latin America always point out that the

interracial marriage, intermarriage or mixed marry as a negotiated strategy for both whites

and non whites as a way of up their social condition. In these negotiation process what being

played as appreciation of bargaining at the marriage market negotiation table to exchange it is

some kind of specifics social capital such as; education, economic condition, social class and

skin color. These is a strategy supposedly are more present more in Mexico and Brazil then

Argentina.

Sue Christina in her book about mexico address the intermarriage in Mexico as a

process of exchange of social status. By Sue’s approaches (2013, p. 88), in Veracruz, even

though such relationships are fairly common intercolor couple often draw attention,

suggesting that such alliances are not, in fact, view as a societal norm. Individuals in this

relationship. The interracial or “intercolor” relationship as a way of status exchange seems as

something cultural acceptability

Veracruzanos views intercolor relationship through the lens of status

exchange. The theory of status exchange posit that interracial marriage is not
a random phenomenon but instead represents a situation in which
individuals exchange factors such as economic status, power, beauty or race
to make the relationships mora equal or balanced (SUE, 2016, p. 89)

Criteria like skin color is important traits that in the market of marriage. In these

sense, the individual who has a skin lighter have more power of negotiation in the market

marriage. The individual who has a skin lighter will have also the preference for marriage
from the other individuals who have skin more dark. Also, people who has skin lighter has

more social acceptability and are more hapto to exchange their social capital with other

individual that has some positive traits to exchange such as education, high economic status.

As Sue (2013, p. 90) approaches, When individuals with dark skin, a perceived negative traits

marry someone lighter there is an expectation that they will compensate for their color by

contributing a positive attribute such as higher economics status. However, marry with

someone who has lighter skin for someone with skin dark does not mean that she/he will

integrate into Mexican society in the point that she/he does not suffer any kind of prejudice

due to the color of by or racial characteristics.

Like Mexico in Brazil, people who has skin lighter also has the preference in the

market of marriage in comparison with people that has a skin more dark. In addition, the

social class is another factors that influences in these choose. As Draper III (2011)

approaches​, Brazilian marriages between blacks and whites are less common upper class

nonwhites tend to marry whites more often than do lower-class nonwhites. Yet that the Brazil

had the fame to be racial paradise and that the ideology of racial democracy remain stronger

in the social mentality of the Brazilian, in the marriage market blacks rieman being the social

capital less valued. Telles (2004) address that especially black women are extremely rejected

in the market for men regardless of skin color.

In the Brazilian case the brown seems to have more valued and more successful.

People with brown skin seems to have preference for both white and non white to be married.

So the brown people has more power of bargain. Regardless of social condition, education,

economic condition, because you will always have an option to marry. However, Telles

(2004), point out that in these game of racial relationships many young black and brown men

prefer white women than blacks preferably a blonde is a symbol of success honor, and power.
In the same way Telles affirms that black men seems like a fetish in the sexual imagination of

white women. Besides of a supposed devotion that young blacks show for white couple.

These kind of situation in Argentina for example, is not recurring like Brazil and Mexico.

However, yet that Argentina deny non white heritage in beneficitic of a white national

narrative. ​Alberto and Elena (2016) address that marriage in Argentina has formed social

class that reflects a certain type of branquity scale.

Regardless of difference that have in the discuss of nation formation in Argentina that

preferred put away the influence of Afro-descendants and indigenous despise their heritage

for a European heritage. Mexico with the exaltation of mestizaje based on indigenous

ancestry. And Brazil social and racial harmony that seems a racial paradise thanks to racial

democracy. The three country play the same game, still the rules of game seems differents

and specifically for each country. The racial ideology as racial democracy has been the

weapon white to keep their domination, privilege and status quo.

In Brazil the racial democracy become an efficient elite weapon because it is

reproduced mainly by non-white groups on daily day. In the same, way that the Argentine

ideology of whiteness or Europeanness works in a logic so efficient which makes the

Argentines can not self-perceive without the optics of the ideology of whiteness. These same

logic can also be applied to the Mexican case and the ideology of mestizaje that is imbued

their own idea of Mexicanness. These three case show how the racial democracy as ideology

do not was restricted only in Brazil. On the contrary, gained strength across Latin America.

Being adapted to the particular contexts of each country by the local elite to serve as

instrument of their project of domination.

 Bibliografy

ALBERTO, Paulina L. & ELENA, Eduardo. Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina.

Cambridge University Press. 2016.
SUE, A. Christina. Land of the Cosmic Race: race mixture, racism and blackness in
Mexico. Oxford University Press 2013..
TELES. Edward E. Race in Another America: the significance of skin color in Brazil:
Princeton University Press. 2004.
_______________. Racial Distance and Region in Brazil: Intermarriage in Brazil
Urban. ​Latin American Research Review Vol. 28, No. 2 (1993), pp. 141-162
Edward Telles and Denia Garcia. Mestizaje And Public Opinion in Latin America. Princeton
University Latin American Research Review 2011.
Draper III, Jack A. Racial Democracy and Intermarriage in Brazil and United States.
University of Missouri 2011. ​http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111.
Tomás Maria Carolina. Interracial Marriage in Brazil: a discussion about local
marriage market, parents' characteristics, and household chores University of California,
Berkeley 2012.
Brian Duncan and Stephen J. Trejo. Intermarriage and the Intergenerational
Transmission of Ethnic Identity and Human Capital for Mexican Americans. J Labor Econ.
2011.
Rubel, Yaacov. International Round-Table on Intermarriage at Brandeis University,
Waltham, Massachusetts. Buenos Aires. 2003