The lettered Indian : race, nation, and Indigenous education in twentieth-century Bolivia
Larson, Brooke. Duke, 2024
- 496p bibl index, 9781478020653 $119.95, 9781478020653 $29.95, 9781478027560
- LC Call Number: F 3320
Larson (emer., Stony Brook Univ., SUNY) made her mark on the field of Andean studies decades ago with her seminal book Colonialism and Agrarian Transformation in Bolivia (CH, Nov'88, 26-1707). The Lettered Indian is the culmination of a long and productive career that contributes significantly to readers' understanding of rural schooling and literacy campaigns in the Andes. Larson examines this topic through a deep dive into the contested politics of political governance and education politics in the Bolivian Andes during the 20th century. The book revolves around the legendary Warisata school, which famously trained a generation of teachers for rural communities in Bolivia. A key takeaway of Larson’s work is the double-edged nature of gaining literacy in the Spanish language: it can form a traditional weapon of neocolonial domination as well as a potential tool for Indigenous empowerment and resistance. The title of this volume is an allusion to Ángel Rama’s groundbreaking work The Lettered City (1996), and in many ways this book offers a critical and urgently needed counterpart to that previous study as it highlights persistent divisions between rural and urban worlds.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.
- Reviewer: M. Becker, Truman State University
- Recommendation: Highly recommended
- Readership Level: Upper-division Undergraduates, Graduate Students, Researchers/Faculty
- Interdisciplinary Subjects: Latin American & Latina/o Studies , Racial Justice
- Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences - History, Geography & Area Studies - Latin America & the Caribbean
- Choice Issue: jul 2024 vol. 61 no. 11
- Choice Review #: 61-3154