ABSTRACT
Engaging Anzalduan and postcolonial theory, this chapter recognizes how Mexicans inside Mexico have a righteous anger toward further colonization. However, the authors argue that the nationalist myth of the first conquerors’ Indigenous partner, Malinche, as a traitor misguides this decolonial tendency. Casting a woman with her sights upon survival as a simplistically sketched traitor further oppresses Mexicans who mostly try to survive when they live in the U.S. and later return to Mexico. This work takes the myth of Malinche, recognizes her for her historic strengths, and then maps that onto returning transnationals. The authors build part of this argument from the Mexican transnational youth returnees with whom they have researched for several years and who have shared stories of intense pain and confusion about how their identities were or were not embraced upon return to Mexico. At the same time, the participants often demonstrated a self-awareness in which they claimed a rich form of varying hybridities about their identity. This chapter argues the discourse needs to shift and that the hybridity returnees bring is one from which all can learn toward better engaging an increasingly multicultural world.
