Andean Highland Peasants and the Trials of Nation Marking During the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The nineteenth century marks a critical turning point in the long, violent history of colonial encounters among economic élites, political authorities, and native Andean peasantries. This chapter explores the complex historical process by which the Andean republics constructed the 'Indian problem' and turned it into the political and rhetorical centerpiece of their varied nation-building projects during the second half of the nineteenth century. It could be reasonably argued that Creole nation builders constructed their national narratives, by borrowing shamelessly from European notions of linguistic and ethnic nationalism, or from pseudo-scientific theories of social evolution and race. The 'Indian race' was the necessary rhetorical 'other' in their search for national identity, whiteness, and civic society along European models. One of the cultural legacies of nineteenth-century Andean history was the negotiation of diverse, ambiguous ethnic self-identities. These put the lie to racialized bipolarities, which became the public basis of Andean modernity.

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