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Indians and Indianism in revolutionary Mexico Rogers, Peter

Abstract

Although the mass participation of Mexican Indians in the Revolution of 1910-1920 is universally recognized, recent scholarship has tended to downplay—even to deny outright—the ethnic specificity of their involvement: i.e., their capacity to formulate goals and pursue projects distinct from those of Ladinos (non-Indians). This essay argues, to the contrary, that the revolution was a conflict not only of class against class but of culture against culture, of aboriginal identity against European identity; and, moreover, that given Mexico's legacy of colonialism and neocolonialism it could not have been otherwise. After a brief introduction, a theoretical discussion undertakes to define Ladino and Indian ethnic groups as historical products of the colonizing process and the indigenous response to that process. The two main strands of Indianist ideology—elite and peasant Indianism—are likewise derived, it is argued, from the history of domination and resistance which followed upon the Spanish conquest. Historical sketches of these opposing ideological currents are then provided as background to the study of Indians and Indianism in the Mexican Revolution, which follows in sections V, VI, and VII (pp. 19-37). While Indians throughout Mexico participated in the Revolution, this essay focuses on the most prominent instance of peasant Indianism in the twentieth century, the movement led by Emiliano Zapata. The widespread perception of Zapata as an Indian and of Zapatismo as a species of Indianism is demonstrated in a review of contemporary accounts; and the accuracy of that perception is confirmed by analyzing the discourse of two prominent Zapatista ideologues, Paulino Martinez and Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama. Finally, the character of Zapatismo as an Indian—more specifically a Nahua—revolution is investigated at the grassroots level, in a study of oral literature and other ethnohistorical materials reflecting the viewpoint of the peasant Zapatistas themselves.

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