Indigeneity in Bolivia

By: Guillermo Pineda

Online Access: http://www.issuu.com/condottiero/docs/indigeneity-­‐bolivia

Today’s discourses in Bolivia go from indianism, as an ideology and philosophy of liberation produced by the

subject-­‐indian vs indigenism as a state ideology built by non-­‐indigenous about the subject-­‐indian.

INDIGENEITY May 7th, 2012

IN BOLIVIA

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INDIGENEITY IN BOLIVIA

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Historical Background For most of the nineteenth century, when the question of citizenship began to rise to the fore, there existed in th Bolivia two distinct entities, namely those with power and the indigenous groups. By the end of the 19 Century, a Census by government identified 51% of the population as indigenous, 27% as mestizos and 13% as white. th These proportions continued without significant changes during the 20 Century but the quotas of power did changed. The desire of the native groups to be more than simply hard laborers began to cause a rift in Bolivian society and by 1952 the indigenous leadership had allied themselves with the political elite and achieved a National Revolution. Since then, the subjects and the state ideology reshaped the indigenous identity in order to create a new identity of the Bolivian Campesino. It was only until the last 20 years that a strong reemergence of the search of an indigenous identity was rediscovered and used as a political instrument to further achieve reforms in government, and to grant local empowerment to groups of interest. The culmination of this process 1 was consolidated in 2005 with the election of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president of Bolivia.

Indeed, there have been many reasons for the discontent among the native Bolivians, as well as for the fear among the ruling elite. Nonetheless, the elite of Bolivia is made not of a racial group of uniquely whites and mestizos but also from members of the indigenous and mestizo elites that captured local-regional power during th the revolutions that have occurred since the 19 Century.

% of Population 1900 Indigenous

White

Mestizo

% of Population 2001

Other

Quechua

Aymara

Indigenous-­‐originario

Mestizo

9%

38%

27%

31%

51%

13% 25% 6%

For many in the beginning of the 21st Century, the term indígena is more pejorative than mestizo, and it is for this reason that 2 many define themselves both as Quechua or Aymara and at the same time as mestizo as shown by the 2001 survey.

1 Though Evo Morales is internationally known as the first indigenous President of Bolivia it is important to mention the role of the Aymara, Víctor Hugo Cárdenas, who became the first indigenous Vice-­‐President under the government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in 1993 as result of a political pact between the political elites and the indigenous movements. Further information: Gray Molina, George. Ethnic Politics in Bolivia: “Harmony of Inequalities 1900-­‐ 2000”. p.8

2 Albo, Xavier (2008). The “Long Memory” of Ethnicity in Bolivia and Some Temporary Oscillations. p.14

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Socio-­‐political dynamics of indigenous movements Pre 1952 – Neocolonial Society • •

•

Though there was no slavery in Latin America the institution of mita was used to provide for the privileged elites with forced labor (made up with the indigenous and mestizo ethnic groups).

During the colonial and postcolonial times there exist a dual system of authority in which indigenous elites were granted privileges in order to contribute to the colonialist agenda of mercantilism and use of labor. After independence, while many of these institutions were modified the previous indigenous-­‐local elites held power over the rest of the communities. This furthered the pre-­‐existent asymmetries and systems of exploitation of colonial times during the 19th Century.

‘The independence of Bolivia from the Spanish Crown was of benefit to privileged elites. 100 years later, Community lands were increasingly acquired to feed the expanding hacienda system of agricultural estates, with former comuneros (members of indigenous landholding communities) being transformed into peons and kinship groups (known as ayllus) had shrunk to less than half its previous dimensions (Albo, 2008)

1952 -­‐ National Revolution • •

A Revolution leaded by the Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR; “Revolutionary National Movement) whose chief Víctor Paz Estenssoro assumed the control of the Executive power.

Changes of the Revolution, o the introduction of universal suffrage, o expansion of rural education, o peasant unionization,  peasant union leaders assumed the main duties of the state o peasant representatives in Congress, o dismantling of the system of hacienda agriculture and Agrarian Reform, o emergence of state-­‐owned companies or by the nationalization of the mines,

1960 – 1990 – Reemergence of ethnicity • • •

•

A new alliance between campesino (indigenous) movements and the military forces was achieved after the coup d’état in 1962.

Continuation of the civilization indigenist mentality of government elites that eliminated the “indigena” and created a common culture closely tied to the white-­‐western society (Albo, 2008. P21) Privileges were kept by these new elites (campesino leaders, indigenous and mestizo powerful groups) and the state discourse of greater equality was not evident in the marginalization of rural areas in which the majority of Quechua and Aymara lived.

Emergence of the indigenous movements that counterattacked the revolution of 1952 and the coup d’état o KATARIST MOVEMENT: began at the end of the 1960s with young Aymara students who “had one foot in the countryside and the other in the city and who had not personally experienced the earlier period of agrarian reform. Significantly, the main geographical nucleus of Katarismo was in precisely those originario communities that, two centuries earlier, had fostered the rebellion of Túpac Katari, the great anticolonial hero of the 1780s from whom the movement took its name. The Kataristas would invoke the slogan “We are not the 1952 campesinos any more.” And elaborating on their hero’s supposed last words, they would proclaim, “Túpac Katari has returned, and we are millions.” o The katarist movement pursued the dismantlying of the campesino-­‐military pact of 1962 and the reconfiguration of the State along indianism discourses. o The katarists wanted to rescue the “Indigeneity and cultural identity of the Bolivian ethnicities. At the same time, they demanded more control over their local affairs and empowerment of indigenous movements (decentralization and autogestión “self-­‐management”).

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Since 1990 – Neoliberal discourse and new Marxism •

•

• • •

With the election of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (a mestizo from the political elite) as President of Bolivia in 1993 the victory of the indigenous movements and unions was reflected with the participation of Víctor Hugo Cárdenas, an Aymara Katarista, as his Vice-­‐President.

The 1994 constitutional reform defined the country as “multiethnic and pluricultural” (Article 1), while Article 171 introduced the concept of the TCO (tierra comunitaria de origen, or indigenous territory). This article recognized the main attributes of indigenous peoples and their territory in concordance with Agreement 169 of the Inter-­‐ national Labor Organization (ILO), ratified by Bolivia in 1991.3 The Law of Capitalization (1994) privatized former state companies that had being nationalized in 1952 and granted more social benefits for the population.

The 1994 Education Reform Law introduced the principle of interculturality and bilingual teaching.

The 1994 Popular Participation Law, reflecting the demands of grassroots organizations, helped develop and strengthen municipal government across the country (autogestión – self management).

From 1995 to 2002 these political reforms allowed for empowerment of indigenous movements. New political indigenous groups fought against the neoliberal discourse of the previous 10 years. The parties Asamblea por la Soberanía de los Pueblos (ASP/IU – Assembly for the Sovereignty of the Peoples), which would later become the MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo – Movement Toward Socialism) emerged as the strongholds of indigenist leaders and discourses.

By 2002 these political parties occupied nearly a third of the seats in Congress. A year later, protests against the government’s new gas policies appeared in the most important cities of Bolivia and President Sánchez de Lozada had to resign. The face of these protests was Evo Morales who leaded the MAS, and in the following elections he was elected by popular support of 54% of the population in 2006.

19th Century

1952 Revolution

1952 Revolution

Indigenia +

Campesino + Mestizo +

Campesino +

Mestizo+

Indio -­‐

2000's Indigenism

Mestizo + Cholo -­‐

Cholo -­‐

Quechua + Aymara + Campesino -­‐

Projections The institutional changes mandated by the Constitution in 1994 and in 2006 have and will continue affecting production relations, in particular in rural areas. The ongoing intensification of regionalization in commerce (around mineral rich areas) and he growing Chinese and Indian demand for Bolivia’s commodities (including lithium for the car industry) are changing the geo-­‐economics of Bolivia’s production relations; the nationalization project of Morales will continue though he has really not erased neoliberal social forms of control nor the paternalist-­‐indigenist state ideology.

3 ídem. p.25.