I was gonna ask “Are Mestizos settlers?” but I quickly realized that the answer to this question probably isn’t black and white. If the answer to this isn’t just “Yes” or “No” then what determines whether or not a Mestizo person is a settler?
I was gonna ask “Are Mestizos settlers?” but I quickly realized that the answer to this question probably isn’t black and white. If the answer to this isn’t just “Yes” or “No” then what determines whether or not a Mestizo person is a settler?
You are wise to avoid the biological essentialism of race realism. But you do not incorporate the actual relation that determines a settler: the relation to land.
Further, a settler does not become Indigenous by integrating into culture. As if I can become Indigenous by going to the local powwow. Likewise, I am a settler regardless of my disposition towards the state because I live on stolen land and continue settler occupation. Settlers are famous for their struggles with the settler state, if that were important in determining their actual relations to Indigenous land, there would be no self identified settlers - a “settler-colonialism with no settlers.”
You make very good points, the relation to land plays a key role.