Indians and mestizos: Identity and urban popular culture in Andean Peru

The article begins with a discussion of the chronology of conquest and libe ration in Peru and reflects on the changing meanings given to the racial ca tegories of Indian and mestizo (half-caste) in colonial and post-colonial p eriods. Using popular culture as a lens, the transformations taking place i n images of race and urban social identities are analysed, using as a case study a provincial town in the Andean highlands in the course of the twenti eth century. Through changing forms of street theatre urban groups worked o ut new identities by weaving together juxtaposing and contesting different cultural forms. The article explores in derail two manifestations of street theatre that predominated. These are the Dance of the Inca in the 1900s th at addressed Indian/white relations, and carnaval where relations between m estizo and white were played out for much of the twentieth century.