ABSTRACT
The various indigenist policies that have operated throughout history are the reflection and, in many ways, the cause of the Latin American nation-states' unresolved heterogeneity. These policies were designed by non-Indians to be applied to others. Colonial policy toward ethnic groups did not simply take the form of segregationism or corporatism, although this modality dominated the more advanced phase of the regime. The enslavement of natives was widespread during the early colonial era. During the first third of the sixteenth century, Indian slavery had been broadly extended throughout subjugated America. Indian slavery gradually ceased to be a central method of domination of the autochthonous population as other mechanisms and institutions whose objective was to secure a stable labor force gained strength. Discussion of the effects of slavery, the brutality of the encomienda (legalized in Hispaniola in 1503), and the cruelty of the conquistadores on the aboriginal population of the islands of the so-called West Indies continues to this day.
