Resumen

SERRANO SANTOS, María Laura. "Soy de los dos lados, a la mitad me quedo". Estilos de vida en jóvenes indígenas urbanos de San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Cuicuilco [online]. 2015, vol.22, n.62, pp.149-173. ISSN 0185-1659.

Interest in studies on indigenous youth is relatively recent, especially regarding the population in the cities; this is mainly because, for a long time, a very b association between the indigenous status and the rural context was accepted almost uncritically. Nowadays, that relationship is not inseparable, considering that indigenous people are not (and should not necessarily be) limited to rural settings. To continue insisting, without discussion, only fuels the imposition of an absolute identity on the youths belonging to an ethnic group, thus reinforcing essentialist ideas about the roles and lifestyles they should adopt, which are almost exclusively determined by the abstract idea of a worldview that delineates their perceptions and experiences. Current studies focus on indigenous youth through new meanings assigned to the "young" and the "indigenous" from their own opinions, which has contributed to helping them end the trend to see them as future farmers, occupied only in the reproduction of their society, their traditions and their "worldview," thus allowing them to be seen as active agents and protagonists of their own futures. This article is part of this line of study, presenting the way in which a group of indigenous youths, born in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas (Chiapas), create their own lifestyles based on two conditions: the ethnic side, represented mainly through their experiences and perceptions regarding life in the indigenous community, along with certain cultural traits (often stereotypes) associated with indigenous people; together with the condition of youth, which is represented by their experiences and perceptions of their life in the city and the symbolic references through which they identify themselves as youths in a given context. Both these cultural and social conditions contribute to their daily lives, so it is important not to ignore situations that may place them at a disadvantage and thus open them up to social vulnerability.

Palabras llave : indigenous youths; lifestyle; ethnicity; youth status.

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