Abstract
Two popular critiques of Asian American Studies are its US-centrism within the Americas and its inherent valorization of race/ethnicity and racial/ethnic difference in its endeavors to critique and liberate its subjects from the same system. Though not able to fully tackle the latter, this project aims to address both of these issues by locating Asian American Studies theory in Mexico in regard to indigenous, not Asian, communities. During a four-month span in Yucatán, Mexico in the fall of 2018, this project developed out of the observations, interactions, and experiences of everyday life. Continued reflections upon return have culminated in a performance studies approach that relates Orientalism, a foundational concept of Asian American Studies, and national abjection to four unique enactments of indigenous fantasies and indigeneity in Mexico. This project complicates and disrupts the nation’s romantic mestizaje ideology, showing how colonial subjects internalize and re-distribute the colonial gaze and colonial fantasies. Colonialism, then, is not simply a moment in history, but a structure that actively guides and shapes daily life. By emphasizing the underlying structures shared by phenomena specific to group and/or region, this project demonstrates the versatile and collaborative possibilities of ethnic studies fields in creating globalized understandings of race and racial formation.