Having admired Nancy Appelbaum’s 1999 article in the HAHR, I looked forward to reading this monograph. I was not disappointed; Muddied Waters is a thoughtful and timely exploration of the constructed nature of regional identity, focused on the conflicting identities of the Riosucio district in Colombia’s western Andes. The book’s central premise is that regions are as much imagined communities as are nations, and that in the case of Colombia, race has played a central role in creating and articulating these community identities.
The book examines the varied stories that Colombians and foreigners have told about the settlers and settlement of Riosucio. The Department of Caldas, in which Riosucio is located, has traditionally been described as “white,” having supposedly been colonized by enterprising migrants from the equally white province of Antioquia. Its hardworking inhabitants were said to contrast with the dissolute and unproductive former slaves of the Cauca Valley....