The Indigenous People in the General Laws of Education of Colombia. An approach from the Critical Discourse Analysis perspective

This article explores the relationship between education, legal discourse and racism. From the Critical Discourse Analysis perspective, the three general Laws of education of Colombia and the juridical and political texts that sustain them are analyzed. This analysis aims at revealing the discursive structures and strategies used to represent the indigenous people throughout 1870 and 1994. It is argued that there has been an attempt to make the representation of indigenous people invisible as social actors of the country. Moreover, they have been represented and constructed as uncivilized, savages and dispossessed. Education then became the device to remove them from this condition and lead them to social, economic and cultural development.