“The return of the Indian raid” in the History Archive of San Luis province (Argentina)

Abstract

The well-known painting “The Return of the Indian raid” (“La vuelta del malón”) by Ángel Della Valle, painted and exhibited in 1892 and currently housed in the National Museum of Fine Arts, became part of the late process of recognition of Indigenous communities in the province of San Luis at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Ethnographic monitoring of the reproduction of the painting, moved over fifty times, including six reproductions, twenty recreations, sixteen photographs and videos, and the original, reveals a work of constructing references throughout the province of San Luis. These references are related to a new position taken by the provincial government that considers the pre-existence of communities, and implies the installation of a residual past (the conquest of the desert) from which the emerging must be interpreted. This is a political process initiated in the early 2000s by emerging political communities in the north (Huarpe families) and south (Ranquel families) of the province (Romá, 2024b). This paper explains how, in addition to being part of a complex exhibition, “The return of the Indian raid” joins the Archive in the dynamic of establishing the necessary connections to legitimise the newly established framework of recognition. This framework emerges from a new governmental position on the Indigenous issue, and is the one that, though under tension, currently favours our communities’ exercise of rights.