Masters Thesis

El Mestizo moderno: the story of a modern day mixed blood and his journey towards self identity

This thesis explores the racial/ethnic identity of a multiracial person of African American and Mexican American ancestry. In-depth interviews were conducted with extended family members in order to document the author’s two respective families— one, an African American family from Texas, the other, a Mexican American family from New Mexico and Colorado. By documenting their histories the author explores how each family contributed to shaping his identity. Through narrative, the author describes his identity formation and what it was like to grow up half Black and half Mexican in the central valley of California during the 1970’s and 80’s. He challenges the monoracialization of persons of mixed African American ancestry by asserting his own multi-racial identity. This is the first known study to explore the identity of a person of mixed African American and Mexican American ancestry and is part of a growing body of literature on AfroChicanos and Blexicans.

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