This article analyzes the transformations of the hacienda system in the Peruvian highlands during the second half of the twentieth century through the novel Todas las sangres written by José María Arguedas. Departing from Michel Foucault’s work and his distinction between sovereign power and biopolitics, the article analyses different social formations that evolve from the hacienda system through processes of transculturation. By analyzing fragments of the novel where the biopolitical project that hides behind one of these social formations is revealed, the goal of the article is to discover how Arguedas articulates an ideological critique toward the implementation of foreign models of productivity in the Peruvian highlands through an ending that leaves in suspense the role of local communities and their epistemologies in the political and economic renewal of Peru.