Patrimony 96
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Patrimony # 96 Table of Contents Directors # Amaru Villanueva Rance, Ivan Rodriguez Petkovic, Rodrigo 96 Barrenechea, Sharoll Fernandez, Caroline Risacher Partners Jack Kinsella, Xenia Elsaesser Patrimony Editorial Team Caroline Risacher, Matthew Grace, Juan Victor Fajardo BX docunit Sergio Suárez, Changtse Quintanilla, Raquel Jiménez, Paul Etienne Printing and Advertising Manager Ivan Rodriguez Petkovic Commercial Manager Rodrigo Barrenechea Coordinator Wilmer Machaca Social Coordinator Renata Lazcano Head of Production Adriana L. Murillo Argandoña Head of Design Luis Aranda Photography Instructor Michael Dunn Caceres Journalists Rachel Durnford, Adriana L. Murillo A, Chistopher Peterstam The First Our Cover THE Peter Rios International Follow Us PACEÑO WAY Photo: Pablo Arteaga Qhapaq Ñan Walk Marketing 08 22 Rodrigo Barrenechea Advertise With Us [email protected] Follow/Bolivianexpress @Bolivianexpress Us@Bolivianexpress Address Thelonious— Calle Prolongación Armaza, # 2957, Sopocachi, La Paz Phone From Club 78862061- 76561628 - 70672031 Flight of the Contact to Cultural [email protected] 12Bumblebees 25Centre Thanks to: Corazón del Bosque, Sociedad de Arqueología de La Paz Singani Comes Finds an La Paz – Bolivia The Chullpas of July 2019 the Ancient International 16Aymara 28Audience /Bolivianexpress @Bolivianexpress @Bolivianexpress Sopocachi photo 19story www.boliviaunlimited.org Pablo Arteaga Pablo Photo: 4 Patrimony 5 Editorial #96: Patrimony By: Caroline Risacher n 1972, UNESCO adopted the Convention fleeting notion, something that represents a nation Concerning the Protection of the World at a fixed point in time. Because identity is a social Cultural and Natural Heritage. Bolivia signed construction, it is a dynamic process that responds the convention, but was one of the first to the ideals and values of a leading class making countries at the time to remark that the notion it also a political construct. If Bolivia’s patrimony Iof ‘folklore’ wasn’t explicitly mentioned and to comprises those mentioned above, then it says a claim it as ‘natural heritage.’ This was an important lot about how Bolivia sees itself and how Bolivians first step towards the recognition of ‘immaterial want to be seen in the world. cultural heritage’ as something worth preserving. It also carried the implication that immaterial (or It could also be argued that cultural patrimony intangible) heritage needed to be defined and transcends time and space, that once the status is that it could belong to someone – in this case the given it can never be taken back. This is true only Bolivian state. Today, there are seven Bolivian sites to an extent; the national park could disappear considered (material) cultural heritage and five because of the Amazon rainforest’s increasing intangible cultural-heritage practices. deforestation and environmental destruction. Cultural sites can be destroyed by overexploitation Some of these cultural-material sites are from and tourism. It may be counterintuitive, but the pre-Columbian times: Tiwanaku, Samaipata, the heritage of a country is more likely to remain in its Qhapaq Ñan; others are from colonial times: intangible practices and traditions. For example, Potosí, Sucre and the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos. in a really terrible apocalyptic scenario, salteñas The last one is a natural site: the Noel Kempff could disappear and not physically exist anymore, Mercado National Park. The intangible Bolivian but the recipe and what it represents in the minds comprises the Carnaval de Oruro, the Kallawaya of people would keep on existing. culture, the San Ignacio de Moxos celebration, the Pujllay Ayarichi dance of the Yampara and, the Because of the fragility of the world we live in, there latest addition, the Alasitas market. is a real necessity to value, protect and take care of our patrimony, as individuals and as a nation. A country’s heritage is something that the nation Bolivia’s heritage is not only items on a list approved as a whole identifies as its own, and which is closely by UNESCO, it’s all the food, dances and traditions connected to its identity – if not an integral part of the people of Bolivia. It’s the Uyuni salt flats, the of its identity. But these heritages are also social 13 national parks that have been recognised, the constructions, something that became patrimony chullpas. It is everything that surrounds us and because it was decided as such. In that sense, it is a that means something to us. Several Spanish and Aymara words are marked in N.B. bold throughout this issue. Their meanings can be found in our glossary. 6 Patrimony 7 THE PACEÑO WAY The city contains multitudes TEXT: Adriana L. Murillo A. / PHOTOS: André Ocampo Dances, markets, mountains, minibuses, steep streets, contrasts, chaos, zebras, llauchas, tucumanas del prado, la Pérez, cable car, marches, all seasons in one day, marraquetas, salchipapas, Alasitas – these are all part of the paceño way. July is the day of La Paz, a city which has two names, Nuestra Señora de La Paz and Chuquiago Marka, symbolising the many different facets of La Paz. It’s a place where an anticucho can be a street snack 16or turn into a sophisticated gourmet dish. It’s a chaotic city that does not sleep, where there may be traffic jams at 3:00 am in la Pérez or where it can be impossible to find a taxi on a rainy day. It’s a city full of contradictions where you drink locally produced coffee in sophisticated cafés or enjoy instant coffee with a marraqueta and cheese on a plastic bench in the market. It’s a city of fighters, where we see many demonstrations in which people have the courage to struggle for what they want, but at the same time it becomes a showcase for great cultural demonstrations and parades. CONTINUES ON PAGE 10 8 Patrimony 9 It’s a place into which everyone can fit, where there’s something for everyone and where you can’t get lost because everything and everywhere always takes you back to the centre. It’s where the Andean, the ancestral, the traditional can be found in everyday things – in the plays, concerts, the cold beer, gin and singani that accompany nights out. Musicians, writers, painters, sculptures, designers, filmmakers, actors, entrepreneurs, scientists, revolutionaries, activists, rebels, muralists and anarchists – they all find their muses in every corner of the city. La Paz. The city where people sing ‘Collita’ from the bottom of their heart and dance a kullahuada with grace and gallantry. Every day from 8:00 am, life on the street becomes alive with the caseritas, the zebras, the shoeshine boys, the juice lady, the pasankallas man, the ice cream man, the shoe-repair guy and all the maestritos. Imágenes Paceñas, by La Paz’s ill-fated scribe Jaime Sáenz, is mandatory reading for those who want to understand the city, and who will carry those memories forever. 10 Patrimony 11 utside Coroico, a small town in the centre of the sparsely populated Nor Yungas Region, a select few begin the process of tearing apart egg cartons and breaking decaying wood into small pieces. They then light the material on Ofire and place it into a large metal cup, known as a smoker, which apiculturists use to spray bees with smoke in order to Flight of the Bumblebees calm them. We are here to report on a trend that has been worrying many worldwide, the disappearance of the honey With a worldwide decline in the bee population, bee. According to Inti Rodriguez, the lead beekeeper, egg Yungas beekeepers protect their hives cartons and wood have a much ‘softer’ effect on the bees TEXT & PHOTOS: Christopher Niklas Peterstam than other materials. Other beekeepers use sawdust, which has a ‘spicy’ effect on the bees, causing them to be more aggressive, and some even use rubber or gasoline, which both negatively affect the bees’ health and contaminate the honey with harmful toxins and a lingering taste. Soon after, we were ready and clad in protective clothing, carrying our smokers and taking a 20-minute trek into the bush. The path was quite steep at times and often overgrown with brush and vine. The hives were hidden away in such difficult-to-get-to areas for their own protection. This is due to a variety of factors such as fear of robbery and even ignorance about the nature of bees. Doña Julia Mamani, whom the hives belonged to, said, ‘There are also people who are bad or think they are going to die with a bee sting, and that is why they kill them. There are people who even think that bees are bad for plants.’ This misperception has led members of local communities to attempt to find and liquidate the hives, either by fumigation or brute force. We soon made it to the final portion of the path that led to the hives. There we checked our equipment, suited up in our protective clothing and took a short rest to chew some coca leaves. During this sojourn, Rodriguez and Mamani began to speak about the challenges that bees now face. ‘In the chicken and pig farms, the use of antibiotics and hormones in these animals affects the bees when they consume water contaminated by faeces and rust that these farms discard,’ Rodriguez, said, explaining the dangers that natural resource mining poses to her trade. ‘Mercury is used to amalgamate metals and is thrown into the river, contaminating the water that is also consumed by bees to keep the hive in optimum conditions. The nectar then mixes with that water and the honey gets contaminated.’ 12 Patrimony 13 The expansion of agricultural areas, especially coca plantations, has led to a variety of problems for the bee population, including worrying levels of deforestation. Natural areas where bees were originally able to go and harvest nectar are being converted into farms and plantations at a very rapid rate.