This article examines the Miskitu peoples’ efforts to gain equal rights in mid-20th-century Nicaragua through a discourse of citizenship within the larger ideological framework of Latin American mestizaje (interracial and intercultural mixing as the basis for Latin American identity in refutation of European and/or Anglo-American values). Specifically, it explores Miskitu recollections and reactions to Nicaraguan efforts to integrate them into the national identity through an indigenist programme known as the Río Coco Pilot Project for Basic Education. Acknowledging Miskitu accommodation and even embracement of this assimilationist project provides an alternative interpretation of 20th-century indigenous social activism and validates an earlier Miskitu generation's achievements in advancing the cause of Miskitu social and political equality in Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast region before the era of multicultural autonomy.
BryskA. (2000). From tribal village to global village: Indian rights and international relations in Latin America.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
Carillos FloresA. (1964). Mexico and the Indian.Americas: Organization of the American States, 16(3), 9–16.
DiazH. (1997). Indigenous peoples in Latin America: The quest for self-determination.Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
5.
Dirección de Planificación Nacional Estudios Regionales. (1976). La Costa Atlántica geo-grafía física y política situación económica y social [Physical and political geography, economic and social conditions of the Atlantic Coast]. Managua, Nicaragua: National Office of Planning, Regional Studies Series.
6.
GarcíaC. (1996). The making of the Miskitu people of Nicaragua: The social construction of ethnic identity.Uppsala, Sweden: Universitetet.
7.
GouldJ. L. (1998). To die in this way: Nicaraguan Indians and the myth of mestizaje, 1880-1965.Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
8.
HaleC. R. (1994). Resistance and contradiction: Miskitu Indians and the Nicaraguan State, 1894-1987.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
9.
HaleC. R. (2002). Does multiculturalism menace? Governance, cultural rights and the politics of identity in Guatemala.Journal of Latin American Studies, 34(3), 485–524.
10.
HartzellC. A. (2014). Nation-state crises in the absence and presence of segment states: The case of Nicaragua.Ethnopolitics, 13(1), 28–47.
11.
HelmsM. W. (1971). Asang: Adaptations to culture contact in a Miskito community.Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
12.
Instituto Nacional Indigenist. (1955). ¿Que es el I.N.I.? [What is the I.N.I.?]. Mexico City, Mexico: Author.
13.
Inter-American Indian Institute. (1962). Indians in the hemisphere today: Guide to the Indian population (Indianist yearbook, Vol. XXII).Mexico City, Mexico: Author.
14.
McLean CornelioM. (2012). Situation report: Report on the advances in territorial property rights of the Sumu-Mayangna community of Awas Tingni, Nicaragua.AlterNative, 8(4), 466–478.
15.
MeringerE. R. (2010). The local politics of indigenous self-representation: Intraethnic political division among Nicaragua's Miskitu people during the Sandinista era.Oral History Review, 37(1), 1–17.
16.
Minano GarciaM. H. (1960). Proyecto piloto de educación fundamental del Rio Coco: Informe final sobre la labor realizada para la organización y desarrollo de la communidad (educación fundamental) en el área geográfica de trabajo [Pilot project of basic education for the Río Coco: Final report on the work completed for organization and development of the community (basic education) in the geographic area of the program]. Managua, Nicaragua: United Nations.
17.
Miskitu Sumu Rama Sandinista Asla Takanka (MISURASATA). (1980). Lineamientos generales: Miskitu Sumu Rama Sandinista Asla Takanka. [General directions, Miskitu Sumu, Rama, Sandinista Aslatakanka: The indigenous union of the three ethnic groups of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua]. Unpublished political declaration, Centre for Research and Documentation of the Atlantic Coast, Managua and Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.
18.
MolieriJ. J. (1986). El desafío indígena en Nicaragua: El caso de los Miskitos [The indigenous challenge in Nicaragua: The case of the Miskitos]. Managua, Nicaragua: Vanguardia.
19.
SmutkoG. (1975). Pastoral indigenista: Experiencia entre los Miskitos [Indigenist pastoral program: Experience among the Miskito]. Bogotá, Columbia: Ediciones Paulinas.
20.
SollisP. (1989). The Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua: Development and autonomy.Journal of Latin American Studies, 21, 481–520.
21.
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (1968). The use of vernacular languages in education: The report of the UNESCO meeting of specialists, 1951. In FishmanJ. (Ed.), Readings in the sociology of language (pp. 688–716). The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton.
22.
VareseS. (1996). The ethnopolitics of Indian resistance in Latin America.Latin American Perspectives, 23(2), 58–71.
23.
VilasC. M. (1987). Revolutionary change and multiethnic regions: The Sandinista Revolution and the Atlantic Coast. In Centre for Research and Documentation of the Atlantic Coast/Development Study Unit (Ed.), Ethnic groups and the nation state: The case of the Atlantic Coast in Nicaragua.Stockholm, Sweden: University of Stockholm.
