By exploring key testimonies and political essays written by highland Indigenous activists, this study critically explores how Indianism-Katarism developed as a discourse and a movement, and its continuing influence on public discourse in Bolivia today.


The book examines in detail the work of the Aymara activist, widely considered the intellectual 'founder' of Indianism, Fausto Reinaga, placing his ideas on race and racialization in context and showing how his writings, especially his magnus opus The Indian Revolution, helped to shape Indigenous activism in the Andes. It then turns to the emergence and diversification of Indianism and Katarism from the 1960s and developments since the turn of the millennium, in particular its rearticulation by the Movement Towards Socialism under Evo Morales and contributions from contemporary feminism as articulated in the writings of Hilda Reinaga and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. Through an analysis of key essays, manifestos and testimonies, the study explores how Indigenous writers were able to challenge dominant historical narratives to mobilize new political actors. More generally, by reflecting on the relationship between textuality and the material practices of power and resistance, the book shows how cultural studies methodologies can be applied to provide new insights into processes of socio-political change and subjectivation.