ABOUT THIS BOOK

Bringing into dialogue the fields of social history, Andean ethnography, and postcolonial theory, The Lettered Indian maps the moral dilemmas and political stakes involved in the protracted struggle over Indian literacy and schooling in the Bolivian Andes. Brooke Larson traces Bolivia’s major state efforts to educate its unruly Indigenous masses at key junctures in the twentieth century. While much scholarship has focused on “the Indian boarding school” and other Western schemes of racial assimilation, Larson interweaves state-centered and imperial episodes of Indigenous education reform with vivid ethnographies of Aymara peasant protagonists and their extraordinary pro-school initiatives. Exploring the field of vernacular literacy practices and peasant political activism, she examines the transformation of the rural “alphabet school” from an instrument of the civilizing state into a tool of Aymara cultural power, collective representation, and rebel activism. From the metaphorical threshold of the rural school, Larson rethinks the politics of race and indigeneity, nation and empire, in postcolonial Bolivia and beyond.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Brooke Larson is Professor Emerita of History at Stony Brook University; author of Cochabamba, 1550-1900: Colonialism and Agrarian Transformation in Bolivia, also published by Duke University Press, and Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810–1910; and coeditor of Ethnicity, Markets, and Migration in the Andes: At the Crossroads of History and Anthropology.

REVIEWS

“The Lettered Indian is a beautifully narrated and painstakingly documented history of Indigenous education in twentieth-century Bolivia. Drawing on a prodigious array of archival, print, and oral sources, Brooke Larson weaves a history of Aymara activism, in which schooling and literacy play a primary role, thus putting the lie to the myth of the ‘oral Indian.’ At once historical and ethnographic, this book places Indigenous actors at the center of Bolivian history to tell a powerful and vibrant story of postcolonial nation-building. It is a major contribution to Latin American history, anthropology, and Indigenous studies.”

-- Joanne Rappaport, author of Cowards Don't Make History: Orlando Fals Borda and the Origins of Participatory Action Research

“The Lettered Indian is a monumental work by a masterly historian. Through profound investigation, incisive analysis, and compelling narration, Brooke Larson shows how education is central for decolonization. Moving between Indigenous activism and peasant community initiative, national intellectual debate and state policy, as well as US imperial projects, her book reveals that the struggle over popular education led to the dismantling of neocolonial modernity in Bolivia over the course of the twentieth century.”

-- Sinclair Thomson, coeditor of The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics

"Larson’s eloquent study of Indigenous education in Bolivia lays bare with triumphant clarity the inevitable destination—the reclamation of a heritage and identities from the iron grip of tight Euro-American imperial narratives. ... This fascinating study provides a key insight into the discourse and practice of race and indigeneity in the nation-building projects of elites and those they dominate, behind which Indigenous Bolivians themselves sought to wrest the agenda into their own hands."

-- Gavin O'Toole Latin American Review of Books

"The Lettered Indian is a monumental work that should become a key reference point for twentieth-century Latin American history, even beyond the theme of Indigenous education in Bolivia. It is also a model for writing, as it richly paints urban and rural landscapes and colourful figures of all stripes and personalities, and does so paying close attention to the ebbs and flows of political and economic dynamics."
-- Bret Gustafson Journal of Latin American Studies

"This book, a long time coming, is a great addition to Bolivian history and to the history of education in Latin America. It is also an excellent and deeply researched political history of twentieth-century Bolivia (and especially the northern Andean highlands), as refracted through education policy. I can highly recommend it for those interested in the history of Bolivia, Latin American education policy, and Indigenous education and social movements."
-- Erick D. Langer Hispanic American Historical Review

"Larson’s excellent book thoroughly explores the context and perspective of the debates, ideologies, and aspirations surrounding Indigenous education in the Bolivian Andes. . . . Once finished with the book, the reader feels to have accurately traversed a century of history of the Bolivian Andes and, particularly, of the struggles faced by the Aymara communities."
-- Anna Guiteras Mombiola American Historical Review

"A masterful piece of historical research and writing that uses the lens of Indigenous education to examine the country’s colonial racist legacy and the struggle of Indigenous people to eliminate it. . . . This exceptional work is essential for understanding Bolivian history and the struggles of Indigenous people in the Americas."
-- Ann Zulawski The Americas

"Brooke Larson’s book on the history Indigenous education in Bolivia is a masterpiece. It is deeply researched, beautifully written, a pleasure to read and a gift to historians of Bolivia, education, Indigenous movements and so much more."
-- Sarah T. Hines ReVista

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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