Becoming indigenous in postrevolutionary México. The Lake Pátzcuaro landscape as a place of discursive struggle

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I examine the emergence of discourses on the indigenous during the postrevolutionary period in México (1920–1940), focusing on the Lake Pátzcuaro region, an iconic national landscape, and an indigenous region in central west México. Understood in terms of practice, this paper uses landscape as a lens to examine questions of identity, discourse, and power, emphasising its relational, constructed nature. It focuses on the set of discursive practices known as indigenismo. The central idea posed in this paper is that although postrevolutionary indigenismo served as a tool for governance, it also provided a language for the indigenous people to articulate their demands, enabling the articulation of indigenous identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigeneity
• landscape
• Lake Pátzcuaro
• negotiation
• governance

Acknowledgements

This paper is one of the products of my doctoral research conducted at the University of Nottingham (2017–2021), under the supervision of Professors David Matless and Sarah Metcalfe. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for their invaluable mentorship and insights throughout my academic journey. Additionally, I am immensely grateful to CONAHCYT for their financial support, which made my doctoral studies possible. I also extend my appreciation to the two anonymous reviewers and the editor Steven M. Schnell for their constructive comments, which played a pivotal role in refining this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See José Vasconcelos essay La raza cósmica (1925).

2 See Ruth Hellier-Tinoco (2011) for a discussion about the nationalist appropriation of the dance of the Old Men and the history of the Bartolo Juárez family. Here I explore the way in which these actors in interaction with others participated in the definition of Lake Pátzcuaro.

3 This theatre was built on the site of a former convent as part of efforts to restore the “typical aspect” of Pátzcuaro. The building was decorated with a series of murals by Cueva del Rio and Ricardo Barcenas and native arts and crafts.

4 Letter from Daniel Galicia to the DFCP branch office in Cuernavaca, Morelos. 7 July 1938. AGN,

SARH, box. 1434.

5 Magaña-Esquivel, Antonio. “Teatro experimental en México: el Murciélago” El Nacional, 11 May 1938.

6 Ibid.

7 The full conversation appears reproduced in Elizabeth Araiza’s (2013) study on ethnographic theatre.

8 Indígenas capacitados in Alexander Dawson’s (2020) account.

9 29 May 1921. Letter from Miguel O. De Mendizabal to the museum’s director Luis Castillo de Ledón. Historical Archive of the National Museum of Anthropology and History (AHMNAH). Vol. 39, Folder 3.

10 23 May 1921. Meeting minutes of the creation of the Society of Painters of Uruapan. AHMNAH. Vol. 39, Folder 3.

11 November 1917. Correspondence between the Department of Ethnology and Minor Arts. AHMNAH. Vol. 423, Folder 8.

12 Lázaro Cárdenas del Rio Archive. Biblioteca del Museo Nacional de Historia. Memorias como gobernador de Michoacán 1928-1932.

13 “Tercera Exposición Agrícola, Ganadera e Industrial de la Ciudad de Morelia. Comunicado de agricultura y fomento.” El Heraldo Michoacano. 1 September 1938.

14 “Michoacán debe darse a conocer en la próxima Exposición Agrícola, Ganadera, Industrial y Comercial”. El Heraldo Michoacano, 2 September 1938.

15 Un contingente del Museo de Economía a la Exposición. Organización del stand de industrias típicas de Uruapan, mayor atractivo’. El Heraldo Michoacano. 6 September 1938.

16 “Solemnemente se inauguró ayer la Feria de Pátzcuaro.” El Heraldo Michoacano, 10 December 1938.

17 “En pro del turismo en lugares indígenas”. El Heraldo Michoacano. 15 October 1938.

18 Ibid.

19 Archivo General de la Nación. Archivo Histórico de la SEP (AGN-SEP), Serie Escuelas Rurales, Box 386921(2), Folder 1, Folder 6, Folder 13; Serie Escuela Rural Federal, Box 386922(3), Folder 11.

20 AGN-SEP, Serie Departamento de Escuelas Rurales en Michoacán, Box 38504(9), Folder 6.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 AGN-SEP, Serie Escuelas Rurales, Box 386921(2), Folder 6.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia.

Notes on contributors

Jahzeel Aguilera Lara

Jahzeel Aguilera Lara is a Mexican geographer with a background on historical and cultural geography. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham in August 2021 and is currently completing a posdoctoral research stay at the Center for Research in Environmental Geography, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Her interests lie at the intersection of environmental history and cultural geography. She is particularly interested in the study of landscape due to its potential to transcend boundaries between nature and culture, and between the material and the symbolic. She has taught in the Environmental Sciences and Geohistory undergraduate programs, teaching courses on landscape studies, human geography, and cultural geography.