Staging indianización/staging indigenismo: artistic expression, representation of the ‘Indian’ and the inter-American indigenista movement

ABSTRACT This special issue—‘Indigenismo on Stage: Artistic Expression and the Inter-American Indigenista Movement in the Mid-Twentieth Century’—aims to present the staging of indigenismo by analyzing its ‘indianizing’ side. The process we call ‘indianization’ consists of promoting the recognition of indigenous cultural and especially artistic ‘specificities’, as determined by the inter-American indigenismo that consolidated in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, starting with the first Inter-American Conference on Indian Life in 1940. Concretely, this special issue addresses the staging of indigenist indianization in two crucial domains: 1) ‘indigenous’ artistic expression as it was promoted by indigenismo; and 2) the abstraction/generalization of ‘indigeneity’ and ‘indigenous people’ that operationalized and successfully spread this indigenismo. These two concerns bring together the contributions to this issue (articles, a review essay, and a collective dialogue), which explicitly adopt a transnational perspective or, when they focus on specific countries, consider their indigenist connections to the rest of the Americas. Grounded on the analysis of a notable variety of objects of study (statuary, music, handicrafts, photography, engraving, and theatre), this special issue follows an itinerary that runs from the early twentieth century to the present.