Copyright by Robert Matthew Gildner 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Robert Matthew Gildner Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Indomestizo Modernism: National Development and Indigenous Integration in Postrevolutionary Bolivia, 1952-1964 Committee: Seth Garfield, Supervisor Mauricio Tenorio Trillo, Co-Supervisor Brooke Larson Virginia Garrard-Burnett Frank Guridy Emilio Zamora Indomestizo Modernism: National Development and Indigenous Integration in Postrevolutionary Bolivia, 1952-1964 by Robert Matthew Gildner, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2012 Dedication To Professor William Colby. Thank you. Acknowledgements The dissertation marks the completion of both an intellectual and personal journey, made possible only by the invaluable support provided by an array of individuals and institutions. The journey began in Madison, Wisconsin in 1996. I was a searching eighteen year old, enrolled in community college. All I wanted to do at that particular moment in my life was play upright bass. Each day, I spent countless hours running scales and practicing Charlie Parker licks. I was considering a career in music when I enrolled in my first history course. It was Professor William Colby’s “History of the American West.” Though I was interested in the American West, I must admit that I was rather skeptical of history. Yet from day one, I was hooked. It was during that semester when I realized that I too wanted to be a historian. And it is for that reason that this dissertation is dedicated to Professor Colby. In pursuit of my newfound career, I soon matriculated at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. At UW, I benefited from the guidance of several professors, but I would like to express my profound gratitude to Alfred W. McCoy. Having agreed to advise my senior honor’s thesis, Professor McCoy took me under his wing and taught me the tools of the trade—how to conduct primary-source research, how to engage historiography, how to read documents, and, perhaps most importantly, how to write. Florencia Mallon introduced me to Latin American history and historiography, pushed me to think critically about sources, and encouraging me to embrace theory. Ned Blackhawk, Jeremi Suri, and Paul Boyer also indulged my intellectual curiosity and subsequently provided important guidance as I set my sights on graduate study. v I am especially grateful to the faculty, staff, and graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin, where I carried out my graduate study. Mark Lawrence proved an excellent mentor and remained encouraging even as I decided to abandon U.S. foreign policy in Latin America for modern Bolivian history. Susan Deans-Smith’s Colonial Latin American History seminars were exemplary, and she guided my early efforts to understand the legacy of Spanish Colonial Rule in the Americas. I would also like to thank H.W. Brands, Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Lina del Castillo, Yoav Di-Capua, Nora England, Alison K. Frazier, Charlie Hale, Karl Miller, Howard Miller, Julie Hardwick, Bruce Hunt, Raul Madrid, Robert Olwell, David Oshinsky, James Sidbury, and Ann Twinam, each of whom contributed to my professional development through word and examples. I am especially grateful to UT History’s graduate coordinator, Marilyn Lehman for helping me navigate the university bureaucracy. It is my dissertation advisors, Seth Garfield and Mauricio Tenorio Trillo, to whom I owe the greatest debts of personal and intellectual gratitude. Since the first day in his Nineteenth-Century Historiography seminar, Professor Tenorio pushed me to think not only critically, but imaginatively about big historical questions. He taught me the importance of language and challenged me to question my own underlying assumptions about historical knowledge and its construction. Even after moving on to Chicago, he provided a constant source of friendship and intellectual inspiration. Professor Garfield proved an equally inspiring mentor. His salient criticisms of and careful comments on my scholarship—from grant proposals to chapter drafts—provided a continuing lesson on how (and how not) to reconstruct the past. He ensured that I did not lose sight of the “nuts and bolts” while pushing me to contextualize the questions I was asking within broader global-historical processes. It was also Professor Garfield who provided the best piece of practical advice I received in graduate school. Crestfallen after having received vi a grant rejection, he pulled me aside and told me, “In order to succeed in this business, you have to have thick skin and an open mind.” How right he was. Both he and Professor Tenorio provided extraordinary mentorship, and I cannot thank them enough for their time, commitment, and effort over the years. My dissertation committee also deserves special mention. I was very fortunate to have Brooke Larson on my doctoral committee. Since I decided to study Bolivia, her research on both the colonial and modern Andes has served as a model for historical scholarship and of interdisciplinary inquiry. She has been an inspiring mentor since I set out on this project, carefully reading chapters and providing invaluable expertise on modern Bolivian history. Frank Guridy pushed me to think critically about race and ethnicity in Latin America, while urging me to consider the relationship between local and global processes. Virginia Garrard-Burnett encouraged me to consider the role of the Church and popular religion in postrevolutionary Bolivia. Emilio Zamora continually emphasized the importance of oral history and popular memory in considering Bolivian history and historiography. As I carried out my coursework and field research, fellow graduate students provided a constant source of support, encouragement, and distraction. I would especially like to thank José Barragán, Chris Dietrich, Jorge Derpic, Bill Epps, Bonar Hernández, Chris Heaney, Pablo Mijangos, Hernán Pruden, and Tyler Fleming, each of whom kindly read chapters of the dissertation and offered valuable suggestions. I would also like to thank the following individuals for making graduate school fun: Juan Camilo Agudelo, Christopher Albi, María José Alfanador, Brett Bennett, Karl Brown, Takkara Brunson, Claudia Carreta, Ann Cooper, Ryan Field, Jessica Grogan, Aldo Guevara, Larry Gutman, Veronica Jimenez Vega, Andres Lombana Bermudez, Pablo Lapenga, Shannon Nagy, Jeff Parker, Andrew Paxman, Heather Peterson, Franz Riveros Hensel, María vii Helena Riveros, Karin Sánchez, Blake Scott, Robert Smale, and Peter Weiss. I am also grateful to my fellow bolivianistas for their dialog and inspiration: Sarah Hines, Yeri López, Jorge Montesinos, Mario Murrillo, Nicole Pacino, Paula Saravia, Liz Shesko, Carmen Soliz, Guillaume Tremblay, Marisabel Villagómez, and Kevin Young. Over the years, I have also benefited from conversations with accomplished scholars from Bolivia, England, Mexico, and the United States. Thanks go to: Nancy Appelbaum, Waskar Ari, José Roberto Arze, Josep Barnadas, Rossana Barragán, Magdalena Cajías, Matt Childs, Carlos Derpic, James Dunkerley, Laura Gotkowitz, Bret Gustafson, Jaques Gelinas, José Gordillo, Peter Henderson, Willie Hiatt, Gabi Kunzelli, Marta Lanza Meneses, Erick Langer, William Lofstrom, Ximena Medinaceli, Pilar Mendieta, Mary Money, Luis Oporto Ordóñez, Ramiro Paz Cerruto, Manuel Plaza Escobar, Pablo Quisbert, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Beatriz Rossells, Robert L. Smale, James Seikmeier, and Carlos Villagómez. In Bolivia, I would especially like to thank Luis Oporto Ordóñez, who drew on his extensive knowledge of Bolivian libraries and archives to help me locate the documentation necessary to reveal the cultural politics of revolution. I would also like to express my gratitude to José Roberto Arze for granting me access to his personal archives and for long, enlightening discussions on Bolivian history and historiography. Beatriz Rossells also deserves special mention for graciously sharing her experience, expertise, and research on the cultural initiatives of the postrevolutionary government. I am especially thankful for the critical assistance provided by the archivists, librarians, and staff who I worked with over the past several years. At the Bolivian National Archives in Sucre, I would like to thank Marcela Inch and Joaquín Loyaza, who granted me access to the collection and who often went out of their way to help me identify relevant archival material. In La Paz, thanks go to Pablo Rendón and Javier viii Escalante at the Museo Nacional de Arqueología; Reynaldo Diez de Medina at the Banco de Datos of the Unidad Nacional de Arqueología; Alvaro Diez Astete at the Banco de Datos of the Unidad Nacional de Antropología; Pablo Cesar Sioux and Edwin Oscar Oso at the Archivo Central de Ministerio de Culturas; Ivica Tadic Pereira at the Biblioteca Arturo Costa de la Torre; Luis Oporto at the Biblioteca de Congreso; Martha Paredes Oviedo at the Archives of the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto; Vladimir Salazar, Eloisa Vargas, and Ramiro Molina at Museo de Etnografía y Folklore; and finally, the staff of the departmental offices of the Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria in La Paz. I would also like to thank the following individuals for kindly taking time out of their busy lives to grant me interviews: Mariano Baptista Gumucio, Hugo Daniel