En busca de lo popular en el proceso de construcción de la nación. Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jaime Omar Salinas Zabalaga Graduate Program in Spanish and Portuguese The Ohio State University 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Fernando Unzueta, Advisor Dr. Laura Podalsky Dr. Ana del Sarto Copyright by Jaime Omar Salinas Zabalaga 2016 Abstract This dissertation analyzes the emergence of the popular in the building of the Bolivian nation in three types of texts and in three moments of the nineteenth century: a diary of the wars of the independence (1814-1825), artisan newspapers in the second half of the century (1849-1900), and a foundational novel (1885). This research project explores not only the role played by the popular sectors in the national building process, but most of all the popular culture as a possibility to rethink the nation. That is to say that the popular can be conceived as a space in which the nation can be rethought. In this regard, “En busca de lo popular en el proceso de construcción de la nación” explores the different ways in which the popular was made discursively visible during Bolivia’s nation-building process. The discursive representations of the popular culture and popular sectors in these three different texts allow us to analyze the tense articulation between cultural imaginaries and national projects. In chapter 1, I analyze how the mestizos and indigenous, who fought together in the "montonera" of Sica Sica and Ayopaya, constructed an idea of homeland that was grounded in their cultural connection with the space. In other words, I propose to read the diary of Jose Santos Vargas from the perspective that point out the struggle over the meaning of homeland between the popular forces and the white elite. The discursive representation of the homeland as a ii lived space made visible the cultural and imaginary connection between the popular forces and their idea of homeland, idea that call into question the representation of homeland defended by the creole elite. In chapter 2, I propose to consider the emergence of the artisan newspapers not only as a way that allow mestizos to participate in the public sphere but, above all, to reshape their political identity. I demonstrate that the journalistic production situated the mestizos artisans as a cultural and political mediators between the white upper classes and the popular sectors and, moreover made them play a key role in the consolidation of the liberal state. In chapter 3, I demonstrate that the liberal project that the Aguirre's foundational novel supports is in clear tension with the cultural memory and the popular culture that the novel tries to subordinate to this ideal nation. If a foundational novel has to legitimate a mythic origin of a nation that is possible only when its ideological implications are naturalized, the problem emerge when at the core of this project the cultural memory and the popular sectors subvert from within the liberal project. As a result, the discursive representation of the popular culture call into question the ideal of culture, society and national subject that the novel supports, allowing in such way to rethink the nation from these misencounters. In other words, I propose that the popular should not only be seen as a space of resistance but as a voice that is actively and subversively involved in the national building process . The perspective adopted in this research project avoids dichotomous closures and considers the popular as a space of economic, symbolic, and political struggle where different social sectors adopt strategies of resistance, agency, and co- iii optation, not only to defend their own interests but most of all, to claim their right to play an active role in the construction of the nation-state . In this regard, the dissertation conceives of the popular as a space where the different sectors of the society strive for power over the discourses that are shaping the nation. From this perspective I point to the ideologies that grounded and legitimated projects of homogenization of spaces and subjects in cultural production about and for popular sectors. At the same time, I emphasize the presence of contradictions within such ideologies due to cultural differences,. My research explores not only the discourses of the popular sectors that call into question how they were represented and placed in the modern project of the nation by the elites, but also how the elites had to incorporate the popular, cultural memory and the popular sectors of society into the liberal national project. At the core, the dissertation sets out to elucidate the encounters and missed encounters between the modern projects that shape the state and nation throughout the nineteenth century as well as cultural memories and popular practices. The study contributes to debates about Bolivian and Latin American nationhood by foregrounding the active role played by popular culture and popular sectors in giving shape to their modernity. iv A Paola por su incalculable apoyo e infinito amor y a la memoria de Lucy Rivero v Acknowledgments Quiero dejar constancia de mi agradecimiento a Fernando Unzueta por sus enseñanzas dentro y fuera de clases, sus consejos, apoyo y amistad. A Ana del Sarto por todo lo que aprendí y por su ayuda incondicional a lo largo de estos años. A Laura Podalsky por toda su enseñanza y su incondicional apoyo académico. Para todos ellos mi más sincero respeto y agradecimiento. vi Vita 2000................................................................ B.A. Communication Sciences, Universidad ........................................................................Católica Boliviana 2009................................................................ M.A. Higher Education, Universidad Mayor ........................................................................de San Simón 2012................................................................M.A. Latin American Cultures and ........................................................................Literature, The Ohio State University 2010 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, The Ohio State University Publications Book Chapter 2010. "Lectura interactiva de textos para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico."Pensamiento Crítico. Cochabamba- Bolivia: Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo. 8- 136. Journal articles 2015. "Rupturas y continuidades. La nación narrada desde la voz del niño patriota al joven marginal." Estudios Bolivianos No 22: 107-122. vii 2015. "La lectura de lo nacional desde la construcción de lo popular en Juan de la Rosa." Revista digital alter-nativas. The Ohio State University. < http://alternativas.osu.edu/es/issues/spring-4-2015/essays/salinas.html>. 2014. "La nación desde el espacio de la patria chica." Blogoteca de Babel No 5 (Spring). Department of romance and classic studies. Bowling Green State University. < http://blogotecababel.org/?page_id=8443>. 2009. "Frankenstein." Revista Literaria. Simón I. Patiño. Cochabamba- Bolivia. Fields of Study Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese Concentration: Latin American Literatures and Cultures. viii Indice Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................. vii Vita....................................................................................................................................vii Indice.................................................................................................................................. ix Capítulo 1: Introducción .................................................................................................... 1 Capítulo 2: El diario de una guerra popular ..................................................................... 36 2.1 Los partidos de Sicasica y Ayopaya ..................................................................... 44 2.2 La descomposición del sistema colonial, descontento y alianzas populares. la situación en el Alto Perú ................................................................................................... 51 2.2.1 Las montoneras de los valles ............................................................................... 54 2.3 Los valles como el espacio desde donde se piensa la patria ................................. 59 2.3.1 La patria. "La patria en breves minutos u horas estará aquí" ................................ 66 2.3.2 La patria de los criollos ......................................................................................... 74 2.3.3 La patria de los indios ........................................................................................... 79 2.3.4 El lugar donde existimos. De la patria chica a los valles ...................................... 84 2.3.4.1 De la tropa a la junta general de todos los pueblos ............................................. 102 ix 2.4 Religiosidad popular............................................................................................112 2.4.1 La guerra justa..................................................................................................... 116 2.4.2 El discurso moderno y las religiosidades populares ..........................................