Rethinking Mexican Indigenismo

"[Lewis's] approach, grounded in painstaking archival work and the author's deep knowledge of the region, yields a superb analysis of the fraught relationship among revolutionary indigenism, Mexican anthropology, and Tzeltal and Tzotzil communities."--Ben Fallaw, American Historical Review

"A welcomed addition to the growing scholarship that attempts to make sense of Mexico's rapid decline as a continental leader on indigenous policies."--IK: Other Ways of Knowing

"Rethinking Mexican Indigenismo is one of but a few archive-based studies--and the first in English to focus on Chiapas--that treats indigenismo as a historical subject. Overall, Lewis's book is a fascinating portrait of how, in the author's words, 'an indigenista project that initially contemplated major structural reforms [. . .] ended up a widely criticized, largely ineffective bureaucracy that lost the support of the very people it purported to serve.'"--Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education

"Overall, Lewis has provided a rich, exhaustive account of indigenismo from the 1940s through the 1970s that will become required reading for anyone trying to understand Mexican rural politics during this time period."--Hispanic American Historical Review

"The book is fun to read, in part because Lewis has a great eye for surprising stories. . . . Rethinking Mexican Indigenismo is a comprehensive and nuanced investigation of an organization that looms large in the history of twentieth-century Mexico."--H-LatAm

"Well written and clearly argued, this book analyzes the outcomes of a generation of government policy vis-à-vis indigenous peoples in Chiapas. . . . It is a superior contribution to the field in part because of its scope and in part because of its detail."--Alexander S. Dawson, author of Indian and Nation in Revolutionary Mexico