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Indian Communities, Political Cultures, and the State in Latin America, 1780–1990
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
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In Tlatelolco, in the symbolically laden Plaza of the Three Cultures, there is a famous plaque commemorating the fall of Tenochtitlán, after a heroic defence organised by Cuauhtemoc. According to the official words there inscribed, that fall ‘was neither a victory nor a defeat’, but the ‘painful birth’ of present-day Mexico, the mestizo Mexico glorified and institutionalised by the Revolution of 1910. Starting with the experiences of 1968 – which added yet another layer to the archaeological sedimentation already present in Tlatelolco – and continuing with greater force in the face of the current wave of indigenous movements throughout Latin America, as well as the crisis of indigenismo and of the postrevolutionary development model, many have begun to doubt the version of Mexican history represented therein.1 Yet it is important to emphasise that the Tlatelolco plaque, fogged and tarnished as it may be today, would never have been an option in the plazas of Lima or La Paz. The purpose of this essay is to define and explain this difference by reference to the modern histories of Peru, Bolivia and Mexico. In so doing, I hope to elucidate some of the past and potential future contributions of indigenous political cultures to the ongoing formation of nation-states in Latin America.
As suggested by the plaque in Tlatelolco, the process and symbolism of mestizaje has been central to the Mexican state's project of political and territorial reorganisation. By 1970, only 7.8 % of Mexico's population was defined as Indian, and divided into 59 different linguistic groups.
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References
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9 My summary of the Mexican case is based on the following sources: Hamnett, Brian R., ‘Royalist Counterinsurgency and the Continuity of Rebellion: Guanajuato and Michoacán, 1813–1820’, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 62, no. 1 (Feb. 1982), pp. 19–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hamnett, Brian R., Roots of Insurgency: Mexican Regions, 1750–1824 (Cambridge, 1985)Google Scholar; Taylor, William B., Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford, 1979)Google Scholar; Van Young, Eric, ‘Moving Toward Revolt: Agrarian Origins of the Hidalgo Rebellion in the Guadalajara Region’, in Katz, (ed.), Riot, pp. 176–204Google Scholar; Tutino, John, From Insurrection to Revolution in Mexico: Social Bases of Agrarian Violence, 1750–1940 (Princeton, 1986).Google Scholar The comparison between the movements of Tupaq Amaru and Tupaj Katari is a hypothesis based on the following sources. For a general overview, see Stern, Steve J., ‘Introduction to Part I’ in Stern, (ed.), Resistance, pp. 29–33Google Scholar; Campbell, Leon, ‘Ideology and Factionalism During the Great Rebellion, 1780–1782’, in Stern, (ed.), Resistance, pp. 110–139Google Scholar; and Mercado, Zavaleta, Lo nacional-popular en Bolivia.Google Scholar For Peru, see especially Mörner, Magnus and Trelles, Efraín, ‘A Test of Causal Interpretations of the Tupac Amaru Rebellion’, in Stern, (ed.), Resistance, pp. 94–109Google Scholar; Godoy, Scarlett O'phelan, ‘La rebelión de Túpac Amaru: organización interna, dirigencia y alianzas’, Histórica, vol. 3, no. 2 (1979), pp. 89–121Google Scholar; Godoy, Scarlett O'phelan, Rebellions and Revolts in Eighteenth Century Peru and Upper Peru (Köln, 1985).Google Scholar For Bolivia, see Rasnake, , Domination and Cultural Resistance; Larson, Colonialism and Agrarian Transformation.Google Scholar
10 The analysis in this paragraph is a hypothesis based on the suggestive essay by Katz, Friedrich, ‘Rural Uprisings in Preconquest and Colonial Mexico’, in Katz, (ed.) Riot, pp. 65–94.Google Scholar See also Taylor, William B., ‘Banditry and Insurrection: Rural Unrest in Central Jalisco, 1790–1816’, in Katz, (ed.), Riot, pp. 205–246.Google Scholar At the same tine, it is important to recognise that the relationship between the colonial state and Indian communities in central Mexico was not reproduced in the mining regions of the ‘north’ where the rebellion had its origin. See especially Brading, David A., Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763–1810 (Cambridge, 1971)Google Scholar; Brading, David A., Haciendas and Ranchos in the Mexican Bajio: León, 1680–1860 (Cambridge, 1978)Google Scholar; and Tutino, From Insurrection to Revolution.
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