The figure of the ‘Indian’ in 1920s Bolivian theater

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the treatment of the figure of the ‘Indian’ in the Bolivian theater of the 1920s. It opens up with a presentation of the theatrical work of Bolivia’s generación del 21. The selected corpus is then read as a set of texts that discuss the intersections between the notions of the ‘Bolivian nation’ and ‘indigeneity,’ two key elements in the intellectual debates of early 20th century Bolivia. It attends to the connection between these plays and Bolivian indigenismo and inter-American indigenismo more broadly, thereby highlighting how the ‘Indian’ was understood to be a contemporary subject constrained by specific material circumstances. The article considers the plays Supay marca (1928), by Zacarías Monje Ortiz, which premiered in 1920; two plays by Antonio Díaz Villamil: La voz de la quena (1988), which premiered in 1922 and La Rosita ([1928] 2001), which premiered in 1925; and Los lobos del Altiplano (1930), by Federico Ávila.