Elite Indigeneity from Cumandá to Instagram: Femininity, Visualism and Aesthetics in Elite-Friendly Representations of Indigenous Amazonia

This article examines how Amazonian indigeneity is represented in elite-controlled cultural spaces – what I call “elite indigeneity” – through a comparison of Juan León Mera’s 1879 novel Cumandá with contemporary indigenous influencers on Instagram. Through analysis of visualism, gender and ethnicity, it suggests some of the ways through which certain forms of indigenous (self-)representation can be made palatable to elite interests despite broader conflicts between indigenous and elite agendas. The study compares Juan León Mera’s representation of the fictional Cumandá with the social media presence of the Gualinga sisters, indigenous influencers from Ecuador’s Sarayaku territory. In spite of their historical distance, the cases share striking parallels: their protagonists occupy ambiguous positions between indigenous and white identity, their representation relies heavily on visual aesthetics that maintain a balance between intimacy and exoticization, and they present feminine-coded forms of political expression that contrast with masculine-coded forms of indigenous resistance that have dominated outsider perceptions of Amazonia. The analysis suggests that while digital media appears to democratize indigenous self-representation, it may reproduce long-standing patterns of elite indigeneity by privileging particular aesthetic and political forms.