The reconfiguration of mestizaje and whiteness in the diaspora

As a light-skinned mestiza Mexican woman, I have enjoyed the privileges of ‘whiteness’ in Latin America. In this article, I talk about how my whiteness has helped me in the development of my own fieldwork with Latin American migrants in London, that is among other mestizas who have similar understandings of the complexities and contradictions of mestizaje and whiteness in the region. I engage with the literature on white passing to explore the shifting terrain of ‘passing’ through time in a new context in the diaspora. Reflecting on the embodiment of my own mestizaje, I explore the problems that this cultural notion has produced in my country, and the ways in which I have come to understand and reformulate it while living as a non-white person in the UK. I do it via my personal experience of race and ethnicity, of racism abroad, and through my own work with Latin American migrants.