CIUDAD DE ANILLOS (CITY OF RINGS): INTERNAL MIGRATION AND UNEVEN INTEGRATION IN SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Joshua Daniel Kirshner August 2009 © 2009 Joshua Daniel Kirshner CIUDAD DE ANILLOS (CITY OF RINGS): INTERNAL MIGRATION AND UNEVEN INTEGRATION IN SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA Joshua Daniel Kirshner, Ph.D. Cornell University 2009 This dissertation investigates the consequences of internal migration to Santa Cruz, an expanding urban center in lowland Bolivia whose growth stems from uneven regional development. Regional divisions between the highlands and the lowlands have long afflicted Bolivia. The roots of the regional differences predate the country’s independence, but they have intensified in the past decade amid unresolved power struggles between Bolivia’s central government and the opposition based in the lowland region, as recent events in Bolivia over regional autonomies have demonstrated. Drawing on the perspectives of political geography, urban planning, and sociology, this study examines the processes of migrant integration and social exclusion in Santa Cruz, and how migration is affecting regional identity formation in Bolivia’s lowland region. In Chapter 2, I explore the historical construction of the eastern lowlands region, called the Oriente. I trace its transformation from an isolated frontier to Bolivia’s major production zone and the emergence of the regional elite though periods of economic change based on extractive industries. Chapter 3 shifts the focus to the city of Santa Cruz and argues that modernist planning in the 1950s and 1960s did not coincide with the realities of mass urban migration that ensued. I also suggest that migration-induced population growth and shifts in the local economy toward services and informal employment are creating particular patterns of urban growth and deepening socio-economic polarization. In Chapter 4, I analyze migrant integration and social exclusion through migrant interviews in several urban districts, the ways that civil society organizations potentially intermediate between migrants and longer- term residents, and connections between migrants and local institutions. Chapter 5 examines the connections between migration flows, growth of the informal economy, and conflicts over public space in Santa Cruz as a window into the dynamics of migrant integration and exclusion. I investigate the spatial dimensions of informal commerce in the city and analyze a municipal plan for reorganization of public markets, as well as contrasting visions of public space from planners, long-term residents, informal workers, and migrants. In the perspective taken here, struggles over public space reflect unresolved tensions around race, ethnicity, and space in a changing city. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH After growing up in Nashville, Joshua Kirshner pursued undergraduate studies at Harvard College. In 1994, during college, he completed a School for International Training Semester Abroad program on sustainable development in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He returned to La Paz, Bolivia in the summer of 1996 to conduct field research for his honors thesis on Andean migrant musicians. Kirshner received an A.B. degree Magna cum Laude in social anthropology in 1997. As a Sheldon postgraduate travel grant recipient, he spent one year researching regional music styles in Bolivia in 1997, and also made extended visits to several Latin American countries including Chile, Brazil and Cuba. He completed a masters’ degree in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2002, where he studied labor issues in the Los Angeles port and logistics sector for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor with funding from the University of California Institute of Labor and Employment. He later worked as a researcher for the North American Integration and Development Center, based at UCLA. After finishing PhD coursework at Cornell University in City and Regional Planning, he spent 14 months in Bolivia conducting fieldwork for this dissertation. Kirshner will begin a postdoctoral fellowship position at the Centre for Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa in June 2009. iii For my parents Carol and Howard, and for Shannon iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to acknowledge the funding provided by the Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS), which allowed me valuable time for independent study and the necessary resources for completing fieldwork in Bolivia. Additional research funding was provided by Cornell University’s Mario A. Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Program for the Study of Contentious Politics. This dissertation could not have been completed without the guidance of the members of my Graduate Special Committee. My chair, Dr. Lourdes Benería, went beyond the call of duty in reading “musings” and “notes to myself” at all stages of planning and writing of this dissertation and always gave me patient and useful feedback. Dr. Bill Goldsmith helped improve my understanding of political geography and provided much needed advice on my writing skills. Dr. David Brown of the Department of Development Sociology kept me focused and helped to sharpen my thinking on studies of migration. While not on my special committee, Professors Barbara Lynch, Susan Christopherson, and Mildred Warner of City and Regional Planning and Maria Cook of Industrial and Labor Relations offered intellectual engagement around themes related to this dissertation in classes and seminars. Dr. Bret Gustafson, my undergraduate thesis advisor while he worked on his doctorate at Harvard, was an important influence on my initial project design and offered insight into the tumultuous political situation in Bolivia. Nicole Fabricant, Juan Arbona, Ben Kohl, Linda Farthing, Tom Perreault, Claret Vargas, and Tara Daly offered help and feedback at various points during this project. Any errors or omissions that remain are my responsibility alone. v In Santa Cruz, I would especially like to thank Nelson Jordan, Claudia Peña, Fernando Prado, and Isabella Prado for their encouragement and assistance. I greatly enjoyed conversations and coffees with Dr. José Mirtenbaum and Dr. Jean Paul Feldis at the Universidad Autónoma Gabriel Réne Moreno, and Victor Hugo Limpias at the Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz. I also thank my research assistant Saul Rioja for helping me in numerous ways, including finding my way around the Plan Tres Mil. Ana Carola Traverso offered insights on planning history and urban issues in Santa Cruz. Others who helped me along the way include Omar Andrade at the Fundación PAP, “Chacho” Peñafiel and Yakelin Sulka at Fundacion Desafio, Nadine Salek in the Oficialía Mayor de Planificación, Ruben Mendoza and Dafne Maymura at the Centro Integrado de Justicia, Carmen Dunia Sandoval of Pastoral Social Caritas, and Father Nicolás Casellanos of Fundación Hombres Nuevos. My tremendous gratitude goes to Olguita Rivero and her late husband Walter “Chepy” Aguilera and family, Carla, Maria Julia and Julie Gomez, the Araúz family, Dr. Rosario Palacios, David Kirmayer, Jessica and Michelle Blondel, Jordi Benería Surkin, Pablo Antezana, Fernando Figueroa, Veronica Limpias, Ana Rodríguez, Ubaldo Nallar, Patricia Gala Choque, and Jorge Alonzo Guirapoigua for sharing their homes and friendships with me. In La Paz, Pamela Calla, Tom Kruse, Ricardo Calla and Hernán Pruden were generous with their time and opinions. Carlos Vacaflores and Alfonso Hinojosa in Tarija offered suggestions at an early stage of the project. In Ithaca, Bjorn Sletto, Razack Karriem, Lisa Hanley, Lesli Hoey, Sade Owalabi, Rogerio dos Santos Acca, Kajri Misra, Harley Etienne, Anouk Patel, and Kate Lowe were all supportive and helpful colleagues. Special thanks to Kate Lowe for providing feedback on a draft of Chapter 4 and Shannon Stone for helping with GIS maps, graphs, and editing, and for emotional and technical support far beyond the vi call of duty. I am most grateful to my family for their love and constant support through this entire experience. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH iii DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v TABLE OF CONTENTS viii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: INTERNAL MIGRATION, NATIONAL INTEGRATION, AND REGIONAL DIVISIONS 1 CHAPTER 2: THE HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE BOLIVIAN ‘ORIENTE:’ A PRELUDE TO CURRENT REGIONAL TENSIONS 22 CHAPTER 3: URBAN PLANNING AND MIGRATION IN THE CITY OF SANTA CRUZ 63 CHAPTER 4: MIGRANTS IN SANTA CRUZ, TERRITORIAL POLITICS, AND ASPIRATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 105 CHAPTER 5: MIGRATION, URBAN INFORMALITY, AND CONFLICTS OVER PUBLIC SPACE 158 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION: FOSTERING INTEGRATION IN THE ‘CITY OF RINGS’ 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY 213 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Distribution of Agricultural Loans from the Bolivian Agricultural Bank by Department and Geographic Region, 1955-1975 (%) 33 Table 2.2: BAB Credit Portfolio by Regional Branch, December 31, 1985 39 Table 2.3: Distribution of Hydrocarbons Income by Department, 2005-2007 45 Table 3.1: Net Migration Rate by Department (1976-2001) 77 Table 3.2: Location Quotients of the Santa Cruz Department Economy by Sector 93 Table 3.3: Economically Active Population by Labor Market Sector, City of Santa Cruz, 1989-1997 95 Table 3.4: Occupational Categories by Urban District,