About Mexican formations: selective hegemony under neoliberal multiculturalism (original) (raw)

About Mexican Formations: Selective Hegemony Under Neoliberal Multiculturalism is a coordinated effort to debate an ethnographic present within a Gramscian perspective. Taking such an approach to the Mexican transformations of the first two decades of the twenty first century has demanded analytical clarity as much as dedicated fieldwork. Building on the contributions of a generation of scholars who were committed to engaging the work of Antonio Gramsci, we took up their approach for our ethnographic projects, proposing a particular reading of Mexican landscapes and populations driven by specific class directions. The contributors have come together to engage in this endeavor from 2015 to the present. We met at a proseminar ("Power, Class & Culture) hosted subsequently in two different graduate programs of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Some of us were students, other professors, and some guests. We were never all together but were close enough to cultivate the common thread of the discussion. When we started this process in 2003 with the good and auspicious backing of Nancy Churchill and Leigh Binford, we could not have anticipated the hard lessons we learned, nor the joy of endurance. Over the years other colleagues would join, enriching the seminar as it was turning into the research network it has now become. This is not the space to acknowledge them individually, but they know who they are, and we hope they will recognize their influence and insights in the articles and their "intertextuality". Yet, we dedicate this special issue to the teachings and comradery of Luis Vázquez León (1951-2021), who departed while we were working on it. It was Luis who proposed that we craft our discussion into a special issue in a journal that could provide the space and exposure he deemed we had earned. For this and many other things we are indebted to his memory and honor him accordingly.