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Show 80 Indigena, XIV, No. 4 (October, 1954), pp. 289-302. English summary: In the majority of the Latin-American countries, where agriculture has been and continues to be the principal basis of subsistence, the rural worker (that is to say, the Indian) constitutes the day-laborer par excellence. However, despite the existence of large Indian masses particularly in non-industrialized countries, agricultural labor leaves much to be desired. In most cases it just provides an economy of bare subsistence, with the added necessity in some cases of importing basic agricultural products to supplement deficient crops. This has prompted more than one European to think that the Indian is not even capable of cultivating the land and that he is nothing more than a racial impediment to American progress. As a result of this thinking urgent demands have been made for the immigration of robust Europeans, to replace the Indian in his own habitat and land. The author of this article, Victor Gabriel Garces, refutes with unusual energy this point of view, the outcome of racial prejudices and lack of knowledge of the social and historical circumstances, which, in many lands, has made the Indian a feeble and ineffective rural worker. Garces, possessed of well-documented and comprehensive knowledge of the Ecuadorian Indian, has combatted such discriminatory ideas for many years. In this same magazine in 1944 (America Indigena, IV: 97-105) and under the same title he published his ideas on this passionate theme of social politics. These racial prejudices continue in force to this day, which makes necessary a discussion of the problem in the light of the experiences of modern Indianism. The present article is not a repetition of that published in 1944 but rather a more ample and energetic presentation and of great actual interest. Although the author refers primarily of his own country, Ecuador, nevertheless his generalizations are valid for all American countries comprising large native groups. Fortunately, the opinions of anthropologists, sociologists and Indianist institutions, official or private, are today heeded by the American governments. 1955 Aguirre Beltran, Gonzalo (Mexico), "A Theory of Regional Integration: The Coordinating Centers," America Indigena, XV (January, 1955), pp. 29-42. Article written in English, summary in Spanish. Dorsinfang-Smets, A., "Contactos de Culturas y Problemas de Aculturacion en Suramerica," America Indigena, XV, No. 4 (October, 1955), pp. 271- 291. English summary: Colonial expansion of Western States carried Western civilization to the most varied corners of the earth establishing contact with exotic cultures the world over. Amerindians knew cultural intermixing before, but the arrival of the Europeans was a far more traumatic experience, one which left none |