Indigenous Youth. Practices of non-Recognition of their Ethnic Identity and Coping Strategies in Conventional Universities of Nuevo Leon (Mexico)

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify the non-recognition practices experienced by indigenous youth in Nuevo León universities, as well as to understand the coping strategies they use. A qualitative and interpretive design was used based on the biographical method and in-depth interviews with 15 young people. Infantilization, inferiorization, exclusion, discrimination, exploitation and machismo were identified as non-recognition practices. And as coping strategies, instrumentalization, perseverance, validation, self-exclusion and concealment. One of the limitations was the difficulty in interviewing students from the same universities, so different institutions had to be incorporated into the sample. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the research on the processes experienced by indigenous young people in conventional universities in the northern region of the country is relatively recent, therefore, it contributes to the knowledge we have about the problem. It is concluded that social interaction and hetero-recognition are social processes that trigger both non-recognition and the strategies to cope with it.