Indigenous Groups In Latin America

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Over the past few weeks the class has looked at various political parties throughout Latin America. In places such as Bolivia there has been great success in social movements. Madrid states, “Bolivia’s Movement toward Socialism, known as the MAS for its Spanish initials, has been the most successful of the indigenous parties” (Madrid). Although Bolivia has made great strides in creating equality amongst various indigenous movements other countries have not had the same success. Peru is among the many countries that has struggled to gain proper representation in politics. Indigenous groups are underrepresented and indigenous movements are almost non-existent or lack effectiveness. Indigenous groups have been marginalized all throughout Latin-America …show more content…
“As cliché and overused as this saying is there is great truth in it for the indigenous groups of Peru. One of the factors which discourages political participation of indigenous people is their location. “Moreover, the areas where the indigenous population is concentrated are often located far from the national capitals of these countries, making it difficult for the indigenous movements to assemble large numbers of people in the capitals to carry out protests or make their voices heard” (Madrid). With many indigenous groups being spread out it becomes impossible to mobilize and gather large number to create influence in the politics of Peru. In order to be effective the indigenous people of people need to come together in large numbers to ensure they are …show more content…
This is no doubt residual of earlier colonization in the region. Many of the indigenous people have mied previous colonizers but there is still a great deal of racism in Latin America. This is definitely the case in Peru. “It is true that racial and cultural mixing has occurred on a significant scale in Peru since colonial times, and a majority of the population in certain regions, mainly in the coast, is of mixed race and culture; however this mestizaje has not eliminated the perception of distinctive and hierarchically organised cultural and racial traits by Peruvians; nor has it prevented racist discriminatory practices against self-identified mestizos” (Paredes). Racism runs rampant in Peru and perpetuates a sort of hierarchy with indigenous people being at the bottom of this hierarchy. What does this mean for political participation in Peru of the indigenous people? Simply put, this has contributed to their marginalization and prevents indigenous people from participating in the political process. Because indigenous people do not have those “desired traits” which those of mixed race individuals do they are seen as less and often excluded from the political process. They are therefore underrepresented in the government because there is truly no need to include them since the indigenous people are not a top priority in Peru due to their low status. This perception of indigenous groups in Peru is one of many
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