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In 1925, La Paz city residents observed Bolivia’s first centennial of political independence, with official state celebrations that in hindsight appear remarkably devoid of Bolivian nationalist exhibitions of indigenismo. Twenty-three years later, urban La Paz hosted another lavish commemoration, this time to honor the city’s 400th anniversary. But, in a clear departure from the 1925 centennial, the 1948 event included a “folklore” festival that was wholly devoted to Andean indigenous music-dance traditions, the Concurso Folklórico Indígena del Departamento. As the Concurso’s inclusion in the 1948 celebration suggests, mainstream La Paz criollo-mestizo views about the cultural value and meanings of Andean indigenous expressive practices had undergone a significant transformation in the twenty-three years following the 1925 centennial. This chapter elucidates this major shift, by exploring key developments in the paceño indigenista musical scene that transpired in the period from the 1920s to 1940s. Throughout Latin America, elite and middle-class interest in regionally distinctive music-dance expressions reached new heights in the early decades of the 20th century, as part of a quest among a varied cast of politicians, writers, and artists for local traditions that unmistakably demonstrated the nation’s cultural uniqueness. Indigenismo represented a manifestation of this phenomenon. The Bolivian variant of this nativist movement took inspiration from indigenista currents radiating from other Latin American countries, including Mexico and Argentina, but above all else from Peru.

In writings on the early history of mass-mediated Bolivian folkloric music, the La Paz-based female vocal duo Las