A leading Latin Americanist exhorts scholars to reclaim the indigenous subjectivities still perceived by many as not modern and excluded from the production, distribution, and organization of knowledge.
Mestizaje - process of cultural, ethnic, and racial mixing of Spanish and indigenous peoples - has been central to the creation of modern national identity in Bolivia and much of Latin America. This study reveals how modernity in Bolivia has depended on a perception, forged during the colonial era, that local cultures need to be uplifted.