Abstract

This article complicates the dominant narratives of territorial conflicts between indigenous communities and mestizo campesinos in Nicaragua's Bosawas Biosphere Reserve. I suggest that the framing of these conflicts as "interethnic" obscures how class and space shape the multiple, intersectional identities and experiences of mestizo campesinos and justifies their exclusion. Furthermore, the interethnic narrative hampers the distinction between "mestizo" campesinos and "mestizo" elites who facilitate the colonization of indigenous territories through policies prioritizing extractivism and large-scale agriculture that compromise indigenous territorial security and rural lives. In this way, dominant narratives enable violence against both mestizo campesinos and indigenous communities. The article contributes to political-ecological debates on the construction and materiality of seemingly unmarked mestizo identities, which have often remained unexplored in the literature.

Keywords: territorial conflicts, intersectionality, mestizo identity

How to Cite:

Sylvander, N., (2026) “  Unsettling the "non-indigenous:" Mestizo identity constructions and territorial conflicts”, Journal of Political Ecology 33(1): 6410. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.6410