Indigenous and Afrodescendant Social Movements in Northwestern Venezuela

THE LEFT-TURN OF MULTICULTURALISM: INDIGENOUS AND AFRODESCENDANT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN NORTHWESTERN VENEZUELA Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Ruette, Krisna Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 09:02:14 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/203000 THE LEFT-TURN OF MULTICULTURALISM: INDIGENOUS AND AFRODESCENDANT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN NORTHWESTERN VENEZUELA by Krisna Ruette _____________________ Copyright © Krisna Ruette 2011 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2011 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Krisna Ruette entitled The Left-Turn of Multiculturalism: Indigenous and Afrodescendant Social Movements in Northwestern Venezuela and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 10/31/11 Ana Alonso _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 10/31/11 Thomas Sheridan _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 10/31/11 James Greenberg _______________________________________________________________________ Date: _______________________________________________________________________ Date: Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate‟s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 10/31/11 Dissertation Director: Ana Alonso 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Krisna Ruette 4 AKNOWLEGEMENTS This dissertation research has been made possible thanks to the support, supervision and guidance of sponsors, professors, movement activists, family members and friends. I first and foremost thank the people of Veroes and Moroturo, who were willing to share their memories and everyday forms of struggle. In Veroes, I counted with the invaluable friendship and support of Guillermo and Sandra. To them, I wish to express my deep gratitude. Special thanks I want to give to “El Niño,” who is not with us anymore. Many other people in Farriar, Palmarejo and Agua Negra also provided vital support and advice. I am also indebted to the people of Moroturo, Santa Inés, Mapararí and San Pedro for their kindness and guidance. Their names remain confidential in order to ensure their privacy. In Caracas, I also counted with the support of many indigenous and afrodescendant leaders of the Parlamento Indígena de América, the Comisión Presidencial de Pueblos y Comunidades Indígenas, the Asamblea Nacional, the Dirección de Pueblos Indígenas de la Universidad Bolivariana, the Comisión Presidencial para la Eliminación y Prevención del Racismo en el Sistema Educativo Venezolano, the Dirección de Educación Intercultural del Ministerio del Sistema Educativo, and the Ministry of Indigenous People. To all them I wish to express my gratitude. I want to thank the institutions that granted me funds for my doctoral studies and fieldwork research. I appreciate the support of the Fulbright Association, the School of Anthropology, the Graduate College, the SBSRI of the University of Arizona, the Tinker Foundation, the P.E.O International Peace Scholarship Fund, and the Consejo de Desarrollo Científico y Humanístico- UCV. Special thanks I express to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for funding my doctoral fieldwork activities, in 2007. To all of my teachers at the School of Anthropology of the University of Arizona I express my gratefulness. I am particularly indebted to my committee members who have been motivating models of scholarship, teaching and research. I appreciate the guidance of my advisor Dr. Ana Alonso, who directed my masters and doctoral studies with thoughtful, challenging and encouraging orientations. I am very grateful to Dr. Thomas Sheridan who has been an inspiring teacher and a patient research mentor. I also want to thank Dr. James Greenberg for his supportive guidance and for shaping my work with thoughtful-provoking questions. Special thanks I want to express to Dr. Susan Philips for her continuous orientations, support and encouragement during my research and writing process. I also want to thank Dr. Jane Hill for providing insightful comments on my research. I am also much indebted to the Arizona State Museum, in particular the Office of Ethnohistorical Research. Diana Hadley, Dr. Dale Brenneman, and Dr. Thomas Sheridan provided me a unique opportunity for working in historical documentary projects. I wish to thank the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA), in particular Dr. Marcela Vázquez-León, Dr. Diane Austin and Dr. Tim Finan. Student peers and friends at the University of Arizona also supported this research with conversations and guidance. I specially thank Aurea Toxqui, Anton Daughters, Gillian Newell, Jacqueline Messing, Tania Granadillo, Edaena Saynez-Vasquez, Heidi Orcutt, Jessica Piekelick, Maisa Taha, Ana Oyarce, Anita Carrasco, Paola Canova, Salvador 5 Aquino, Tara Dubel, Maurad Majahed, Kate Goldage, Laura Tesler, Eric Pavri, Marie Sardier, Matt Iles, Karen Cohelo, Christian Español among others. I also wish to thank my dear friend Hecky Villanueva (que en paz descanse), who was always an inspiring friend. All of them made my graduate studies in Tucson a wonderful and enriching experience. Gillian, Tania and Christian provided comments and suggestions on some chapters of this dissertation. In Venezuela I want to thank the Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura, in particular the Offices of Indigenous and Afrodescendant Affairs. At this institution I counted with the support of Tatiana Jimenez, María Cristina Bassalo, George Amaiz, and Karol Cortes. I want to express my gratitude to the Center of Anthropology of the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC) for providing me the opportunity to continue my research and writing process. Special thanks I give to my mentor Dra. Hortensia Caballero-Arias for her enduring guidance, challenging questions, and unconditional support. I have also counted with the patient mentoring and protective support of Dra. Lilliam Arvelo for more than 15 years. I would like to express my gratitude to other members of the Center of Anthropology, such as Prof. Abel Perozo, Dr. Bernardo Urbani, Dr. Eliezer Arias, Dr. Horacio Biord, Dra. Bertha Pérez, Dr. Werner Wilbert, Dra. Erika Wagner, Dr. Stanford Zent, Dr. Eglee Zent, Xiomara Escalona, Eduy Urbina, Viviana Cuberos, Maura Falconi, Nuria Martin, Nicolas Gonzalez, Katiuska Velazquez, Beatriz Juarez, Gladys Obelmejías, and Meyby Ugueto for their academic advice and guidance. Hortensia, Lilliam and Bernardo provided suggestions and comments on many chapters of this dissertation. I would like to thank my friends and sisters Marcia López, Cristina Soriano, Yoly Velandria, Yadira Rodríguez, Valeria Murgich, and Izabella Giriat for their invaluable generosity, empathy and patience over these years. I want to thank, Marcia for her support during my fieldwork activities in Moroturo, and for sharing insightful ethnographic observations and interpretations. Yadira and Yoly also helped me with the elaboration of the maps of this dissertation, as well as with the formatting process. Writing a dissertation in a foreign language has been great challenge. I had the honor to count with the editing skills, insights and suggestions of Dr. Dick Parker, who helped me to narrow down many of my arguments and to make my writing style more intelligible and friendly. I also want to thank professors Miguel Angel Contreras and Luis Molina from the Universidad Central del Venezuela and Mila Ivanovich. This dissertation would not have been written without the support of my parents Columba and Fernando. To them I want to express my endless gratitude and love for their trust, patience, friendship and encouragement. No words I have for expressing the gratefulness that I hold for my daughter Julia. She accompanied me during the whole dissertation writing process with inspiration, laughter, surprises and enjoyment. She has thought me to ponder my own life expectations in both the academic and affective domains. I also want to express my thankfulness to my sister María Fernanda and my brother Arturo for being my best friends in difficult and joyful moments. I want to

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