ABSTRACT
The ‘losers’ version’ is now much better-known in history thanks to Nathan Wachtel and his pioneering work on the Peruvian Indians after their conquest and colonization. In Peru, the story of the Conquest was written down in the Apu Inca Atahuallpaman elegy, and comes through in folk-tales, but it has remained an anti-history that has been prohibited, lacks institutional support and leaves no trace in the Peruvian school-books. In Mexico, on the other hand, such anti-history has been ‘established’: it took power. Between these two poles is the history of the Chicanos or Mexican-Americans. In their case, the anti-history has indeed been institutionalized, but has not quite taken power.
