Formulating national indigeneity

Colombian identity and the projection of Lo Indio

Abstract

This article deals with processes of national identity formation in Colombia duringthe Liberal administrations in the 1930s and 1940s. Focus is placed on elite programs and initiatives that projected a sense of national indigenity as an element of Colombian identity. Special attention is given to “indigenist” and “indianist” interventions of this time. It is argued that the “Colombian Indian” was introduced by the State as an untapped national resource. The author contends that pro-Indian mobilizations gave rise to an “indigenist tendency” compatible with other contemporary projections of Colombia as a modern Igor A. Rodríguez Calde- and developing nation.