Insurgent Beauty

Insurgent Beauty: Indigenous Art in Urban Panama examines artistic and political developments from 1968 to the present, exploring how Native American artists leveraged Panama’s populist military reforms from 1968 to 1989, and the subsequent neoliberal transition, to assert their presence in society. Breaking new ground, the book situates Indigenous art in previously overlooked contexts.

Historically, scholars of Latin American Indigenous artistic expression have focused on elements regarded as rural-based crafts, such as weavings, ceramics, oral literature, and carvings. Drawing inspiration from scholars Philip Deloria and Gerald Vizenor, this study turns to urban art forms, including jazz, modern dance, hip-hop, drama, studio art, photography, and film.

Author Peter Szok concentrates on the Guna (formerly Kuna) people, who were the earliest Indigenous migrants to Panama City, and who are famous across the Americas for their geometrically patterned mola fabrics. Szok argues that the molas are just one aspect of Guna artistic culture, and that the rise of more urban manifestations is part of a process of ethnic resurgence.