Being Kolla: Indigenous Identity in Northwestern Argentina

Abstract

Using a case study of the Kolla in Argentina, this paper considers how indigenous identity may be constructed, practiced, and imagined in Latin America. People in the northwestern highlands have only recently begun to reclaim an identity as “indigenous” people. Reimagining their identity has been highly contested by the larger society. Nationally, the image of Argentina as a “European” nation denies the inclusion of indigenous peoples. Moreover, many of the Kolla have found being identified as an “Indio” a source of stigma rather than of pride. The debate, shrouded in “scientific” jargon on language, archaeological sites, and historical migration, has immediate and material consequences: “indigenous” peoples are entitled to specific rights in the national constitution, rights which poor white peasants do not necessarily share.