This paper applies methods and concepts familiar to cultural geographers (analysis of discourse and representations, discursive identity formation) to some issues of French post-colonial society, with particular reference to the constrained identities and territorialities granted to people of non-French origin. It considers the problems of “banlieues” in this perspective and raises some questions about the “indigènes de la République”, natives of the Republic, movement. A reference to Mexican natives, and the forms of the encounter between Europeans and American indigenous populations, helps to shed some light on this, and the Malinche is discussed as a possible symbolic figure from which to reconstruct our understanding of the Other. This figure suggests in particular that reframing some of our understandings of identity to incorporate the feminine experience may prove worthwhile.