Photographic Encounters: Martin Chambi, Indigeneity and Chile-Peru Relations in Early Twentieth Century Chile

In 1936, the indigenous Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi travelled to and exhibited his work in Chile. Using a transnational framework of historical analysis, this article explores the multiple meanings of his visit. In particular it underscores the involvement of the Chilean and Peruvian governments in this cultural encounter, and highlights some of the commonalities and connections, as well as differences, between the discourses of race that were circulating in Chile and Peru at the time. This is important because it undermines the dominant historical narratives, which have tended to present Chile as a country that – in contrast to Peru – failed to engage in discussions about the so-called ‘indigenous question’, and which have interpreted relations between Chile and Peru almost exclusively as antagonistic and hostile.