Reviewed by:

• Performance in the Zócalo: Constructing History, Race, and Identity in Mexico’s Central Square from the Colonial Era to the Present by Ana Martínez
• Iván Eusebio Aguirre Darancou

El Zócalo in Mexico City is today one of the most important and contested public spaces in the nation. During the demonstrations against femicide and gender violence that took place in March 2020—which led to the erection of steel walls around the National Palace—, the plaza became once again the “architectural and performative palimpsest” (1), the history of which Ana Martínez traces from Conquest to neoliberalism. The theatre of mestizo modernity-coloniality that is the Zócalo has recently been the space of symbolic inclusion of Mexico’s indigenous peoples in the Inauguration Ceremony of December 2, 2018, and the Día de los Muertos mega-altars of November 2019. And yet, it remains the space in which the political and social regime constructed out of coloniality reinforces the exclusion of sexual, gendered, and racialized minorities. The disavowal of gender and racial violence as integral to the modern nation-state project, materialized in the steel walls and armed guards, reveals the displacement, privatization, and exploitation that Mexico’s indigenous people have experienced since 1519.

Grounded in an understanding of indigenous and “Indian” as politically significant (and not essential) categories of identity, Martínez’s book traces the events and strategies that have constructed the Zócalo as a complex weaving of at least three distinct spatialities. From the material (brick and mortar) to the conceptual representations that reveal more of who is making them than of the space itself, to the lived events that undermine or reinforce politically dominant ideologies, the plaza is the space where the structural continuity of coloniality into the mestizo-nation is materialized, performed, and monumentalized. Martínez meticulously presents the various processes of displacement of indigenous peoples silenced in the centralization of the “indigenous” made symbol by the colonial and republican regimes.

Covering the five centuries of this plaza, Martínez presents key strategies, events, and performances that allow for a more complex understanding of the “Indian question” (4). The indigenous craftsmanship and labor that underpins the plaza underlines the subversive potential of this contested space. In parallel, the history of the creation of the plaza as a stage for historical memory through specific religious, political, and social events from the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Republic, and the post-Revolutionary state provides a nuanced understanding of a contemporary Mexican society still defining itself around the mestizo identity. Concretely, I highlight how Martínez’s analysis expands the studies on the casta system by focusing on how it was spatialized in the Zócalo and how this spatialization provided the social structures for liberalism as it materialized in practices of policing and criminalizing. In this analysis, Martínez’s reading of the Zócalo as a kind of border space where populations mingle and come together is highly enriching, revealing [End Page 255] the dark side of the monumentalization processes that shape the plaza/nation today. Overall, this study is key to understanding the performative practices that attempt to subvert the regimes of coloniality (e.g., the EZLN marches) and reappropriate the space of the nation towards a plurality that acknowledges the histories of violence while constructing other nations and other worlds.

审核人：

• 在 Zócalo 的表演：从殖民时代到现在在墨西哥中央广场构建历史、种族和身份， Ana Martínez
• 伊万·尤西比奥·阿吉雷·达兰库

墨西哥城的 El Zócalo 今天是美国最重要和最具争议的公共场所之一。在 2020 年 3 月发生的反对杀害女性和性别暴力的示威活动中——这导致在故宫周围竖起了钢墙——，广场再次成为“建筑和表演的翻版”（1），安娜的历史马丁内斯从征服到新自由主义。混血儿现代性殖民地剧院，即 Zócalo，最近成为墨西哥土著人民在 2018 年 12 月 2 日的就职典礼和 2019 年 11 月的死亡之日（Día de los Muertos）大型祭坛中象征性地融入的空间。然而，它仍然是由殖民主义构建的政治和社会制度加强对性、性别和种族化少数群体的排斥的空间。

Martínez 的书基于将土著和“印第安人”视为具有政治意义（而非必要）身份类别的理解，追溯了将 Zócalo 构建为至少三个不同空间的复杂编织的事件和策略。从材料（砖块和灰泥）到概念性表达，这些表达比空间本身更多地揭示了谁在创造它们，再到破坏或强化政治主导意识形态的生活事件，广场是殖民主义结构连续性的空间混血民族被具体化、表演和纪念。马丁内斯细致地展示了在殖民和共和政权所象征的“土著”集中化过程中，土著人民的各种流离失所过程。

Martínez 涵盖了这个广场的五个世纪，展示了关键策略、事件和表演，可以更复杂地理解“印度问题”（4）。支撑广场的本土工艺和劳动力突显了这个有争议的空间的颠覆性潜力。同时，广场作为历史记忆舞台的创建历史，通过新西班牙、共和国和后革命国家的殖民总督辖区的特定宗教、政治和社会事件，提供了对当代的细致入微的理解。墨西哥社会仍然围绕混血身份定义自己。具体来说，我强调马丁内斯的分析如何扩展对卡斯塔的研究系统通过关注它如何在 Zócalo 中被空间化，以及这种空间化如何为自由主义提供社会结构，因为它在警务和刑事定罪实践中具体化。在这个分析中，马丁内斯将索卡洛解读为一种边界空间，在那里人口混合和聚集在一起非常丰富，揭示了[End Page 255]塑造今天广场/国家的纪念碑化过程的阴暗面。总的来说，这项研究是理解试图颠覆殖民政权（例如 EZLN 游行）并将国家空间重新分配给承认暴力历史同时构建其他国家和其他世界的表演实践的关键。