Objective/context:

The purpose of this article is to introduce the expressions of 21st century Indianism in countries such as Bolivia and, at the same time, to provide an analysis that is based on the fact that the struggle of the Indian peoples with the State, in ideological terms, has not ended.

Methodology:

This study presents a combination of the analysis of data obtained in the field with the documentary revision of historical texts and political propaganda documents on the subject. The ethnographic work was developed, first, in 2009 and, then, between 2013 and 2014, and focused on participant observations conducted in spaces of political discussion by different Indian organizations in the cities of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia, during the second term of the government of Evo Morales.

Conclusions:

This investigation shows that there are several experiences that are claimed as Indianist, but these have not formulated a common political project oriented to the constitution of the Indian as a political subject. Thus, Indianism, beyond an ideological formulation, has not been able to consolidate a material base that enables the organization of its project, unlike the state project that has the resources and economic and social elements for its concretion.

Originality:

This article seeks to introduce a discussion - in epistemological and methodological terms of the political and social scientific disciplines - around the case of current Indianism in Bolivia, as an experience of indigenous peoples that identifies the political centrality of the Indian who frequently becomes invisible even within Latin American academia.

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