Mestizaje for Blaxican Theology

Abstract

precis:

In this essay, I explore the emergence of mestizaje (mixedness) as a Latin American racial ideology that emerged in the early twentieth century. I begin by exploring the work of Mexican theorist José Vasconcelos and especially his work La Raza Cósmica, which emerged at the end of the Mexican Revolution that foresaw the emergence of a "cosmic race" that would render obsolete African and Indigenous races. From there, I explore Vasconcelos's influence on Mexican-American theologies and especially the doctrine of Christology in the work of Virgilio Elizondo. Finally, I explore the problems and possibilities of mestizaje for people whose Blackness plays an integral part of their mixedness—namely, "Blaxicans."