Indigenous youth and higher education in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey

Abstract

Research on indigenous youth and higher education in Mexico has been a relevant topic in anthropology during the last decades. This is due to the enrolment and visibility of indigenous youth in intercultural or “conventional” universities, where they follow trajectories of education and professionalization in various fields of knowledge. This article aims at identifying some of the main dimensions intertwined in the configuration of the social and educational processes of indigenous youth in “conventional” university spaces, which have been so far examined with little depth in social sciences, especially beyond the model of intercultural education. In particular, I investigate some specific conditions drawing on the experience of indigenous young men and women at university (with origins from totonaca and mixteca communities) in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey (MAM), Nuevo León, Mexico. I develop an analysis based on an etnographic perspective to contribute to the debate and to the production of knowledge on this topic of research. Therefore I go beyond case studies and propose a comparative analysis accounting for the diversity of experiences of indigenous youth in higher education in Mexico and in Latin America at large.