Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the participation of certain Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and Mexico in educational projects framed by neoliberal approaches to cultural diversity can create critical political possibilities.

Paper long abstract:

In the first decade of the 21th. Century we have witnessed a strong democratization appeal within the higher education systems of Latin America. The claim is especially conspicuous regarding the student body composition. Among the different groups excluded, particular attention has been paid to ethnic groups. Thus, nowadays there is a variety of policies and programs intended to include Indigenous Peoples into tertiary education.

Framed by the term Interculturalidad the policies targeted at Indigenous Peoples emphasize encounter and dialog between them and non-Indigenous cultural groups. This approach, though, has triggered heated debates, whereby these populations are characterized as either victims of a swindle by state or accomplices of it. Accordingly, critical voices implicitly conceive of Indigenous individuals and communities participating in these policies as subjects defenseless before neoliberalism. This research aims at questioning such a view and recognizing that in spite of acceptance of the state view of intercultural higher education Indigenous subjectivities develop political positionings that question the freezing, harmonious view of intercultural dialog. The analysis focused on Brazil and Mexico points out that the notion of "Indigenous Peoples' Knowledges", immersed in intercultural educational policies, entails participative voices that can be interpreted as new ways to actualize Modernity's promises unresolved by states and non-Indigenous societies; promises concerning cohabitation and population care. Indigenous Knowledges thus allow populations involved with interculturalidad to create simultaneity spaces, instead of succession spaces, whereby ethnic boundaries get relevant to conduct such actualization projects; by so doing, neoliberalism is challenged as the only one life-possibility.