Page 95 - Cultural Studies Volume 11

ONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES 89

The incapacity of nation-states to unite this heterogeneity has made much more
visible the questions concerning multiculturalism, at least for researchers and
intellectuals.
I also think that the crisis of traditional paradigms is increasing as more and
more classical modes of analysis seem incapable of negotiating these
complexities. They cannot be reduced to classes, nor can class simply be
constituted as a function, nor can we continue to turn to traditional counter-
positions. What is called for is a different mode of analysis that is responsive to
multiculturalism, responsive to increasingly apparent social complexities. This is
precisely why we need the advancement of cultural studies. The segmentation of
audiences, the impossibility of generalizing about the public concern of consumers
without first foregrounding diversity, different lifestyles, different ways of
thinking, feeling, and so forth these kinds of complexities dictate that a more
sophisticated means by which to interrogate society must be developed.
PDM: If these themes are so important, or at least becoming more common in
the discourses of many writers and researchers, why hasn’t there been more
attention to questions concerning race and ethnicity as spaces of social struggle?
I am aware that these concerns are much more a part of a US perspective
concerning marginal peoples, but have these kinds of themes manifested
themselves in the writings of Latin American scholars?
NGC: The denomination ‘race’ has had a very turbulent history, and not only
in Latin America. In large part, it is problematic in that it has been degraded and
disqualified by the social sciences because it is preferable to speak of ethnicity
rather than race. Ethnicity is a term that appears more neutral; race is more
representative of biological concerns and less indicative of culture. Nevertheless,
in the last few years I believe that questions of ethnicity have become very
prominent in Latin America, at least depending on the literature that you
familiarize yourself with. In anthropological references the theme of ethnicity is
central and this has had a significant impact on other disciplines. At the same time,
there is a certain decline in respect of some traditional organisms created
specifically to contend with questions concerning ethnicity, particularly
indigenous institutions. So, there exists a complex situation where there is a
degeneration of the indigenous institutions of multi-ethnic traditions, but there is
also a new emergence of multi-ethnicity in Latin American society via social
struggles, increased vocalization of demands and also in the manner by which
academics are articulating these struggles. And it appears that this is not only
happening in Mexico, but also in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, all places
where questions of ethnicity have been increasingly visible.
PDM: In Culturas híbridas (1990:71) you wrote that ‘modernity is not the
expression of socioeconomic modernization but the mode in which elites take
charge of the intersection between different historical temporalities and attempt
to elaborate with them a global project’. Considering Mexico’s turbulent past
year—the ratification of NAFTA, the insurrection in Chiapas, the assassination