This work looks at indigeneity in the central highlands of Ecuador focusing on the activism of the grassroots organization of Inca Atahualpa. This organization grew in opposition to the hacienda regime that had been in place for many years. Indigenous groups, who were still subject to extensive racism and injustice, began to reconfigure themselves in relationship to the state and to reorganize their strategies to combat the economic and political forces of neoliberalism.

Long Live Atahualpa is an innovative ethnographic study of indigenous political movements against discrimination in modern Ecuador. Exploring the politicizing of Indianness—the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and political agency—Emma Cervone analyzes how the Quichuas mobilized in the country's central Andean province of Chimborazo and formed their own grassroots organization, Inca Atahualpa. She illuminates the complex process that led indigenous activists to forge new alliances with the Catholic Church, NGOs, and regional indigenous organizations as she traces the region's social history since the emergence of a rural unionist movement in the 1950s.

Cervone describes how the Inca Atahualpa contested racial subordination by intervening in matters of resource distribution, justice, and cultural politics. Considering local indigenous politics and indigenous mobilization at the national and international levels, she explains how, beginning in the 1960s, state-led modernization created political openings by generating new economic formations and social categories. Long Live Atahualpa sheds new light on indigenous peoples operating at the crossroads of global capitalism and neoliberal reforms as they redefine historically rooted relationships of subordination.

"“[P]rovides a rare glimpse into the micropolitics of indigenous rights realization through a detailed analysis of the complex interplay between the personal and political, between identity and unity, and among local, national and global forces in the promotion of meaningful social change…. [G]raduate students and scholars in anthropology, sociology and law could benefit from the interesting engagement between theories of everyday resistance and empirical evidence from an engaging, dynamic and understudied site of contestation.”" - Social Forces

"“...Long Live Atahualpa is a solid book that will be of interest to scholars who focus on the complex issues of indigenous identity and politics...” " - Hispanic American Historical Review

"“Long Live Atahualpa is a welcome addition to the literature on indigenous politics, most notably through its detailed ethnographic accounts of daily social and political interethnic relationships in Ecuador.”" - Latin American Politics and Society

"“Cervone's beautifully rendered regional historical analysis is interwoven with the testimonio of Tixán's elders to illuminate how the remembered past of Quichua labor exploitation…. Cervone's work is also notable for its expansive analysis of agrarian crisis and transformation that eventually spurred indigenous mobilizations around issues of class and ethnicity." " - Latin American Research Review

""Long Live Atahualpa combines an intimate knowledge of intricate local politics with a capacity to think broadly about how the politicization of indigenous identity... affects indigenous mobilization on the national scene.... this book will matter for those interested in indigenous movements and identity politics in Latin America." " - EIAL