Mexican Eugenics: Racism and the Reproduction of the Nation from 1900-Present uses

longue durée historical and sociological analyses to explore the birth of eugenics in Mexico and follows the development of eugenic ideas and practices and their intertwinement with the nation-building process. This analysis reveals the development of eugenic ideas beyond the first half of the twentieth century, and the everyday impact of eugenic discourses and policies on individuals inside of the Mexican nation-state. Eugenic ideas in Mexico encouraged the creation of a specific national body that pathologized groups (such as indigenous people, people with disabilities, Black Mexicans, “unassimilable” migrants [Chinese migrants, Jewish communities and Eastern Europeans], sex workers, people outside of hetero-centric and patriarchal structures, etc.) who were viewed as detrimental to the improvement of the national ‘stock’. These ideas and the legacies of their institutionalization continue to permeate Mexico’s social systems today. This book thus provides the tools to recognize the continuation of eugenic practices and ideas in Mexico and globally, decades after the ‘science’ of eugenics was broadly rejected by the mainstream.