América Indígena and inter-American visual indigenismo, 1941–1951

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the visual imagery within the journal América Indígena published by the Inter-American Indigenist Institute (IAII). I analyze how the images published there operate as symbolic capital in the formation of an indigenista visual culture. I hold that the images published by the IAII’s journal significantly contributed to the consolidation of an indigenista discourse and the establishment of an inter-American indigenista visuality. This article examines three types of images used by the IAII’s journal highlighting the ideological agendas they played in the articulation of inter-American indigenismo. First, I analyze the emblematic image designed by Carlos Mérida that represented the IAII institutional identity. Second, I analyze some woodcuts designed by artists active at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP, Popular Graphic Workshop). Their images gave the journal an homogenous editorial visual identity even though the publication attempted to recognize the diversity and plurality of indigenista perspectives. Finally, I focus my attention on photographs taken by different practitioners – explorers, anthropologists, state-allied photographers, and photographers working for tourism offices and publicity. This work allowed inter-American indigenous diversity to reach (or be exported to) international audiences; it also facilitated the plurality of agendas taken up by indigenistas during the 1940s.