Natalia Majluf's book brought to mind a conversation I once had with the late art historian David Craven (1943–2012), who recommended that instead of indigenismo, it would be more prudent to speak of indigenismos, diverse movements that varied depending on regional histories and local politics. Majluf's study is a welcome and much-needed addition to a body of literature on the subject, which has tended to privilege Mexico. Her use of Francisco Laso's iconic painting Inhabitant of the Cordilleras of Peru (1855) as a point of departure for the exploration of multiple discourses on Andean indigeneity in nineteenth-century Peru is an inspired strategic move. It reveals an artist who understood his world and the processes at work as Peru struggled to define itself.

Majluf begins by noting how indigeneity was employed to signify national identity at a time when creoles were in power. She adds that the blame for indigenous oppression was placed on the colonial period and the Spanish, exonerating the creoles who were positioning themselves as guardians of the native, a symbolic figure central to early attempts at defining Peruvian national identity. A significant claim Majluf makes is that Laso's painting was the first truly modern image of the Indian, not just in Peru but anywhere. The interest in defining national schools and representing Peru via its art abroad (for example, at the 1855 Paris Universal Exposition) were central factors in the painting's production. The inclusion of pre-Hispanic works at the Louvre and the integration of indigenous Peruvian art in academic European painting presented what seemed like a viable solution to this project. Majluf reads Laso's painting, centered on an indigenous figure prominently holding a pre-Hispanic vessel, as a comment on Peru's history of conquest, colonization, and indigenous oppression, but one reflecting creole interests and the creole imaginary and its limitations.

Majluf addresses literary traditions and the larger Andean landscape that shaped ideas about indigeneity and nation. Central to this discussion is melancholy, not just as a romantic European affectation, but also as a reductive expression of modern indigenism. To the creole, sharing in the alleged melancholic state of the Indian was a way to approximate and identify with indigeneity, exemplified by the elegiac Yaraví songs and the poetic odes to the Andes, which underlined the significance of the mountainous landscape as the site for indigeneity, its language, and its performance. Concurrently, the Indian was presented as passive, indolent, and defeated, a characterization that justified creole paternalism and positioned the Indian as an obstacle to progress. Majluf notes that Laso's cleverly composed paintings not only register this complex history, but also perpetuate those perceptions.

Majluf's discussion of the racialized image presupposes an ethnoracial reality that pre-exists representation, an examination of which underlines the instability and unreliability of racial representations, suggesting that there is no physical referent for Laso's Indian. Although anchored to realism, the image in actuality evades reality, rendering the native, simultaneously invisible and hypervisible, ultimately confirming the project as a failure. Majluf considers Laso's psychology and understands his paintings as attempts not only to resolve social problems, but also to resolve his own internal tensions and contradictions. In his art as in his writing, Laso reaffirmed the status of Indians as victims and servants, and he promoted the idea that their progress and equality could be achieved only through assimilation.

Majluf's rigorous examination of nineteenth-century indigeneity via Francisco Laso's painting maps a series of complex ideas and developments that not only characterize a specific period in Peruvian national history, but also set the stage for the incaísmo, indigenista, and neoindianista movements of the twentieth century. Her study stands as a model for research in nineteenth-century Latin American art history, and her book should be of great interest to a range of audiences, given its nuanced exploration of the intersections between indigeneity, nationalist politics, and visual culture.