“What part of Mexico is Peru in?” The racialization and identities of South American immigrants

Abstract

Grounding the analysis in racial formation and identity formation theories, I analyzed how South American immigrants (Argentines, Colombians, and Peruvians) in Ohio contend with South American and US racial structures and racialization—or what I call Mexicanization—and how they view their racial and ethnic identities. Mexicanization is a specific racialization or homogenization based on Mexican and associated stereotypes applied through microaggressions and discrimination with the primarily white population. Through forty-three semi-structured in-person interviews, the respondents reveal they preferred an ethnic identity over racial identity, and most selected a panethnic identity. The findings indicate that this identity forms, in some cases, as a reaction and challenge to Mexicanization while also providing empowerment. Overall, identities emerge from a complex dialectic process that involves the US and the South American immigrants’ country of origin racial and ethnic ideologies, but mostly they emerge from interactions in local communities, where these immigrants formed affirming panethnic identities as they confronted Mexicanization.