From Indian to Highlander: On How Indios Became Serranos in Peru

During the time of the Spaniards the term indio was not necessarily associated with a particular geography. Indios could be found everywhere: in the sierra, on the coast, in the valleys, on the mountains, in the cities and the countryside. However, at some point in the late-eighteenth century, and more forcefully in the course of the second half of the nineteenth century,  indios become intrinsically associated with a place – the sierra – and the concept of serrano acquired, in turn, a profoundly derogatory connotation. This legacy pervades the racial imaginary of contemporary Peru. Inspired by pioneering works of anthropologist Benjamin Orlove, art historian Natalia Majluf, and the classic work of historian Karen Spalding, this paper resorts to a number of historical, visual, and literary sources to trace the process by which the concept of indio became intertwined with that of serrano. My paper investigates how a racial conception became indistinguishable from a geographical notion­; how an adjective (indio serrano) became a noun (serrano); and how serrano, in turn, became an insult in Peru.