The Bolivia Reader provides a panoramic view, from antiquity to the present, of the history, culture, and politics of a country known for its ethnic and regional diversity, its rich natural resources and dilemmas of economic development, and its political conflict and creativity. Featuring both classic and little-known texts ranging from fiction, memoir, and poetry to government documents, journalism, and political speeches, the volume challenges stereotypes of Bolivia as a backward nation while offering insights into the country's history of mineral extraction, revolution, labor organizing, indigenous peoples' movements, and much more. Whether documenting Inka rule or Spanish conquest, three centuries at the center of Spanish empire, or the turbulent politics and cultural vibrancy of the national period, these sources—the majority of which appear in English for the first time—foreground the voices of actors from many different walks of life. Unprecedented in scope, The Bolivia Reader illustrates the historical depth and contemporary challenges of Bolivia in all their complexity.
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- I: First Peoples and the Making of Andean and Amazonian Space
- Myth of Inka Origin at Lake Titicaca, Bernabé Cobo
- The Myth of Tunupa, Oral Tradition
- Guaraní Creation Myth, Oral Tradition
- Verticality and Complementarity, John V. Murra
- Peopling the Empire, Pedro Cieza de León
- Workers in the Fields of the Inka, Mitimaes of Cochabamba
- Settlement and Landscape Transformation in the Amazonian Lowlands, Francisco Javier Eder
- II: States and Conquests in the Andes
- Conquest by the Inka, Pedro Cieza de León
- “Our Natives Were Well Governed,” Mallkus of the Qaraqara-Charka Federations
- The Myth of the Chullpas and the Emergence of the Sun, Oral Tradition
- A Spanish Vision of the Conquest, Anonymous Author from Cuzco
- An Uru Vision of the Conquest, Daniel Moricio
- A Guaraní Vision of the Conquest, Oral Tradition
- III: The Rich Mountain
- Tales of Potosí, Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela
- Imperial Panoply in the Baroque City, Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela
- The Good Wife, Juan José Segovia
- Cacique Nobility and Heraldry, King Felipe IV of Spain
- Trade with Potosí, A Trader’s Diary
- Mining and the Mita, Pedro Vicente Cañete y Domínguez
- New Worlds, Jesuit Worlds
- Echoes of the Missions, José Lorenzo Justiniano Noe Noco
- IV: From Indian Insurgency to Creole Independence
- Death to Bad Government, Anonymous Pasquinades
- The Siege of La Paz, Sebastián de Segurola
- An Unbearable Yoke, Tupaj Katari and Sebastián de Segurola
- The Specter of Justice, César Brie and Teatro de los Andes
- The Creole Cry of Freedom, Anonymous
- Debate over Spanish Sovereignty, Anonymous
- Guerrilla Patriots, José Santos Vargas
- Frontier Confrontations, Argentine Military Official
- Farewell, Juan Wallparimachi Mayta
- Inventing Bolivia, Simón Bolívar
- V: Market Circuits and Enclave Extraction
- A Conspiracy of Commerce, The Villager
- The Argument for Free Trade, La Época
- The Silver Patriarch, José Avelino Aramayo
- Transforming the Property Regime, Two Lawyers from La Paz
- Disentailment and Its Discontents, Government of Bolivia
- Integration of the Lowlands, Geographic Society of Santa Cruz
- Dreams of the Railroad, Ignacio Calderón
- Integration of the South, Lieutenant Colonel Angel Rodríguez
- The Tin Baron, Augusto Céspedes
- VI: The Nation and Political Fragmentation
- The Peru-Bolivian Confederation, Bolivian and Peruvian Authorities
- In the Forests of the Yuracaré, Alcide d’Orbigny
- “Are You Not Equal?,” Manuel Isidoro Belzu
- Cosmopolitan Taste, Juana Manuela Gorriti
- War and Peace on the Frontier, Treaty between the Settlers of Salinas and the Toba Indians
- A Tenuous Alliance, El Noticioso
- Egalitarian Revolution, Andrés Ibáñez
- The War of the Pacific, Andrés Lizardo Taborga
- The God Man, Juan Ayemoti Guasu
- An Aymara Command, Pablo Zárate Willka and Manuel Willka
- Social Darwinism in the Courtroom, Bautista Saavedra
- “The Slow and Gradual Disappearance of the Indigenous Race,” Government of Bolivia
- VII: The Nationalization of Natural Resources
- The Problem of the East, Rafael Chávez Ortiz
- A Woman’s Realm, Various Authors
- Everyday Life on the Hacienda, Marta Colque and the Andean Oral History Workshop
- Landlord Counteroffensive, Eduardo del Granado
- “Land to Those Who Work It,” Government of Bolivia
- The Catavi Massacre, Víctor Paz Estenssoro
- Mines as Cemeteries, Sergio Almaraz Paz
- Mine Madness, René Poppe
- The March to the East, Wálter Guevara Arze
- A Beggar on a Chair of Gold, United Nations Mission of Technical Assistance
- The Condemnation of Coca, United Nations Commission of Enquiry on the Coca Leaf
- The Blood of the Nation, General Alfredo Ovando Candia
- VIII: Revolutionary Currents
- The Laws of the Land, Santos Marka Tola and the Caciques-Apoderados
- Resurrection of the Race, Franz Tamayo
- A Voice for Women, Adela Zamudio
- A Woman’s Work, Federation of Women Workers
- The Business of War, Tristán Marof
- The Ayllu-School, Elizardo Pérez
- Front Lines, Oscar Cerruto
- Leaving for the Front, Alberto Ruiz Lavadenz
- The Death of Servitude, Francisco Chipana Ramos
- Trotsky on the Altiplano, Trade Union Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers
- Nation vs. Anti-nation, Carlos Montenegro
- The Sudden Upheaval, British Ambassador John Garnett Lomax
- The People versus the Rosca, Juan Lechín
- “They Fought without Holding Back,” Ernesto “Che” Guevara
- History Redeemed
- Requiem for a Revolution, Sergio Almaraz Paz
- Iconoclast and Prophet, Fausto Reinaga
- IX: Dictatorship and Democracy
- Cold War Strongman, General René Barrientos Ortuño
- A Continental Vanguard, Inti Peredo Leigue
- The Call to Armed Struggle, Anonymous
- An Aymara in the Ranks, Eusebio Tapia Aruni
- Under a Waning Moon, Ernesto “Che” Guevara
- The Gospel of a Guerrilla, Néstor Paz Zamora
- The Military-Peasant
Pact, General Hugo Banzer Suárez
- In the Name of Katari, Aymara and Quechua Peasant Organizations
- Urban Underworld, Jaime Saenz
- We Need to Be Organized Too, Domitila Barrios de Chungara
- A Strike of the Conscience, Father Luis Espinal
- The Dictatorship on Trial, Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz
- All Saints Massacre, Blanca Wiethüchter
- Narco-Dictatorship,
René Bascopé Aspiazu
- Labor and the Return to Democracy, Trade Union Federation of Bolivian
Mineworkers
- The Crisis as Method, René Zavaleta Mercado
- Horizons of Memory, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
- Travails of the Migrant, Luis Rico
- X: Neoliberalism and Lowland Ascendancy
- “Bitter Medicine,” Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada
- In the Name of the Nation, Trade Union Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers
- Farewell to Llallagua, Yolanda Santiesteban
- The Workers Disperse, Women Miners from Siglo XX Mine
- Pushing Privatization, World Bank
- Privatization Bolivian-Style, Wall Street Journal
- Make Your Dream a Reality, Cochabamba Travel Agency
- A Leaf in the Wind, Eduardo Mitre
- “For Sale” Signs
- XI: Competing Projects for the Future
- Song for the Flowers, Elvira Espejo Ayca
- Indian Theology, Aymara Catechists
- The Long March, Alex Contreras Baspineiro
- In the Time of the Pachakuti, Felipe Quispe Huanca
- Radical Regionalism, Camba Nation
- Fiesta Power
- Flaws in the System, Abraham Bojórquez
- A Day of One’s Own, Manuel Monroy Chazarreta
- The Cultural Life of Coca, Alison Spedding
- The Coca Commodity Circuit, Noah Friedman-Rudovsky
- The Coca War, Testimony of Chapare Peasants
- Even the Rain, Oscar Olivera
- Water Is Not for Sale, Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life
- Like a Bird, Etelvina Ramos Mamani
- The Gas War, Neighborhood Council of Villa Santiago II, El Alto
- XII: Pachakuti?
- Brother and Comrade, Evo Morales Ayma
- Deepening Divisions
- Foot Soldiers of Camba Nationalism, Youth Union for Santa Cruz
- Reclaiming the Capital, Félix Llanquipacha
- A New Social Contract, Bolivian Constitution of 2009
- Living Well, David Choquehuanca
- Rights of Nature, Legislative Assembly of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
- Standoff in the Beni, Communications Committee of the Eighth Indigenous March
- “Creative Tensions,” Alvaro García Linera
- The Wages of Development, Marco Octavio Ribera Arismendi
- A Final Offering, Xavier Albó
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources
- Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- Y
- Z
- Color Plates
Text
Audio
Adobe DRM
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