Paper short abstract:

Mexico included in national museums the heritage of los olvidados but new minorities communities ask for recognition. How heritage of gender and migrants is integrated in the Mexican national identity and how this phenomenon is represented in the national contemporary museums? Answers based on case studies.

Paper long abstract:

Historically, museums and Nations were constructed in a similar way and time. The museums are the repositories of the "legitimated culture" of countries. They produced long thoughtful speeches seeking to represent the treasures and the imaginaries of peoples. The identities are mnemonic constructions that had been transformed and negotiated over the time. In Mexico, the consolidation of the Mexican national identity emerges as a Government project in the post-revolutionary period. The political party in charge of this sees in mestizaje the "essence" of the Mexican national identity, leaving out of the discourses the presence of living indigenous peoples as well as Mexican afro heritage. Since then, the politics of representation changed and discourses on national identity were transformed. All this let us think that Mexico has done a lot of work to include the heritage of "los olvidados " in the project of nation. However, the contemporary scenario shows a paradox. The folklorization of traditions lives with the struggle of "new minorities" communities who ask for recognition within the nation. This is the case of women and other sexual minorities as well as migrants. In this talk we will show how heritage of gender and class (migrants) is integrated in the Mexican national identity and how this phenomenon is represented in the national contemporary museums. We will give answers based on case studies.