Taking as his subject the 1949 discovery of a burial beneath the church altar in a remote village in highland Guerrero, Mexico, reputed to contain the bones of the last Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, Paul Gillingham has written an outstanding historical monograph (and whodunit) that unravels the mystery, follows the clues, evaluates the false documents, explains the national fascination with the bones, dismisses the red herring, identifies the perpetrators of the obvious fraud, and places it within efforts to reframe national identity."—Hispanic American Historical Review

"a remarkable study that enriches profoundly our understanding of nationalism and unwraps the multiplicity of voices participating in shaping the nation."—Itinerario

"a remarkable study that enriches profoundly our understanding of nationalism and unwraps the multiplicity of voices participating in shaping the nation."—Itinerario

"Paul Gillingham has told this story with deep and theoretically informed scholarship, discernment, dry wit, and stylistic panache in a delightful study built around the putative discovery of the Aztec emperor's remains in 1949 in the isolated village of Ixcateopan, in the Mexican state of Guerrero."—The Americas

“The first substantial study to trace in depth the relationship between local and national manifestations of indigenismo while exploring broader economic and political processes. The book is also an important contribution to the literature on everyday nation-state formation.”—Journal of Latin American Studies