The Face of the Mexican: Race, Nation, and Criminal Identification in Mexico

Abstract

Various scientific techniques are used worldwide in contemporary criminal identification. Caramex, called the “Face of the Mexican,” is a face‐recall system for criminal identification specifically developed for the Mexican population. It is a photographic database composed of Mexican facial traits to generate composite sketches. In this article, I examine Caramex and show that it works according to specific ideas of nation, mixture (mestizaje), and race (mestizo). In contrast to racial ideologies in which purity is the assumed and desired condition of races, Caramex highlights hybridity. This specific framework—drawing on what I call “Mexicanness”—guides the construction of the database and thus the production of portraits. The analysis historically situates the development of Caramex and provides insights into the daily use of this technology. It shows that Caramex not only reproduces old views of nation and race but also generates new ideas on these issues, as users can alter the photographic database and contest the ideas that shaped the technology. Thus, more generally, this case shows how technologies of identification incorporate and construct ideas of nationhood and human variation in Latin America. [face‐recall system, mestizo, race, Caramex, Mexicanness, Mexico]

Curious about race: Generous methods and modes of knowing in practice

“…A naïve, yet dominant, post-World War II idea about the nonexistence of race has contributed to the assumption that the history of race and race science are a thing of the past and do not matter (also in the sense of materializing) to the here and now (Goldberg, 2008;Lipphardt, 2012;Skinner, 2006). Making histories of race relevant to the present is therefore a way of attending to the practices and materialities that help enact race and the multiple temporalities that they fold together to do so (Baedke & Delgado, 2019;Kowal, 2023;M'charek, 2014;Nieves, 2020;Schramm, 2020).…”

Policing in Cryptoracial Societies: The Case of Mexico

“…I would like to thank the experts who shared insights on their work. These insights made possible the publication of Nieves Delgado (2020), which contains an extended version of the discussion on Caramex. I also want to thank Mark Whittle and the editors for their comments on previous versions of this article.…”

“…As such, it is intended to standardize and improve processes of criminal identification by generating photolike composites instead of drawings. On the other hand, it is a way to improve the portraits of “Mexican faces”—a task that other composite systems, like Identi‐Kit and Photo‐Fit, were not able to perform (Nieves Delgado, 2020)—an improvement that is achieved by studying the facial diversity of the Mexican population.…”

“…There is also a commonly held belief that certain areas in Mexico, such as the Jaliscan Highlands, have a higher percentage of blond people. These people are often contrasted with, for example, the “very typical Mayan population” of Brown people in Yucatán (Nieves Delgado, 2020). The sampling process to create the photographic database follows these assumptions.…”

Between pencils and genetic markers: Rethinking innovation in policing through forensic face-making technologies

“…For the lack of attention to more mundane technologies in policing is not limited to police organizations themselves, but is reflected in social studies of science as well. Whereas ample attention has been paid to FDP (see Hopman, 2021; Hopman and M’charek, 2020; M’charek, 2016, 2020; Ossorio, 2006; Wienroth et al, 2014), facial composite drawings have received relatively little (for an exception see Nieves Delgado, 2020).…”