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Mestizo
Mixtec refers to an Indigenous group and language from Oaxaca. In general, Mixtec people rank higher than Triqui people in the American agriculture industry’s ethnic hierarchy because they are seen as more assimilated into mestizo culture.
Mixtec Quotes in Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
The Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies quotes below are all either spoken by Mixtec or refer to Mixtec. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
A few thousand [laborers] migrate here for the tulip-cutting and apple- and berry-picking seasons in the spring and live several months in squatter shacks made of cardboard, plastic sheets, and broken-down cars or in company-owned labor camps, often in close proximity to the multilevel houses of the local upper class that have picturesque views of the valley. The migrant camps look like rusted tin-roofed tool sheds lined up within a few feet of each other or small chicken coops in long rows. In the labor camp where I came to live, the plywood walls are semi-covered by peeling and chipping brown-pink paint. There is no insulation, and the wind blows easily through holes and cracks, especially at night. […] During summer days, the rusty tin roofs of the units conduct the sun's heat like an oven, regularly bringing the inside to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. At night, the air is damp and cold, reaching below 32 degrees Fahrenheit during the blueberry season in the fall.
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The ethnic-labor hierarchy seen here—white and Asian American U.S. citizen, Latino U.S. citizen or resident, undocumented mestizo Mexican, undocumented indigenous Mexican—is common in much of North American farming. […] Yet this is only a small piece of the global hierarchy. The continuum of structural vulnerability can be understood as a zoom lens, moving through many such hierarchies. When the continuum is seen from farthest away, it becomes clear that the local family farm owners are relatively low on the global corporate agribusiness hierarchy. When looked at more closely, we see the hierarchy on this particular farm. addition, perceptions of ethnicity change as the zoom lens is moved in and out. As mentioned above, many of the farm executives (as well as area residents) considered all migrant farmworkers "Mexican," whereas those in closer contact with the farmworkers came to distinguish between "regular Mexicans" and "Oaxacans," and those working in the fields themselves often differentiated among mestizo, Triqui, and Mixtec people.
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Mixtec Term Timeline in Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
The timeline below shows where the term Mixtec appears in Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Segregation on the Farm: Ethnic Hierarchies at Work
...farm. If they miss the daily minimum weight twice, they lose their jobs. A few Mixtec and mestizo workers pick apples. But the 350–400 strawberry and blueberry pickers are nearly all...
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...at the bottom. Latinx Americans and Mexican mestizos are in the middle. Among Indigenous people, Mixtecs are above Triquis, who are seen as “more purely Indigenous.” Citizens are also above noncitizens.
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Chapter 6: “Because They’re Lower to the Ground”: Naturalizing Social Suffering
...those in the agriculture industry distinguish between Latinx U.S. citizens, mestizos, and Indigenous Oaxacans (including Mixtecs and Triquis).
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Chapter 7: Conclusion: Change, Pragmatic Solidarity, and Beyond
...the Triquis are essentially economic refugees. Finally, he notes that Indigenous languages like Triqui and Mixtec shouldn’t be confused with “dialects” of European languages.
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