Acting Inca: National Belonging in Early Twentieth-Century Bolivia (Pitt Latin American Series)

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Description

For many of the postcolonial era, the Aymara Indians of highland Bolivia were a group without representation in national politics. Believing that their cause would in spite of everything be recognized, the Aymara fought alongside the victorious liberals right through the Civil War of 1899. Despite Aymara loyalty, liberals quickly moved to marginalize them after the war. In her groundbreaking study, E. Gabrielle Kuenzli revisits the events of the civil war and its aftermath to dispel popular myths about the Aymara and reveal their forgotten role in the nation-building project of modern Bolivia.

Kuenzli examines documents from the famous postwar Peñas Trial to get well Aymara testimony right through what essentially became a witch hunt. She reveals that the Aymara served as both dutiful plaintiffs allied with liberals and unwitting defendants charged with wartime atrocities and instigating a race war.

To further combat their “Indian problem,” Creole liberals developed a public discourse that positioned the Inca as the only Indians worthy of national inclusion. This was once justified by the Incas’ high civilization and reputation as noble conquerors, in conjunction with their current non-threatening nature. The “whitening” of Incans was once a thinly veiled attempt to block the Aymara from politics, whilst also consolidating the power of the Liberal Party.

Kuenzli posits that despite their repression, the Aymara did not stagnate as an idle, apolitical body after the civil war. She demonstrates how the Aymara appropriated the liberal’s Indian discourse by creating theatrical productions that glorified Incan elements of the Aymara past. In this way, the Aymara were in a position to carve an acceptable space as “progressive Indians” in society. Kuenzli provides an extensive case study of an “Inca play” created in the Aymara town of Caracollo, which proved highly popular and helped to unify the Aymara.

As her study shows, the Amyara engaged liberal Creoles in quite a lot of ways in the beginning of the twentieth century, shaping national discourse and identity in a tradition of activism that continues to this day.

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