Description
Book SynopsisHistorians, anthropologists, and sociologists examine how race and racism have mattered in Andean and Mesoamerican societies from the early colonial era to the present day.
Trade Review“This timely and important collection should appeal not just to historians of Latin America but also to scholars interested in colonialism, subaltern studies, social policy, modernization, and nation building. Focusing on race and racism in five countries over several centuries, the contributors address themes such as education, cultural nationalism, and definitions of mestizaje and hybridity, enabling readers to see how similar concerns played out in different places and times.”—
Mary Roldán, author of
Blood and Fire: La Violencia
in Antioquia, Colombia, 1946–1953“This valuable collection delves into issues of racism and indigenous identity at a regional level, in a way that no other book does. Focusing on Mesoamerica and the Andes, where most indigenous Latin Americans live, well-known specialists in their fields offer interesting, up-to-date scholarship on the discrimination that indigenous peoples have suffered from the colonial period to the present.”—
Erick D. Langer, editor of
Contemporary Indigenous Movements in Latin America“While the temporal distribution of the collection favors the twentieth century, scholars of all time periods will benefit from the varied methodologies and perspectives presented by the contributors. Ultimately, this volume represents a very valuable collection of cutting-edge research into the permutations of race and racism throughout the history of Latin America.” -- Robert C. Schwaller * Ethnohistories *
“This volume’s strength lies in its detailed and, in many cases, very local analysis of specific historical moments. This is less a history of race than a collection of essays about the persistence of racism, and no one reading this volume will be in any doubt about its centrality to understanding the continent’s history.” -- Rebecca Earl * Hispanic American Historical Review *
“This is a superior and important book, which will be widely used and cited.” -- Peter Wade * Journal of Latin American Studies *
“A major contribution of this volume is the way in which it puts into dialogue histories of race from colonial times to the present, including current indigenous mobilizations. For this reason, it will be an excellent addition to undergraduate surveys and courses on race in Latin American history.” -- Waskar T. Ari-Chachaki * Social History *
“The importance of this volume is multiple. It is timely, answering a need for deeper understanding of race/racism in the region given the growing number of violent racist incidents…Moreover, the volume brings together debates relevant to history as well as colonialism, subaltern studies, development studies, sociology, social policy and international relations.” -- Karem Roitman * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
“This book performs the useful service of introducing the work of many of these scholars—especially the Latin American scholars—to an English-speaking audience. It does this while also crafting a whole that is more unified, with its various parts in dialogue with one another, than is usual in an edited collection. Laura Gotkowitz should be complimented on the accomplishment.” -- Robert L. Smale * A Contracorriente *
“
Histories of Race and Racism offers significant, accessible and clearly written contributions from the fields of history and cultural anthropology to the study of Indigenous identities and politics that will be useful for those teaching or writing about race and the colonial legacies of Latin America.” -- Elizabeth Shesko * Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: Racisms of the Present and the Past in Latin America / Laura Gotkowitz 1
Part I. The Uses of "Race" in Colonial Latin America
Unfixing Race / Kathryn Burns 57
Was There Race in Colonial Latin America?: Identifying Selves and Others in the Insurgent Andes / Sinclair Thomson 72
Part II. Racialization and the State in the Long Nineteenth Century
From Assimilation to Segregation: Guatemala, 1800–1944 / Arturo Taracena 95
The Census and the Making of a Social "Order" in Nineteenth-Century Boliva / Rossana Barragán 113
Forging the Unlettered Indian: The Pedagogy of Race in the Bolivian Andes / Brooke Larson 134
Part III. Racialization and Nationalist Mythologies in the Twentieth Century
Indian Ruins, National Origins: Tiwanaku and
Indigenismo in La Paz, 1897–1933 / Seemin Qayum 159
Mestazaje, Distinction, and Cultural Presence: The View from Oaxaca / Deborah Poole 179
On the Origin of the "Mexican Race" / Claudio Lomnitz 204
Part IV. Antiracist Movements and Racism Today
Politics of Place and Urban Indigenas in Ecuador's Indigenous Movement / Rudi Colloredo-Mansfield 221
Education and Decolonization in the Work of the Aymara Activist Eduardo Leandro Nina Quispe / Esteban Ticona Alejo 240
Mistados, Cholos, and the Negation of Identity in the Guatemalan Highlands / Charles R. Hale 254
Authenticating Indians and Movements: Interrogating Indigenous Authenticity, Social Movements, and Fieldwork in Contemporary Peru / Maríia Elena García and José Antonio Lucero 278
Transgressions and Racism: The Struggle over a New Constitution in Bolivia / Andrés Calla and Khantuta Muruchi 299
Epilogue to "Transgressions and Racism": Making Sense of May 24th in Sucre: Toward an Antiracist Legislative Agenda / Pamela Calla and the Observatorio del Racismo 311
Part V. Concluding Comments
A Postcolonial Palimpsest: The Work Race Does in Latin America/ Florencia Mallon 321
Bibliography 337
Contributors 377
Index 381
