Eastern Bolivia has not received much attention in historical studies. In this detailed study, Brockington (emer., North Carolina Central Univ.) attempts to return Mizque to its rightful place by reclaiming its forgotten past. The book begins as a rather traditional study of the incomplete Spanish conquest into a marginal area torn between colonial centers in Peru and Rio de la Plata. The Spanish worked "to maintain economic and political control of the nearly uncontrollable by keeping the rural population locked in place." The heart of the study is part 3, where Brockington turns to a discussion of Mizque's human face. Particularly notable is her discussion of African slavery as a second dimension of Mizque's forgotten past. In the first serious study of slavery in the eastern Andes, Brockington convincingly demonstrates that Africans did not replace indigenous labor, but added new skill sets. Their presence contributed to an intersection and cross-fertilization between diverse indigenous and Spanish populations. Symbolically, the book title places Africans and their descendants first, but this reviewer wishes that Brockington had further broken from a Eurocentric approach by introducing colonial Mizque from their perspective, rather than from that of the Spanish conquistadors. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- M. Becker, Truman State University