Foreword

The question is justified when we weigh the degree of consciousness achieved today by the Indians of the American subcontinent. Latin America's Indians are only a few of the 20 or 30 million natives of that part of the world, it will be said. Certainly. But the problem of minorities (of majorities in certain Latin American countries) has always been that of their representativeness and their dynamism.

The Indian awakening which had been latent for several years is moving ahead rapidly and asserting itself. The proof is in the various contemporary documents brought together in this work. This is not an exhaustive collection, but a striking illustration of the new nature of "indian-ness" and of its crystallization around several basic observations and several fundamental claims.

1. Beyond the obvious regional and national characteristics, these different documents express a common reality: the Indian is economically exploited, culturally and politically oppressed; the path of liberation leads through the affirmation of peasant realities and through a native organization on a continental scale.

Therefore, the essential demand is, for the Indians, that of dignity, which is closely linked to the cultural values constituting the life of a people. Because the Indians have been victims of a systematically destructive will, they have become, in their own terms, "strangers in their own land." They are all the more sensitive to their cultural originality because they are convinced of the specific contribution of their civilization to the building of a new society. The Indian Francisco Servin, in the Paraguay Parliament, expresses this demand for dignity with moving simplicity: "The 'gringos' believe that we are stupid and ignorant. A day will come when they will realize that we are their roots."

2. For the Indians, landis more than economic wealth. It is a means for work and for subsistence; it is also the center of their conception of the world, the foundation of their social organization as well as the source of their traditions and customs. "The Indian and the land are one. The Indian is master of the land, with or without a property title." The theft of their lands is therefore the first plundering which leads inexorably to ethnocide. It is the perception of the intimate link between the land and the Indian which characterizes the awakening of the Latin American peasant consciousness. The claim of the land as cultural milieu is the basis for the current effort toward liberation undertaken by the natives.

3. The bloody struggles of the past against the Conquistadors are there to prove that the native peoples are always ready for ultimate sacrifice when their existence and their authenticity are at stake. Today the Indian awakening is taking on the form of an attempt at systematic analysis of contemporary society: a critique of all that is destructive of their civilization which is found in the school and the Western political system; the demand for sanitary equipment and social security; the formation of peasant parties, either strictly native or integrated into the peasant movement; and finally, the recovery of lost lands and its corollaries: the practice of communal ownership, of cooperation and self-management. These are the principal elements of a program which is being progressively formulated by means of the various meetings between the "Indian nations."

4. One key word is constantly repeated on the lips of the participants at these meetings: organization. Only an alliance between the native groups can allow them to struggle effectively against oppression. The immediate objective is the formation of regional Indian councils as basic structures upon which national and continental federations may be created.

Strong affirmation, rigorous analysis , ardent demonstration: these are the characteristics which emerge from the assertions of the several indigenous groups of South America.

The time of silent massacres is undoubtedly coming to an end. The Indian question is surely a matter to be watched.

This North American edition of Le reveil indien en Amerique latine has tried to be as true as possible to the original documents out of Latin America written in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as incorporating certain words and phrases from the various Indian languages. To achieve this, the various documents and papers have been translated from the original Spanish and Portuguese, while the chapter introductions and postscript have been translated from the French. Editor's and translator's notes appear where possible, to assist the reader.