Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (National Indigenous Languages Institute – Mexico)INCORA –Instituto Colombiano de Reforma Agraria (Colombian Agrarian Reform Institute)INCRA –Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agraria (National Colonization and Agrarian Reform Institute – Brazil)INI –Instituto Nacional Indigenista (National Indigenous Institute – Mexico – later CDI-Brazil)INPI –Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas – (National Institute for Indigenous Peoples – Mexico; successor to CDI)ISER –Instituto Superior de Estudos da Religião (Institute of Advanced Religious Studies – Brazil)IURD –Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God)MAS –Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Towards Socialism – Bolivia)MERCOSUR –Mercado Común del Sur (Southern Common Market)MPB –Música Popular Brasileira (Brazilian Popular Music)MST –Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – (Landless Rural Workers’ Movement – Brazil)NAFTA –North American Free Trade Agreement (later USCMA)PRI –Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Mexico)PT –Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party – Brazil)SERVEL –Servicio Electoral de Chile (Chilean Electoral Service)THOA –Taller de Historia Oral Andino (Andean Oral History Workshop)TIPNIS –Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure (Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park)UAIIN –Universidad Autónoma Indígena e Intercultural (Autonomous Indigenous and Intercultural University – Colombia)UFMG –Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Federal University of Minas Gerais – Brazil)UNICH –Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas (Intercultural University of Chiapas – Mexico)USCMA –US–Canada–Mexico AgreementUVI –Universidad Veracruzana Intercultural (Veracruz Intercultural University – Mexico)
Glossary
ayllu –autonomous communal authority overseeing land allocation among households in highland Bolivian communitiescabildo –council of a community or localitycaboclos –people of mixed race (Indian, black, white) in Amazonia; also spirits that assume innumerable forms as their presence is detected or summoned by a mediumcalidad indígena –legally recognized indigenous statuscampesino –peasant or small farmerCandomblé –type of possession cult in the Yoruba traditioncapilaridade –capacity of asocial movement to penetrate deep among the interstices of a social milieucholas, cholos –persons of mixed race or intermediate social status in the Andean socio-racial hierarchycimarronaje –having features in common with escaped slaves (cimarrones)cocaleros –coca growerscolonos –colonists who come from outside and bring ‘uncultivated’ land under the plough or who occupy territory where the state is virtually absent. Usually, these lands and territories are used and occupied by indigenous peoplescompadre –co-godparentcriollo –of mixed white and indigenous race; also means native to or bred in the Americas (but not indigenous)despatriarcalización –process of removing patriarchal features from societyejido –form of quasi-collective land tenure under the Mexican Agrarian Reformestética negra –a politically nuanced style of dress and hair fashionable among young black people in Brazil, especially Bahiainterculturalidad –an approach to education and institutional arrangements that recognizes indigenous heritage and encourages indigenous participation and the learning of indigenous languages and cultureladinos –elite predominantly white people constituting a quasi-caste in Guatemalamachis –Mapuche shamans (mostly women)malandragem –roguishnessmandar obedeciendo –‘to lead while obeying’ (said to be a Tojolabal motto)media luna –‘crescent moon’: the lowland region of Bolivia comprising the departments of Tarija, Pando, Beni and Santa Cruzmestizo –light-skinnedmoreno –brown-skinnedmovimento negro –black movementoriginario –founding, as in nación originaria, referring to indigenous ethno-linguistic groupsparamilitares –‘paramilitaries’, organized groups who engage in violent action against Indians and social and indigenous activists, and nominally against guerrillas, in Colombiapardo –brown; used in official statistics and classification in Brazilpreto –literally ’black’, denoting the deepest black skin colour; a term mostly used in Brazil in official statistics and classifications, which do not use negroquilombo, quilombola –settlements of escaped slaves and the people who live in themregiones de refugio –literally refuge zones, referring to isolated regions with predominantly Indian populations living outside the market economyresguardos –the institutional form of indigenous ownership of land in Colombiasaudade –a distinctively Brazilian nostalgic sadness or sense of loss, and associated musical stylessindicatos campesinos –peasant unions (Bolivia)tercermundista –supporter of a nationalist, anti-imperialist worldview which opposes the countries of the global South (formerly ‘Third World ‘) to Europe and the United Statesterreiros –sites of Candomblé ceremoniesusos y costumbres –customs and traditions of indigenous people
Introduction
In recent decades the most academically influential intelligentsia of the Latin American left have retreated behind the walls of the university, even while they denounce the social order more comprehensively than any previous Latin American ideology. In their diagnosis, Latin American society is characterized by a polarized and polarizing colonial apparatus of racialized domination that has existed unchanged for 500 years and infuses all relations of unequal power and status as well as the mindset of its populations. This diagnosis functions as an indictment of institutions, socio-economic structures and ideologies – like Marxism and liberalism – as well as of the subconscious mechanism where racial prejudice is implanted. There results a cast of mind in which ethnic identities not only have their place, as they must do, but also take precedence over other themes like class, gender, violence, institutional stagnation and collapse, public health, organized crime, corruption … the list is very long.
This reductionism discourages political activity by creating a climate of despair and negativity, and indeed this philosophy of the decolonial, or lo decolonial, as I call the Latin American branch of postcolonialism, constitutes a hemisphere-wide network whose activism is directed at the internal life of academia rather than at politics on the street, in the media, in election campaigns or in institutions of the state. It denounces the Marxist nebula, which over generations guided even the moderate Latin American left, for its denial of the racial basis of domination, and disqualifies liberalism for its complicity with colonialism and slavery. Paradoxically, then, the world of the decolonial is characterized by quietism in the public sphere of politics and shrill rhetoric within the halls and Twittersphere of academe. In this it can be contrasted with feminist tendencies that also call themselves decolonial, and in addition autonomous, and are more involved in extra-mural politics by virtue of their activist field research and their participation in women’s and LGBT movements.
This distinctively Latin American tendency is a largely self-sufficient subculture, so I will restrict myself to the output of Latin Americans and Latin Americanists – many operating out of the United States – and of particular authors whom they quote. I also take care to refer to particular writings, and readily admit that it is impossible to cover the entire output of a very prolific group of authorities. My plea is for the restoration of the pursuit of universalist social justice to its rightful place in the thought of the region’s left, and I conclude by according the pursuit of gender equality at least parity with the politics of racial and ethnic identity and racial empowerment.
By universalist social justice, I mean a primary focus on the redistribution of income and wealth based on socio-economic criteria and an understanding of social class and gender as drivers of inequality. Universalist justice also means the investigation and punishment of acts of racial discrimination. This is particularly important because whereas indigenous populations can mobilize along identity lines in support of claims to intercultural education, to restitution of usurped lands and to the re-establishment of their own institutions in the form of laws and self-government, Afro-descendant populations rarely are in a position to make such claims, yet they are also victims of racial exclusion and acts of discrimination. To free those populations of these burdens, policies must focus on universal justice and universalist equality, as must policies to change gender inequalities, and they can also include affirmative action. This distinction between identity politics and universalist justice, which are far from mutually exclusive, remains important.
