Bolivia): the Festive and the ‘Eclipse’ of the Indian in the Transmission of National Memory
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Carnival in Oruro (Bolivia): The Festive and the ‘Eclipse’ of the Indian in the Transmission of National Memory Ximena Córdova Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, February 2012 Abstract This thesis critically examines the contemporary role of popular culture in processes of transmission of national memory. The analysis is based on the celebration of Carnival in Oruro, Bolivia’s most prominent folkloric pageant. The Oruro Carnival celebrations are officially promoted all over the world as an accurate representation of Bolivia’s cultural heritage. Following Hall (2006) I take cultural heritage to be a discursive practice around ideas of transmissions of cultural memory. In the bid to UNESCO for recognition as a World Intangible Heritage ‘site’, presented by Oruro’s cultural authorities, emphasis was placed on the antiquity and accumulative powers of the celebration. In the official discourse, the Carnival parade connects past to present in ways that project particular ideas of locality and the national, centred on Catholicism and the mestizo ideology of Nationalist Populism in the 1940s and 1950s. But, in embracing such particular traits of the national, who’s past and present are being projected in official discourses of intangible cultural heritage? The analysis, supported primarily by scholarly literature on identity and race in the Andes, decolonial thinking and heritage studies, demonstrates that the discourse of heritage transmitted through the celebration of the Oruro Carnival has been systematically used to forge nation‐making projects that embody hegemonic interests, and exclude indigenous and indigenous mestizos. The ethnographic work was organised around three main ideas: national representation and the interconnections between power and memory, race and the racialisation of culture, and the mediatory dimension of cultural performance. Using data collected primarily through participant observation and ‘participant experience’ in performative practices from fieldwork in Oruro, and a methodology based on Grounded Theory (Charmaz 2006), I identify the connections between the transmission of hegemonic depictions of the past, the ‘eclipse’ of indigenous histories and experiences, and contemporary political exclusion of indigenous actors. I also look at the political responses that have emerged from the dialogical dimension of popular culture and festive performance and the agency of the actors excluded from processes of national representation that take place the festivity. 2 Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the doctoral scholarship I received from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, and the academic and logistic support I received from the School of Modern Languages and the HASS Faculty at Newcastle University. In Bolivia, the GTADO, the DAU, the FACLD, the FSUTCO, and the MUSEF were the institutions that allowed me to collect the information that has now been developed into this thesis. I also have to thank a number of individuals who were instrumental in the research: my supervisors Prof Rosaleen Howard and Dr Patricia Oliart for sharing their knowledge and experiences with me, and having faith in me from the start. Their feedback and guidance have given me skills for life. Dr Zoila Mendoza for her insights on methodology and reading an early draft. Dr Jane Carnaffan, Michelle Houston and Sarah Bennison for their feedback and input. My parents (Álvaro y Carmen) for their continuous support and inspiration, and my mother for being such a wonderful and dedicated mother and grandmother, and offering her unconditional support for this project. My husband Yuvel Soria for his infinite support, company, insights, and loving patience. In Bolivia: Julieta and Yuvel Soria, my parents in law, for their support and love. And Chaly and Leny Crespo, and Pablo Regalsky for those early discussions which helped me guide my research. Hilda Huanca, for showing me how to use an awayo, teaching me something new every day, and looking after my son. Friends and colleagues in Oruro, who helped me find important connections: Javier Romero, and Marcelo Lara Barrientos. Germán Guaygua, for early our discussions. And Don Carlos Condarco, for sharing his insights on Andean myths. To Gladys Medina and her family for introducing me to dancing in Oruro, and don Carlos Carpio who opened his arms for my participation from the start. All the dancers in the Bloque Centenario: Mónica Aramayo, Kelly, Javier, and the others. And Don Mario for his guidance. Don Demetrio and his family, don Sebastián and doña Luisa, doña Esther and doña Beatriz, the Corrales family, especially don Pancho Corrales, for trusting me with their life experiences, and allowing me to be a part of the Carnival. The devils I spoke to at the Urus and the Fraternidad, who were warm and generous with their knowledge, particularly don Freddy Céspedes (RIP, this is also in your memory), and don Juán Céspedes, don Omar Navío, don José Peñaranda, don Marcelo Bayá and 3 Blanca. Irineo Zuna, and everyone at the FSUTCO, for accepting my presence and teaching me to think as a more rounded person and for continuing the struggle. My uncle Hernán and his family, for sharing his experience of the Carnival with me. The musicians at the Real Imperial and Tricolor, and Don Agustín Yugar and his family, and everyone at the Doctorcito Itos, for sharing their experiences with me. Don Walter Verástegui and his colleagues at the costume-making workshop, to don Germán Flores and his family at the Quirquincho Workshops and all the other artists who showed me how they work. To María Angélica Quirijín for her kindness in helping me find materials, and Fernando Montes for his early advice. To all the authorities who kindly shared their knowledge with me: Fray Jairo de Jesús, Carlos Delgado and Fabrizio Cazorla at the Alcaldía, Ascanio Nava at the ACFO. To Ramiro Molina, at the MUSEF, for all their support while I was there. To Denise Arnold and Juán de Dios Yapita, and Rossana Barragán, for their advice. In the UK: To Prof Tristan Platt for his continuous guidance and support. To Gonzalo Araoz for allowing me to read his PhD thesis, and his insightful advice. Everyone in the American Reading Group at Hexham: Mónica Moreno Figueroa, Rosibel Víquez Abarca, Nick Morgan, Hettie Malcomson, Fernando Gonzáles Velarde, Sarah Bennison. All the staff at the School of Modern Languages. To the friends in Newcastle who have given me support and inspiration: Lourdes and Tim, Francisco and Rosa. And especially to Luis Poma and Elvia Velástegui for keeping me going and being like family. To everyone involved in CHOTRO 3 (India) for the inspiring exchanges, especially Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Prof Graham Smith. And also to Prof Ganesh Devy and Prof Geoff Davies for their trust in me. To everyone at the Adivasi Academy for letting me in. And to the other inspiring people in my life who one way or another helped me find what it was that I wanted to say here: Leonardo RIP my brother, M. Victor Treffre de Martinique (mon guide spirituel), Debrah Kelly and Ethel Tolanski (Westminster University – the most inspirational teachers), Nicholas Nelzi (Neg Madnick, Martinique) – la vwa, my sister Vera, my other sister Mónica Rubio and Maverick Litchfield-Kelly, los panas Alberto, Francesco, Diana, y Henry, and my children Wayra and Leo who give meaning to everything. To our grandparents and ancestors, and the polleras of our grandmothers. 4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 11 1.1 Street as Mediating Space............................................................................... 15 1.2 Researching the Festive................................................................................... 17 1.3 Research Questions......................................................................................... 18 1.4 Thesis structure ............................................................................................... 19 2. Methodology ............................................................................................................ 24 2.1 What prompted and guided the research....................................................... 25 2.2 Context, Events and Actors ............................................................................. 26 2.2.1 Bolivia’s social and political map in 2007‐8......................................... 26 2.2.2 Events Timeline ................................................................................... 27 2.2.3 Multivocality: Multiple Actors, Multiple Discourses. .......................... 30 2.3 Positionality..................................................................................................... 32 2.3.1 Vulnerability in the field...................................................................... 36 2.3.2 Insider/Outsider .................................................................................. 38 2.4 Methodological Approaches: Gaining Focus ................................................... 43 2.4.1 Grounded Theory ................................................................................ 44 2.4.2 Qualitative Analysis............................................................................. 45 2.4.3 A Case‐study on Embodied Practices .................................................. 47 2.5 Methods .........................................................................................................