In their zeal to transform rural society during the 1920s, Mexican educators undertook a number of projects that in retrospect seem unusual. Fancying themselves as the intellectual heirs of the earliest Catholic friars, they sent “missionaries” into the countryside to preach the gospel of progress, developed rigid definitions of the appropriate forms of rural living, and even taught school children in Mexico City to paint according to pre-Colombian styles in order to build a harmonious nation. These were indeed creative ideas, but none was more imaginative than the decision to establish a Rural Normal School in the midst of the largest urban center in the country. Established in the Anáhuac neighborhood of Mexico City in 1926, the Casa del Estudiante Indígena was hailed as the centerpiece of the government's commitment to Indian education. Inside the Casa a culturally diverse student population, speaking mutually unintelligible languages, would be transformed into models of the national culture. They would adopt modern dress and practices, learn perfect Spanish, and in turn bring the benefits of modernity to their home communities.

This article examines the creation of an Indian ideal within Indigenismo in the years 1920–40. While scholars argue that Indigenismo described a degenerate Indian ‘other’, this article shows that it often represented the Indian as a model for revolutionary politics and culture. This is evident first in Indigenista celebrations of Indian cultures during the 1920s, and in their valorisation of Indians as rational political actors with modern sensibilities during the 1930s. In validating this ‘modern’ Indian, Indigenistas created a limited framework for legitimate ‘Indian politics’ which took place within the national culture. However, they also labelled Indians who challenged revolutionary programs as ‘primitive’ and ‘pre-political’.