Mestizaje and codigophagy

A critique of racial categories through the semiotics of culture

Abstract

This article proposes a philosophical-cultural reinterpretation of mestizaje in colonial New Spain as a symbolic and cultural process rather than a biological one, drawing in particular on Bolívar Echeverría’s elaboration of the concept of codigophagy to interpret mestizaje from the perspective of the semiotics of culture. Through a critique of the caste system, the paper questions the use of racial categories as the primary explanatory framework in Novohispanic cultural history. Its aim is to approach Novohispanic identities as shifting configurations resulting from the exchange of cultural codes among Indigenous, European, and Afro-descendant groups. To this end, the analysis engages with the work of Bolívar Echeverría, Arturo Uslar Pietri, and Oswald de Andrade in order to develop a redefinition of cultural mestizaje as a semiotic phenomenon, including the notions of infiltrative mestizaje and codigophagy. The study employs theoretical tools drawn from the semiotics of culture. The findings underscore the importance of understanding mestizaje as a reciprocal interaction that challenges reductionist sociobiological explanations and enables a rethinking of social identities as processes of cultural transformation.