ABSTRACT

For the last few decades, indigenous activism has been a major force in Latin American politics. By raising claims over collective rights and self-determination, indigenous activists have successfully brought to public attention the limitations of existing models of nation-building in the region, built around principles of liberal equality and racial cohesion (see Van Cott, 2010). They have also contributed to an unprecedented reconfiguration of citizenship rights and the emergence of new forms of indigeneity that openly defy cemented racial hierarchies (see Warren and Jackson, 2003). While the impact of indigenous activism on ethnic relations and statehood are evident, it is hard to pin down the intrinsic features of this phenomenon, as it is characterized by profound geographic differences across Latin American countries. Indigenous activism in fact conflates apparently unrelated sets of practices. As a broad field of political action, indigenous activism can manifest in open confrontations between activists and police forces, as is often the case in mobilizations against mega-development projects and natural resource dispossession in indigenous territories. Activists, however, can also forge alliances with state actors and even participate in state infrastructure projects as a platform for the advancement of development and educational agendas (see Radcliffe and Webb, 2015). Activists can be ritual experts working side by side with community members in cultural revitalization programs funded by national and international organizations, as well as legal experts and intellectuals who make critical interventions in debates on constitutional reforms among policy-makers.