# **1. Introduction**

Across Latin America, development outcomes show significant variation across indigenous and nonindigenous groups. It is widely acknowledged, for example, that indigenous peoples are disproportionally represented among the poor, have lower human and physical capital endowments, and face persistent inequalities in labor markets and access to public goods and services (Hall and Patrinos 2006, Chong and Ñopo 2008, Barrón 2008, Ferranti et al. 2004, McEwan 2004, Escobal and Ponce 2007, Psacharopoulos and Patrinos 1994). Several explanations have been offered for these systemic patterns, ranging from historical accounts that highlight the structural inequalities faced by indigenous peoples since their first interaction with the Spanish colonists (Pasquier-Doumer 2002, Mahoney 2003) to more recent, purist attempts at establishing a link between observed outcome gaps and their correlates (Ñopo et al. 2010, Patrinos and Skoufias 2007, Ferreira and Gignoux 2011, Pasquier-Doumer and Brandon 2015). While these analyses are often prone to data and identification challenges (World Bank 2014), increased documentation of indigenous disadvantage in recent years has played an important role in country policies and discourses across Latin America.

What is not as well understood as the extent of indigenous disadvantage, even in Latin American contexts where this line of research is most advanced, is the _heterogeneity of_ and _outcome disparities within_ indigenous groups. Census data from the first decade of the 2000s suggest that there are at least 41 million indigenous people across Latin American countries, each with a different level of interaction with state institutions and “mainstream” society (World Bank 2015).<sup>1</sup> In each context, moreover, indigenous identity intersects with other individual or group identities, such as gender and geography, adding an incredible degree of diversity to the standard nomenclature. Intersectionality refers to the notion that individuals and groups are simultaneously situated in multiple social structures, and the intersection of their various identities may result in multiplication of disadvantage (Phoenix and Pattynama 2006, Collins 1999, Crenshaw 1989). Recently, such cumulative disadvantages have been identified at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, race and class, with studies showing substantial gaps in labor market outcomes (Browne and Misra 2003, Torres-Stone et al. 2006), access to health care (Sen, Iyer and Mukherjee 2009, Sen and Iyer 2012, Iyer, Sen and Ostlin 2008), and educational attainment (Bhopal and Preston 2012, Lewis and Lockheed 2007, King and de Walle 2007, Tas, Reimao and Orlando 2014), among others.<sup>2</sup> Yet, literature on the intersection of indigenous identities with other identities remains sparse, and as a result, little is known about the achievement gaps of different subgroups of indigenous populations who may require special attention.

> 1 The estimated size of the indigenous population in Latin America is based on the latest available census of each country in the region, using self-identification and language as identity markers (World Bank 2015). This estimate excludes thirteen Caribbean countries that do not have any statistical information concerning indigenous peoples (Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Grenada, Haiti, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago). In countries with available data sources, it is still possible that the number of indigenous groups are underestimated due to underreporting of indigenous status, political economy of enumeration, and systematic exclusion of remote communities from census. 2 See Browne and Misra 2003 for an overview of the empirical literature in sociology. Also, see a special issue of Feminist Economics (Vol. 8, Issue. 2, 2002) for a collection of interdisciplinary empirical studies on the intersectionality of gender, race and class.

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