Common indians: Social movements of the 20th century

Abstract

Indigenous identity originates from the Indigenous communities themselves, with doctrines and ideologies concerning the existence of and respect for life in all its forms, or from their philosophy and respect for their cultural identities. This is also the view held by Guillermo Carnero Hoke and Roel Pineda, both Peruvian scholars of Indigenous identity.

The later antecedents of social movements originating from Indigenous people date back to the 18th and 20th centuries. These movements are evident in the shared positions and causes of the common people and the colonial noble leaders (curacas). The Crown differentiated between the two, privileging the curacas and imposing the mita (forced labor) and tribute on the common people. This distinction is reflected in the Laws of the Indies through the Republic of Indians.

This opened a debate among intellectuals, who questioned and took political and philosophical stances regarding Indigenous people. They confronted the official Creole and mestizo state, demanding the rights that had been denied to them. The figures of Guillermo Carnero Hoke and Virgilio Roel Pineda, intellectuals and advocates of Indigenous rights, are relevant because at that time, traditional political parties, whether left or right, did not include or still excluded Indigenous people from their government programs; for them, only social classes existed. Indigenous identity did not fit into the capitalist development model of globalist neoliberalism, nor into Marxist dialectics. Western European culture is very different from Indigenous culture.

Therefore, Indigenous identity is a doctrine that ceases to be merely a theory and becomes a political practice of liberation, fully embraced by, among other Peruvians, Carnero Hoke and Roel Pineda, and of course, by our Bolivian brothers and sisters.