Mestizo Nations: Culture, Race, and Conformity in Latin American Literature

Nationality in Latin America has long been entwined with questions of racial identity. Just as American—born colonial elites grounded their struggle for independence from Spain and Portugal in the history of Amerindian resistance, constructions of nationality were based on the notion of the fusion of populations heterogeneous in culture, race, and language. But this rhetorical celebration of difference was framed by a real—life pressure to assimilate into cultures always defined by Iberian ...