The peculiar paths of the liberal project - Indigenista statexraft and the rise of the caciques apoderados - In our provinces there is no justice: Caciques apoderados and the crisis of the liberal project - The problem of national unity: from the Chaco war to the 1938 Constitutional Convention - The unruly countryside: defending land, labor rights and autonomy - The unwilling city: Villarroel populism and the politics of mestizaje - The disgrace of the pongo and the mitani: The 1945 indigenous congress and a law against servitude - Under the dominion of the Indian the 1947 cycle of unrest - Conclusión and epilogue: rethinking the rural roots of the 1952 revolution ^ien