중남미

In the mid-twentieth century, nation-building projects arose in Bolivia and Ecuador based on the concept of “miscegenation.” This paper studies how such projects articulated nationalist visions of indigenous race. In both cases the aim was to include the indigenous peoples within the nation, conceived as a peasant and mestizo amalgam. However, the implemented policies of agrarian reform, generated trials with paradoxical consequences. Instead of transforming indigenous peoples into mestizo peasants, they made possible the affirmation of their ethnic identity, their self-organization and participation in the national political arena. In this article, I first analyze the political process by comparing the ideals of mestizo nationhood in Bolivia and Ecuador. Then, I examine the land reform and its unintended effects as well as the origins of indigenous movements.