Nuestra paradójica identidad de mezcla: Una mirada desde el psicoanálisis

Abstract

This article addressed the particularities of racism in Puerto Rico, taking as premise a popular notion adopted by the organization that promotes the island as a tourist destination: "From the interweaving of the Taíno, African, and Spanish traditions emerged the Puerto Rican, a new identity composed of traits from all three groups". Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, it was argued that this offer of mixed identity is paradoxical: it conceals the underlying segregation, the jouissance in the bonds of exploitation that produced it, and the persistent segregation; but also moderates the aggressiveness of the other as Other, allowing for less extreme segregations. It was emphasized that the paradox is complex. As its definition suggests, mixture can refer to con-fusion or bond, be imposed or chosen. Moreover, although the offer is universal: "all mixed", we know that "not all equally", but do not admit the origin of this. Following Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan and Colette Soler, the proposed conclusion was the possibility of a movement in the identity of mixture: from an imposed universal con-fusion, to a bond assumed one by one; an identity that, not based on a deceitful ideal, allows co-existence from an affirmation of the singular in each mixture.

Keywords: identity, racism, singularity, bond, psychoanalysis