Transnational Settler Colonial Formations and Global Capital: A Consideration of Indigenous Mexican Migrants

A relational framework examines specific contingencies and conditions of settler colonial contexts to avoid a flattening of distinct historical trajectories that are contained within differences.[...]we place settler colonialism in relation to other imperial formations that allow us to better understand how Indigenous migrants move among distinct race, class, gender, and other colonial formations, as Manu Vimalassery, Juliana Hu Pegues, and Alyosha Goldstein have argued.8 Our consideration of settler colonialism expands beyond Latinx or Chicanx contexts by destabilizing hegemonic categories that draw on national or racial distinctions and erase Indigenous peoples’ experiences.9 Despite constitutional reforms recognizing Mexico’s plural composition, Indigenous peoples in Mexico are subjected to racism, oppression, and dispossession, much like Native Americans in the United States.19 In other words, as Native Hawaiians settle and reproduce colonial relations by occupying Native American lands, they draw on intimate knowledge to reproduce Indigenous forms of social organization and relations to the land.[...]alternative contact narratives allow us to move beyond European and Native American points of contact to examine alternative encounters, including inter-Native encounters.20 We recognize that Indigenous Mexicans and Native peoples in the United States share experiences as targets of discrimination and exclusionary practices.[...]any understanding of Indigenous Mexican migrants as settlers must examine the relationship between settler colonial processes and indigeneity, as argued by Aikau.26 The opening vignette provides an opportunity to begin this examination.[...]we need comparative and relational analysis when using settler colonial frameworks.