Bolivia:
The Indomestizo Victory
By Andres Soliz Rada
17 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
In
my book La Concienca Enclaustrada written in 1995 [1] I noted that two
of the most important exponents of Latin American anti-imperialist thought,
the Argentine, Jorge Abelardo Ramos, and the Bolivian, Augusto Cespedes,
did not fully comprehend the enormous revolutionary potential of the
indigenous peoples of Bolivia.
I backed up my point of view
with this quote from Ramos: "… the indigenous peoples of
today have no other path to take towards their own economic progress
and personal dignity, except by incorporating into Latin American civilisation
as it is now" [2]. In turn, Cespedes wrote these certainly lamentably
lines: "… between descendents from the Spanish, be they from
the peninsular or criollos, we should not question ourselves for the
deaths of a million, more or less, Indians" [3]. The reference
is obviously talking about Spanish conquest.
To complete my analysis,
I added the following: "The prior quotes lack balance if, at the
same time, the contributions by Ramos to visionary Bolivarian thought
and by Cespedes to the comprehension of the oligarchies, allied to the
centres of world power, are not recognised" [4].
A new focus on the
history of Bolivia
In this context, in response
to the oligarchic, indigenist and nationalist visions of the history
of Bolivia, we proposed including in the debate an indomestiza vision,
which, "as opposed to traditional nationalism, rescues the potentials
of those peoples oppressed for five centuries by internal and external
colonialism, without denying, through mestizaje, Western or European
contributions". We emphasized that, from our point of view, the
mestizo has no biological weight, given the inexistence of pure racial
groups in any part of the world, the reason why we prefer cultural connotations
to terms such as mestizo, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, white, criollo or
Amazonic. Faced with globalisation and the homogenisation imposed by
neoliberalism, this cultural awakening is transforming itself into a
molecular resistance against subjugation by the global centres of power"
[5].
The revolution of 1952, by
decreeing the abolition of "pongueaje" (servants of clods)
and the universal vote, for men and women, signified a qualitative change
in this difficult struggle against social exclusion. This exclusion
characterised the foundation of the republic in 1825, when in the Constituent
Assembly, 90% of the population was not represented, due to not having
sufficient patrimony or for having copper-coloured skin.
Palenque and Felipe
Quispe
In 1988, , in the thousand
year old city of Tiwanacu, 100 kilometers from the city of La Paz, the
radio presenter Carlos Palenque Aviles founded the entity known as Conciencia
de Patria (CONDEPA, Conscious of the Homeland), which, after important
electoral advances in the west of the country, disappeared from the
electoral scene in 2002, due to, amongst other factors, the premature
death of its founder, as well as its vacillations in executing an anti-imperialist
line and not eradicating all acts of corruption. Nevertheless, it continues
to remain significant that, today, a chola (the word used in Bolivia
to refer to a women in a pollera [traditional dress], bilingual, mestiza,
of Quechua or Aymara origins), Silvia Lazarte, presides the Constituent
Assembly, an event that has as its antecedent that of another woman
of the pollera, Remedio Loza Alvarado, would have succeeded Palenque
in the leadership of CONDEPA and converted herself into the first woman
of this social standing to be a candidate for the presidency of the
republic and the first deputy in a pollera in the national parliament.
In the first few months of
this millennium emerged the vigorous figure of Felipe Quispe Huanca,
who lead the Confederacion Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos
(CSUTCB, Sole Union Confederation of Campesino Workers) and founded
his party, the Movimiento Indigena Pachcutec (MIP, Patchakuti Indigenous
Movement). With both instruments, he headed blockades, for weeks on
end, of the cities of La Paz and El Alto, raising ethnic slogans and
the refoundation of Tawantinsuyo. However, his verbal extremism and
the ethical misconduct of its leader and those around him lead to a
lose of supporters.
Evo and the social
movements
You could say that the propositions
of CONDEPA, which concentrated on the demands of the cholaje mestizo,
were insufficient for the social movements and the indigenous peoples,
as much as those of Felipe Quispe's MIP were too excessive to be assimilated
by the entirety of the country.
This void has been filled,
since 1993, by the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS, Movement Towards Socialism),
of Evo Morales Ayma, who, without dropping the demands of the indigenous
peoples - accumulated over five centuries – has harmonised these
propositions with the urgency to refound a new unity, sovereign Bolivia,
capable of defending and industrialising its natural resources and insert
himself into the Bolivarian postulates, which Venezuelan president,
Hugo Chavez Frias, has also made his own.
MAS is a reality, but it
is also a hope that could be frustrated.
For that not to occur, it
needs to learn from the errors of others, that is to say, it must not
abandon a staunch anti-imperialist line, it must be firm in the struggle
against corruption and not forget that it is the head of an oppressed
nation, which unites patriotic military personnel, national business
owners, professionals, artisans and students, white and mestizo, who
are prepared to make sure that this time the Bolivian National Revolution,
which has so many times before been frustrated, consolidates itself
under the leadership of Evo Morales, a leader of Aymara origin, and
the hegemony of the social movements and the indigenous peoples, who
are prepared to articulate their own demands with those of the entirety
of the country, of course, which the exception of those who prefer to
serve the foreign colonisers. This would be Bolivia's profound contribution
to Latin American socialism, which is constructed in opposition to ecocide,
militarisation, war and the massacres that contemporary "civilisers"
carry out.
Andres Soliz Rada,
is a writer and journalist and, until recently, Minister for Hydrocarbons
in Bolivia, He has been part of the Izquierda Nacional since the 1960s.
He was a promoter of the nationalisation of petroleum under Ovando Candia,
supported J.J. Torres, was part of CONDEPA, a member of parliament and
was called upon by Evo Morales to join his cabinet, despite not being
a member of MAS.
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