Return of the Native and Latin America National Identity

Beginning with the independence struggles, Earle’s text examines the use of the feather-crowned Indian princess, Inca sun symbols across South America, narratives of Spanish conquest and colonialism as three centuries of tyranny, and the preconquest era as a past of freedom for revolutionaries. Hence, romanticized notions of the Incas or the preconquest societies as idealized groups wronged by Spanish colonialism became part of the invented past for a creole nationalism. However, Earle is careful to note how this changed over time as liberals and conservatives in various moments and locations appropriated the pre-colonial societies while maintaining their own elite positions and access to power, regardless of the lofty rhetoric used in praise of the preconquest civilizations or the metaphorical use of the Indian as a step-father in the patria. This pattern of continuing to privilege Iberian cultural practices in Spanish America while simultaneously appropriating the Indian as national symbol remains a constant throughout the period, even if masked in the language of cosmic race or mestizaje as in the case of Vasconcelos or attempts to “Mexicanize” the Indian under the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas.

      Two possible shortcomings of Earle’s book consist in the inconsistent and weak inclusion of the Spanish Caribbean and the negligence of Afro-descendants in the nations she examines. Surely, part of this reflects the different conditions in the Caribbean such as later dates of independence, but certain parallels continue in those regions where the indigenous population was no longer a factor. For instance, the appeal of the Taino in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico has been part of national myths, not to mention the Museo del Hombre in Santo Domingo’s extensive collection of pre-conquest Hispaniolan artifacts. Although Earle briefly mentions the use of the Indian in pro-independence Cuban sentiments in the middle of the 19^th century, a fuller inclusion of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic would have added some nuance to her narrative as well as the role of race in regions with large populations of African descent like the Caribbean.