The Mexican essayist and poet, Octavio Paz, has described Latin America as ‘the suburbs of the West’. In those suburbs/states where large indigenous populations live, the notion of ‘Amer-indian’has not taken on. In Mexican political discourse, the word ‘Indian’ does not necessarily imply prejudice and it is into that particular labyrinth that this article leads1. © 1997, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.