Mexican Regional Identity

In order to deal with discrimination and racism, indigenous Mexicans have created ways that strengthen their ethnic identity, through terms and communities. For example, Indigenous Mexicans created the term “paisano,” which is given to fellow people that are from the same region as each other and have faced similar struggles (Fox 12). This leads to another factor that can help form ethnic identity which is regional identity. Regional identity is important because it means that where you’re from can also determine who one is, and subsequently, influences which people one would relate to. This is related to the communities that indigenous people make in the US because it expresses who they, indigenous Mexicans, are by showing this from where they are from. In the process of migration, indigenous peoples have been able to solidify their ethnic identity, which has allowed them to establish themselves and to maintain very close ties with their home communities. BY creating communities so similar to their homeland, it further promotes and strengths the bond to the indigenous homeland and increases the difference between non-indigenous and indigenous Mexicans (Salagrado 7).

Although indigenous and non-indigenous Mexicans are different ethnically in many ways, they do share some similarities.

Over the course of comparison, it becomes clear that indigenous people are increasing ethically separate from their non-indigenous counterparts due to their political differences, the implication of the political differences, the variation of language spoken, and the turbulent social interactions. It is quintessential that there is a recognition in the separation between indigenous and non-indigenous immigrants because in a way these two groups are as different as two distinct