Territorio e identidad coya. Percepciones estudiantiles sobre el racismo

This article aims to understand what it means to identify as Coya from the perspective of young people from a Technical Education School located in the Puna region of Salta Province, Argentina. Through frieze workshops and participant observation, data linked to emotional experiences, self-perceptions, and forms of violence and racism were documented. The fieldwork is part of an ongoing research project aimed at understanding the emotional experiences constructed by Indigenous students and their relationship to racism in the sociodynamics of school stigmatization. Among the results, it is noted that recognizing oneself as Coya entails two ambivalent processes: on the one hand, it implies feelings of pride and dignity, and on the other, it entails feelings of shame and self-loathing. This depends on the context of social interaction in which the students are identified or presented as such. Thus, the same identity marker operates as a sign that exalts within the community itself and, at the same time, becomes a sign of inferiority in other spaces, such as urban areas. This shows that territories are not neutral, but rather scenarios configured by devices of racial classification and hierarchization.