Paper short abstract:

My paper analyses the representation of Indigenous subjects in El Perú Ilustrado against the background of contemporary discourses on Indigeneity and conceptions of visuality. I explain the foundational role of its visual depictions and their relation with 20th-century Indigenista representations.

Paper long abstract:

Considered the first Peruvian illustrated magazine, El Perú Ilustrado (1887-1892) supported the modernizing programme put in place by Peruvian ruling classes during the national reconstruction that was carried out after the Pacific War (1879-1883). The magazine's general aim was 'to be an agent of progress'. As the title itself suggests, visuality was a key aspect. El Perú Ilustrado offered a multifaceted iconography that aimed to show the development of the country and become a visual archive of its history.

Peruvian subjects were depicted within clearly divided genres. 'Portraits' and 'types' were used to reproduce the social and racial hierarchies of contemporary society. While urban citizens were represented as independent individuals, indigenous people were shown as signs of categories. Significantly, the depiction of 'Indians' from the Amazon was larger in number than that of 'Indians' from the Andes. Reflecting the elite's political agenda of conquering and colonizing the uncharted jungle, the visual and verbal discourses on both Indigenous groups ambivalently shifted from exoticism to the need to forcefully civilize the primitive.

Drawing on El Perú Ilustrado's photography-based engravings, litho-photographs and texts on indigenous subjects, I will discuss, firstly, how these images articulated contemporary discourses of primitivism, degeneration and civilization; secondly, how the magazine used the 'documentary' function of photography to argue the almost scientific objectivity of its position; thirdly, the extent to which this magazine set the basis for later visual representations of Peruvian Indigenous subjects, such as the Indigenista depictions from the early 20th century and beyond.