Multiculturalism, intercultural university, and civil society in the Sierra of Zongolica, Mexico

This study questions the multicultural policy in Mexico. We confront a case study on the intercultural university as an instrument devised with a dual purpose: to give young indigenous people access to higher education and to boost development in indigenous regions. Based on fieldwork in the Sierra of Zongolica in central Veracruz, we found that the intercultural university is, above all, an establishment that spreads ideas on cultural difference and that is rising up as the “New Prince” among civil societies. Aware of the limitations of the multicultural project, we expose its contradictions. We therefore propose a critique of the predominant ideas that do not view social class as a substantial element for the education of indigenous professionals.