[1] In some contemporary uses, it refers to the pursuit of greater social and political inclusion for indigenous peoples in Latin America, whether through nation-wide reforms or region-wide alliances.
Sáenz had initially taken an assimilationist position on the "Indian problem," but after a period of residence in the Purépecha community of Carapan, he shifted his stance to one focusing on the material conditions affecting the indigenous.
In 1940, Mexico hosted a multinational meeting on indigenismo, The Congress of Inter-American Indigenism, held in Pátzcuaro, where Cárdenas himself addressed the gathering.
[7] President Miguel Alemán reorganized the Mexican government's policies directed at the indigenous by creating the National Indigenist Institute (Instituto Nacional Indigenista or INI).
Though the authors of indigenist policies saw themselves as seeking to protect and relieve indigenous people, their efforts did not make a clean break from forced assimilation practices of the pre-revolutionary past.