Multi-Cultural into Question

As the planet goes global, the isolation of indigenous people in Mexico leaps out denying the benefits of an all-embracing modern society. This reminds us the relationship between social inequity with ethnic and language differences, and the reductionist recognition of cultural diversity that nourishes an antithetical insight of homogeneous social categories like Indian or non-Indian. Two examples serve here to discuss the logics of cross-culturalism. First, indigenous refugees and displaced communities in southern territories offer a paradigmatic case that opens a possibility to question the idea of fixed and permanent identities. Second, the bicultural educative project in central lands (i.e., teaching into two languages simultaneously - native and Spanish) shows further limitations of the discourse on cultural plurality. Both examples disclose an ethnocentric recognition of cultural difference owing to a linguistic understanding of identity, and underline the role of migration in the reconstruction of fragmented identities. Multi-cultural Into Question In Mexico it is common to talk about cultural plurality and ethnic diversity, two concepts that implicitly denote the recognition of difference. Recognition implies a twofold possibility, either a positive and favourable reading of plurality and diversity after which care should be taken, or a negative and subduing approach within which cultural attributes efface. Today, acknowledgement of cultural difference is both a testimony of the country's richness and a token of its tolerant and democratic society. Not so long ago, however, the goal of cultural politics was to construct a unified society by means of an overall integration of different populations into the national project. The idea behind was that only a united country (i.e., cultural and racial homogeneity) could grant national strength and sovereignty. Indigenous cultural traits, once a reminder of the past and burden of the country's development, suddenly became the source of cultural wealth. This discursive shift took place during the last thirty years, or so, in Mexico. Many are the potential answers that explain this shift, but it is not our interest to discuss them here. We rather focus on paradoxical cases that open up questions about the pertinence and congruity of such a discourse. Cultural diversity is the outcome of age-old settlements of various cultures that were conquered and colonised by Spain at the dawn of the 16 th century, many of whom mixed with conquerors afterwards. American countries share much of this condition, while Africa, Asia and the Middle East endure similar situations, as opposed to European countries where the concern for cultural diversity is a side effect of recent migration-which does not mean reducing the role of migration in the past. The difference between conquered and conquering