Mestiza Double Consciousness
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Mestiza Double Consciousness is a concept coined by Peruvian-American Sociologist Sylvanna Falcón in her study, "Mestiza Double Consciousness: The Voices of Afro-Peruvian Women on Gendered Racism". It attempts to explain how Afro-Peruvian women have become engaged in activism and organized against racism, how they have become aware of their social positions, and how they have formed a different consciousness that did not previously exist, which Falcón calls the "Mestiza Double Consciousness."
Sylvanna Falcón conducted qualitative research with Afro-Peruvian women participating in the World Conference Against Racism 2001. From her research, Falcón tries to understand the lives of three participants—Sofía, Mónica, and Martha—by merging a gendered view of W.E.B. Du Bois' double consciousness and an expanded view of Gloria E. Anzaldúa's mestiza consciousness frameworks. Du Bois' double consciousness alone provides an understanding of race relations in the United States from the perspective of the racialized Other,[1] while Anzaldúa's mestiza consciousness describes a form of consciousness unique to the mestiza because Chicanas live in a space of contradiction and ambiguity unique to the [Mexico-US] borderland.[2] However, for Falcón, both frameworks are insufficient to understand the three Afro-Peruvian women's lives. Thus, the new concept, Mestiza Double Consciousness, develops by merging the two.
Rationale
According to Falcón, merging Du Bois and Anzaldúa's concepts is necessary to fully comprehend "how gendered racism shape [Sofía's, Mónica's, and Martha's] lives and why they have a desire to forge transnational solidarity with other women in the African Diaspora of the Americas".[3] Therefore, for the concept of Mestiza Double Consciousness to exist, a gendering of Du Bois' double consciousness to include women's experience, and an expansion of Anzaldúa's mestiza consciousness to include other borderlands is needed. The comprehensive approach of the Mestiza Double Consciousness concept explains the processes that those three Afro-Peruvian women went through in their activism, involvement with organizations and political communities, and understanding of their social positions.[3]