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Joshua Pacheco
Ms.Almendarez
English 103
May/11/23
Critical Thinking Survey & Research
Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality while describing different aspects of a person and their
identity also all work together to create said identity. These three things come together to form
the culture of a people which affects the way in which they live their life. Culture is one of the
largest and most consistent aspects of our critical thinking, it affects how we think about
everything we do, say, or see, and is one of the hardest barriers to overcome in critical thinking.
The culture behind the Mexican identity is an especially ridged wall for critical thinking as it is a
very hardwired culture rooted in its traditions and religion, very much invested in the idea of
indigenous roots and cultures. Due to this, I believe most people will put a large amount of
importance on being connected to their culture and be more frugal with those who can identify
with indigenous culture.
My first and third questions were less focused and asked about culture in a more broad
sense, while my second and fourth questions were more focused on indigenous cultures. For my
more indigenous-focused questions, I decided to ask about the Aztec and Mayan culture as they
are the most prevalent indigenous population within Mexico. My first question was about the
importance of connecting to your culture and my second was about the point of connection at
which claiming an indigenous culture or community becomes appropriate. My third question was
about the importance of a common persona for the growth of a nation and finally, my fourth
question was about the respondent's own connection to the Aztec and Mayan cultures. To get my
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responses I would personally pick the person and ask them to fill out the survey on their own as
to get the best sample of their untainted opinion. I made sure to limit the response pool to a
specific group of those who identify with the Mexican culture, so as to keep the pool of
respondents within the realm of reason for these types of questions dealing with nationality
specifically from Mexico.
It is very commonplace to see nods to indigenous groups and cultures in Mexican,
Chicano, and Mexican-American pop culture such as in music and movies. While Mexico had
one of the largest Indigenous populations in the country they are mostly unfounded. Mexico has
an indigenous population of between 10 percent to 15 percent of the total Mexican population ().
Within that percentage, only around 22 percent are Aztec and 10 to 13 percent Mayan (). While a
fairly large percentage of the population is geographically isolated within the southern and
southern central regions of Mexico, and over 2 fifths of the population live in only three Mexican
states Oaxaca, Yucatán, and Chiapas (). This leaves most of Mexico and as a result most of the
Mexican population with little connection to these indigenous populations. So the question then
becomes why does the culture place so much importance on these identities.
For my first question about the importance of connecting with one's culture the results
mostly aligned with the idea that culture is extremely important to the Mexican population. For
this question, 68.75 percent of respondents indicated that they believe it is extremely important
to connect with their cultural roots, and 18.75 percent indicated it to be somewhat important,
while only 12.5 percent indicated it to not be important at all. Overall 87.5 percent of
respondents indicated a moderate level of importance in connecting with one's culture in their
day-to-day lives. This clearly indicates the still prominent importance of culture and tradition in
this generation of Mexican-Americans.
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Skipping over the second to talk about the third question I asked about the importance of
giving a population a common persona to stand behind for the growth of the nation. For this
question, 61.11 percent of respondents answered in a way that indicated that a common persona
to be extremely important, and 38.8 percent indicated it to be of some importance. While not as
strong a sentiment as in our first question the indication is still clear a nation's people need and
want a common persona or identity to stand behind. Thanks to the Mexican government's role
after the Mexican Revolution this Identity was found in the largest groups of indigenous people
in the country the Aztecs and Mayans. This government-implemented Identity can be easily seen
everywhere the most glaring example being the Mexican flag itself, as it is of great religious
significance to the Aztec culture.
The flag boasts an eagle on top of a nopal cactus with a snake in its beak. This imagery
comes from an Aztec legend in which their sun god named Huitzilopochtli would guide the
Aztec people to a new home. The legend says that Huitzilopochtli told the Aztecs they would
know they’d arrived at their new home when they saw an eagle standing atop a nopal cactus and
holding a snake in its beak (). As you can see the imagery is exactly the same and is without a
doubt inspired by the Aztec culture.
Running back to my second question I asked at which point of connection would it be
appropriate for a person to claim any indigenous roots. This question was a little more spread out
with 57.1 percent of respondents saying the deciding factor was your connection to the culture, 9
percent saying genetics was the appropriate measure, and 23.8 percent not setting any point of
connection. As you can see the majority of respondents stated that for a person to identify with
an indigenous group, they had to be involved and connected with the culture of said group,
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which isn't exactly easy when you're isolated from the group you're trying to identify with. So
again the question becomes why is our culture so closely tied to these indigenous groups.
Now for my fourth and final question, I asked the respondents about their own personal
connection to the Aztec and Mayan indigenous groups. The results were on a scale from one to
five one being that they felt no connection to the cultures at all and 5 being that they felt an
extremely close connection to the cultures. With that 38.1 percent of respondents answered one,
another 38.1 percent answered two, 19 percent answered three, and 4.8 percent answered four.
These results show a disconnect between the newer generation and their cultural connection with
indigenous groups and people. How and when did this change come to be might be explained by
the trend of more people being informed of the treatment Indigenous people went through under
the same government which glorifies them on paper. In this way, more people are coming to
question this aspect of their culture which creates the perfect breeding ground for critical
thinking to thrive and encourage more change. Thanks to social media numerous creators have
been able to reach the masses about their people's struggles and their treatment in the country,
creating a new atmosphere around the topic and promoting more critical thinking.
While traditionalist culture is still very much prevalent in Mexican, Chicano, and
Mexican-American pop culture it has begun to change. The prevalence of indigenous groups as a
common persona is slowly starting to peel away and the reliance on these false connections is
being eroded. This indicates a massive change in our culture which creates room for critical
thinking to thrive, as culture is one of the most prevalent aspects of our life affecting our critical
thinking. This opens many exciting doors for the future to see how the culture will evolve further
in the future and how it'll impact the way in which the nation interacts not only with its entire
population but more importantly its indigenous population. Will the changing attitudes toward a
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person's use of indigenous heritage and culture become a trend in the people and become a
full-fledged cultural change?
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Work Cited
Fox, Jonathan. Mexico’s Indigenous Population. Cultural Survival, 2010.
Indigenous peoples in Mexico. IWGIA,
Indigenous peoples. Minority rights group international,
The Aztecs. Embamex.sre.gob.mx,