La Raza Cosmética

“Natasha Varner’s La Raza Cosmética is an important, original study on the intricacies of white supremacist ideology articulated through mestizaje in Mexico from the 1920s through the 1940s. Its nuanced decolonial theoretical approach offers a lucid critique that illuminates how settler colonial policies operate not only in Mexico but across the Americas.”—Emil Keme, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill“Varner does a remarkable job of tracing how postrevolutionary Mexico constructed racial and gendered hierarchies of indigeneity that led to Indigenous erasure. By highlighting Indigenous women’s active participation in the beauty pageants, films, and tourism campaigns that formed part of this racial project, Varner illuminates these women’s efforts to contest the idealized narratives of indigenismo and mestizaje.”—Bianet Castellanos, co-editor of Detours: Travel and the Ethics of Research in the Global South“Natasha Varner’s book insightfully traces how nationalists used the female Indigenous body to construct settler colonialism in postrevolutionary Mexico. In the process, it creatively bridges Indigenous studies in the United States and Latin America.”—Rick A. López, author of Crafting Mexico: Intellectuals, Artisans and the State After the Revolution“Placing the visual politics of beauty at the center of a wide-ranging analysis, La Raza Cosmética reminds us that the racial politics and modernist designs of settler colonial nationalism depend on the presence of Indigenous women—and, in Mexico, of their simultaneous displacement by the logic of mestizaje. Drawing together subtle cultural interpretation, rich historical context, and deft theoretical insight, Natasha Varner has crafted a powerful and compelling narrative, one not to be missed.”—Philip J. Deloria, author of Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. La reina de la raza: The Making of the India Bonita2. La Flor más Bella del Ejido: Springtime Maidens, Invented Tradition, and Making a “Modern” Mexico City3. Cine folclórico: From Racial Fantasy to Cinematic Spectacle4. Virgén Xochimilco: Pure Women and Waters in Mexico City’s Suburban South5. Doña Luz Jiménez: “The Most Painted Woman in All of Mexico”ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex