Internal Colonialism as a concept within LatinX cultural expression

Internal Colonialism is an idea or term that isn’t used today as much as it was one. although, it can still be applicable.

The term refers to political and economic inequalities between regions within a single society. The term may be used to describe the uneven effects of state development on a regional basis and to describe the exploitation of  groups within the wider society. The relationship between colonizer and colony is similarly unequal and exploitative in internal colonialism.

An internal colony typically produces wealth for the benefit of those areas most closely associated with the state, usually the capital area. The members of the internal colonies are distinguished as different by a cultural variable such as ethnicity, language, or religion. They are then excluded from prestigious social and political positions, which are dominated by members of the  colonizing group (Abercrombie et al., 2000:183).

The main difference between neocolonialism and internal colonialism is the source of exploitation. In the former, the control comes from outside the nation-state, while in the latter it comes from within.

One of the most influential publications on the subject is Michael Hechter‘s Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development.

Sergio Salvi, a poet, essayist, and historian of minority languages, had used the term “internal colonies” to describe cultural colonization in his book “The forbidden nations: Guide to ten internal colonies of western Europe”