Revista de Estudios Sociales

rev. estud. soc. | eISSN 1900-5180 | ISSN 0123-885X

Between Caste War and Mestizaje: Images of Indigenous People in Liberal Central America, 1870-1944

No. 26 (2007-04-01)
  • David Díaz Arias
https://doi.org/10.7440/res26.2007.04

Abstract

This article analyzes how politicians, newspapers, and intellectuals represented indigenous people of Central America during the so-called Liberal Era (1870-1944). They portrayed “Indians” as barbarous, rebellious, manipulable and, therefore, a driving force behind the caste wars of Central America. Based on these images, Central American liberal elites confronted the “Indian problem” in three different ways: hiding their indigenous heritage by labeling their imagined communities as “white” (Costa Rica); integrating Indian communities within the new nation-states but rejecting their cultures, traditions, and identities (El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras); and finally by continuing with the colonial model of exclusion (Guatemala).

Keywords: representations of indigenous people, Central America, imagined communities, cultural policies

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