Introduction: Mesoamerican Indigenous Mobilities in Mexico and the United States

Abstract

According to Danielè Dehouve (2015, 28), migrations created the roots of pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, those lengthy pilgrimages in search of new lands turned into exoduses due to forced displacement and relocation in order to work forcibly under Spanish colonialism and its continuation through Criollos in independence. Centuries after those foundational and enforced displacements, well into the twenty-first century, Indigenous mobilities challenge the geography of mestizo/Ladino nationalist maps. We are witnessing great diversity in Indigenous peoples’ displacements and mobilities that question the typical concepts and approaches used to characterize urban marginalization and rural Indigenous peasants. In addition to mass labor-related displacements, others are due to expulsion or people fleeing violence, or because of the transformation of how younger generations conceptualize their lives, futures, and possibilities. At the same time, the dispersion and fragmentation of Indigenous peoples are accompanied by new territorialities, and new forms of coexistence and communal relationships. This special issue brings together a set of articles on contemporary Mesoamerican Indigenous mobilities in Mexico and the United