“[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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“Steve Lewis expertly provides us with a magnificent tour-de-force of indigenista policy initiatives designed to improve the life of the Maya in Chiapas, Mexico’s most backward state. This book is required reading to understand the potential and contradictions of government-centered development programs, as well as the personalities of those who design such policies.”—Marc Becker, author of Pachakutik: Indigenous Movements and Electoral Politics in Ecuador
