In The Human Face of Globalization, Jacques Audinet writes against the insane dreams of the 20th century—especially all forms of cultural and social segregation founded on violence. He discovers that mestizaje, the interpenetration and mixing of cultures, in its contemporary movements and forms, is both an exorcism and a dynamic model for healthy and creative change. Mestizaje critiques the monovisions and the monologues of the cultural purists and the nativists. In Audinet’s vision of our global existence, human expressions of art, gastronomy, mourning, love and the imagination will survive and thrive only through the embrace and cultivation of mestizaje, which will help translate us not into new divisions but into the renewal of cultural life.
Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America, Harvard University From Alexander the Great and the Persian princess Roxane to Malinche and the European conquest of the Americas to today's globalized world, Audinet unveils the dangers and creative possibilities of mestizaje. Grounding his analysis in the corporeal and cultural experiences of contemporary life, he deftly illuminates the dynamics of mestizaje and its significance for the future of humanity.
Timothy Matovina, associate professor of theology and director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dam Mestizaje (metissage, cross-breeding) is a cultural and biological fact not only in the Americas but all over the word. In this important book, Audinet argues that taking a stance on mestizaje is taking a stance on a direction for humanity.
R Stephen Warner, professor of sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago