Harvard University non-profit org David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies u.s. postage 1730 Cambridge St. paid boston, ma Cambridge, MA 02138 permit no. 1636 contributors 40 Gonzalo Alaiza is the director of Pro Mujer in Bolivia. 18 Xavier dad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba. 34 Juan Antonio Morales, Albó is a linguist, anthropologist and Jesuit priest who has lived for professor of economics at the Universidad Católica San Pablo in La Paz, many years in El Alto. 58 Nigel Asquith was a 2009-10 Giorgio Ruf- was president of the Central Bank of Bolivia for more than ten years. folo Fellow in Sustainability Science at Harvard Kennedy School. 95 86 Alcides Parejas Moreno is a Bolivian historian who has written more Fernando Berguido (Nieman ’11) is the editor of La Prensa in Panama. than thirty books. 45 Félix Patzi Paco, Bolivian Education Minister 28 Kate McGurn Centellas is Croft Assistant Professor of Anthropology 2006-07. is a professor at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La at the University of Mississippi. 81 Miguel Centellas is Croft Visiting Paz. 15 Tom Pegram is an interdisciplinary research fellow at New York Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Mississippi. University School of Law. 30 Paula Peña Hasbún is the director of the 9 Gonzalo Chávez A. is the director of the School of Production and Museo de Historia y Archivo Histórico de Santa Cruz. 12 Raúl Peñaran- Competivity at the Universidad Católica San Pablo in La Paz. 54 David da U. (Nieman ’08) is the editor-in-chief of Pagina Siete. 42 Elisabeth Daepp is Associate Portfolio Manager with the United Nations Office Rhyne is the Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion for Project Services (UNOPS). 93 Peter DeShazo is Executive Director in New York. 21 Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui is a contemporary Aymara of LASPAU. 48 Nicole Fabricant is Assistant Professor of Anthropology sociologist, historian, and subaltern theorist. 74 Eduardo Rodríguez at Towson University. 6 Merilee Grindle is the director of Harvard’s Da- Veltze, MPA ’88, Harvard Kennedy School, is Dean of the Law and vid Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Edward S. Mason Political Science School at the Universidad Católica San Pablo in La Paz. Professor of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. 78 Martín Sivak is the author of four books about Bolivia. 89 Mauricio 56 Bret Gustafson, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washing- Souza Crespo is a film critic for Pagina Siete and the biweekly Nueva ton University in St. Louis, received a PhD in Social Anthropology at Crónica. 2 Pablo Stefanoni is the editor of Nueva Sociedad and until Harvard. 99 Eulogio Guzmán teaches at the School of the Museum of recently editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique Bolivia. 70 Helen Fine Arts/Tufts University. 48 Kathryn Hicks is an Assistant Professor Strom graduated from Harvard College cum laude in Social Studies in of Anthropology at the University of Memphis. 6 Mary Hilderbrand is a 2011. 84 Maristella Svampa is an Argentine writer with several books Fellow in Development and director of the Mexico Program at Harvard on political and cultural processes. 25 Gratzia Villarroel, 2007-08 Kennedy School. 62 Luz Jiménez Quispe, an Aymara woman from DRCLAS Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar, is an Associate Professor of Bolivia, is a doctoral student in the Educational College of the Univer- Political Science at St. Norbert College. 51 Fernanda Wanderley is the sity of Arizona. 65 Brooke Larson, Professor of History at Stony Brook Associate Director of Graduate Research in Development Sciences at University, was the 2011 DRCLAS Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar. 37 the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz. 88 Maritza Wilde is Roberto Laserna is an international consultant, university professor and director of the International Theater Festival of La Paz. author of La trampa del rentismo. 97 Deborah T. Levenson is an As- WITH FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Antonio Suárez, Winifred Parker, sociate Professor of History at Boston College. 68 Marcia Mandepora Rosalie Parker Loewen, Ben Achtenberg and Jai Chowdhry Beeman. is the rector of the UNIBOL-Guarani “Apiaguaiki Tüpa” in Machareti, SPECIAL THANKS TO: Fátima Molina, Fernando Campero, Bolivia. 76 Fernando Mayorga is director of CESU at the Universi- and the Banco Santander. faLL 2011 harvard review of Latin america bolivia revolutions and beyond editor’s letter RememberingZocalo Hed 26 Boliviapt Zocalo deck 14 point one line BY I’d almost forgotten about Che. Well, not the triumphant Che of Havana, but the Che who fought unsuccessfully in Bolivia—even though I’d been moved by Steven Soderbergh’s Che: Part II a while back. But in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, my host Nigel Asquith from Natura Bolivia men- tioned that some elderly folk in the area still remember Che. Nigel, who often travels to tiny villages in remote rural areas, commented that many talk about Che with fondness. I looked at him quizzically. I thought the Bolivian peasants disagreed with Che ideologically. “They voLume Xi no. 1 remembered him kindly because he fixed their teeth,” he said. “Not as a guerrilla, as a dentist.” I’d almost forgotten about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, whose story I had first David Rockefeller Center learned about in the 1969 film starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Nigel reminded me for Latin American Studies of that too. Bolivia was a land so isolated and far away that outlaws could hide safely, even director though the two bandits eventually died in a shootout with Bolivian soldiers. merilee s. grindle But I never forgot my first trip to Bolivia in 1977. I was expecting a desperately poor coun- executive director try, something like Nicaragua or Haiti. Instead, I was impressed by the stout market women Kathy eckroad with elaborate skirts and bowler hats, seemingly well-off. I was startled by the lush country club, where a Dutch oilman had invited me to lunch. Perhaps it was a question of expectations. ReVista By my recent second trip, of course, I knew about the Gini coefficient that measures the gap editor-in-chief between the rich and poor. Bolivia is a very poor and unequal country, but as many of the writ- June carolyn erlick ers in this issue point out, it has enormous natural resources. copy editor I kept trying to understand the 1977 trip—when I had traveled to Bolivia as an Inter Ameri- anita safran can Press Association scholar—but something was missing. But while reading about the 1952 Publication interns Revolution and the sweeping movements for indigenous education, I realized I had been expe- Jai chowdhry beeman William n. forster riencing a country with deeply embedded dignity that had somewhat masked its poverty. When I started to put this issue together, I had thought in terms of balancing opposing design 2communiqué political opinions by inviting a certain number of authors on “either side of the fence.” I should www.2communique.com have known better; “balance” isn’t just a matter of who supports President Evo Morales and Printer who doesn’t and to what degree. All along the road from La Paz to Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, p & r publications my wonderful Bolivian hosts and guides were advising, “take into account all of the regions, gender balance, indigenous and non-indigenous, and the many varieties of indigenous people. contact us Don’t forget Afro-Bolivians, and then there’s the rural and the urban.” 1730 cambridge street I arrived in Bolivia in January 2011, less than a month after the gasolinazo—a huge hike in cambridge, ma 02138 telephone: 617-495-5428 fuel prices that the president quickly rescinded following protests. I assumed that with the facsimile: 617-496-2802 rollback, the issue was over. Instead, I found protests were sweeping La Paz, Cochabamba and Subscriptions and reader forum Santa Cruz, the three cities I visited. Food prices and transportation costs had soared. Opposi- [email protected] tion came from the left, as well as the right. One union worker on a march in Cochabamba told website me, “We’re marching because Brother Evo needs to listen to us!” Many of Evo’s supporters www.drclas.harvard.edu/publications/ felt he had let them down. And again, I realized I had forgotten. The volatility of the social revistaonline movements and the huge unmet needs of an unequal society were still very much a part of the facebook equation; there was no certainty at all. reVista, the Harvard review of Latin america One late moonlit night at the home of my gracious La Paz hosts Raúl Peñaranda and Fátima Molina (Nieman ’08), I looked out over outcrops of red, cragged rock, a veritable moonscape. copyright © 2011 by the president and I thought of how that rock had been there years and years and years and yet how so very much fellows of Harvard college. ISSN 1541–1443 had changed socially and politically in the country in the five years of Evo Morales. With its society in transition, Bolivia is at a crossroads and the future is yet to be decided. ReVista is printed on recycled stock. This issue of ReVista is made possible through the generous support of Banco Santander harvard review of Latin america fall 2011 volume Xi no. 1 bolivia published by the david rockefeller center for Latin american studies Harvard university FIRST TAKes Five Years of Evo by Pablo Stefanoni 2 refLections Through a Glass Darkly by Merilee Grindle and Mary Hilderbrand 6 The Bolivian Economy by Gonzalo Chávez A. 9 in every issue PORTRAITS of cHange Evo Morales by Raúl Peñaranda U.