Somehow, in order to procrastinate from translating and transcribing hours and hours of interviews, I started writing a kind-of reflection of my research so far. I didn’t really stop for a while, so it probably seems like a rant, but there’s a few pictures at the bottom to reward you for reading my thought process (or skip the thought process and enjoy the pictures). Maybe it’s like a summary of what I’ve got so far for my thesis. Maybe.

Here goes:

In considering the plurality of identities in Bolivia today, the new political processes in play have stepped up to consider a kind of recognition opposed to that of previous periods in Bolivian politics (which have deeply shaped Bolivian social relations). As we know, following Columbus’ arrival in the Caribbean in 1492, the Spanish colonized much of what we know as Latin America. In this process, in most areas, not only were peoples’ lives and families physically destroyed (through everything from rape and slavery to all out genocide), but this physical destruction was accompanied by a social and cultural destruction that has penetrated Latin American cultures since. In most places, it has resulted in a complete change in population—many countries having very little of what I will call ‘indigenous’ peoples. In that way, Bolivia is unique. It has the highest per capita population of ‘indigenous’ identified peoples in all of the Americas. However, for centuries, the diversity here has been characterized by the identity politics of the ‘Mestizaje’—basically meaning ‘mixed identity’. While there is strong value to this recognition, as countless Bolivians have told me that there are no real or pure indigenous peoples here and at the same time there are no real or pure whites (except the immigrants from the North who benefit greatly from Bolivia’s cheap prices and deep economic inequalities), there is also a myriad of strong indigenous cultural identities here, from the Aymara to the Quechua to the Guarani, and many others. In fact, Bolivia’s new constitution, enacted in February 2009 recognizes thirty-six of these identities, and many of them have their own languages (the ones that only speak Spanish have lost their languages due to assimilationist political and educational strategies). Therefore, the politics of the Mestizaje in Bolivia is constantly being flipped around and upside down.

The new education reform, which is part of the new constitution (but has yet to be passed through one of the two congressional bodies), is seemingly an attempt to adapt the political and education system to the larger issue of the vast diversity of Bolivian identities. As multiple respondents have explained to me, the new constitution was built from this education reform. Therefore, just as is engaged by the education reform, titled ‘Avelino Sinani-Elizardo Perez’ after two indigenist educators from the 1930’s, the new constitution brings up this plurality of identities. Most directly, this is through a re-naming of the state from the ‘Republic of Bolivia’ to the new ‘Plurinational State of Bolivia’. The new name (and the text itself) recognizes the thirty-six cultures I mentioned above as nations, giving itself a centralized state power while recognizing the diversity of ‘national’ identities.

"Structure of the Plurinational Education System: -->Curricular Organization-->Administration and Management-->Community-based Popular Participation-->Technical Support, Resources and Services-->(circle)"

By engaging this idea of ‘plurinationalism’ through numerous political/social projects including the new education reform, the country is rejecting the idea of the ‘mestizaje’. Alternatively, and my focus is in education, although these ideas are engaged around the political map, Bolivia is working towards the decolonization of these colonial ideas. As the ‘mestizo’ is a colonial construction through a homogenization of the diverse aspects of both the personal and larger cultural identity, the Plurinational recognition of the plurality of the people of Bolivia seems deeply important. As an effort to respect the diversity, ‘Avelino Sinani-Elizardo Perez’ (the new education reform) engages four fundamental ideas (as defined by the legal text and articulated into these sections by someone from the Ministry of Education who I saw speak on Thursday night): ‘decolonization’, ‘inter- and intra-culturality, and plurilingualism’, ‘community-based education’, and ‘productive education’. However, through my research and interviews it has seemed like the idea of ‘decolonization’ is more of a theoretical umbrella term for the rest (although this is debatable).

"What does a decolonial education mean? ... Deconstruct the categorial Euro-centric framework: -For example, the Spanish "discovered" the new world... Equal distribution of cultural capital... Terrorism is the massacre that the US is commiting in Iraq; Bush is the first/worst terrorist in the world... Coca (the leaf, which is produced in Bolivia) is not cocaine; erradicate drug addiction... This decolonial process has three matrixes which need to be deconstructed: 1. the myth of race (mestizo included); 2. Eurocentrism: our elites have always looked otuward; 3. Capitalist development"

In terms of the politics of the ‘mestizaje’, the ‘inter- and intra-culturalism and plurilingualism’ seems most important. While there is no standard definition of these terms (or any of the ones mentioned above, which could prove to be a major problem with implementation), it is pretty solidly agreed that ‘inter-culturalism’ cannot be separated from ‘intra-culturalism’—intra-culturalism being the development of a cultural identity while inter-culturalism respects and honors the interaction between those cultural identities. As the concrete aspect of these, ‘plurilingualism’ will force schools to teach the local mother-tongue (if in rural areas), Spanish, and a foreign language. In urban areas it will be Spanish, the most popular indigenous language of the general area (Aymara for La Paz, Quechua for Cochabamba, etc.) along with a foreign language. As numerous folks have explained to me, if people, especially a young person, cannot identify personally with a culture, the interaction between them and others of a culture with more historical power will result in an assimilationist practice: the person from a lower-historically-powered culture feeling the need to participate in the stronger culture in order to gain respect by the stronger culture and generally to become more economically successful. For this reason, some parents have rejected the idea of teaching native languages in schools, as they want their children to be able to integrate and “make it” in either the cities (which are all primarily Spanish-speaking) or global society.

"Objectives of Inter-cultural, Plurilingual Education: Develop, value and recuperate languages, wisdoms, knowledges, values; strengthen the identity and diversity of the peoples and interrelating them with universal wisdoms and knowledges for an equilibrium in the development of knowledges..."

The trouble here is that it seems that this capitalist ideology has engaged an idea of preference (in some communities) for the idea of the ‘mestizaje’. This, at least for me, is critical to think about. Is it responsible to create new systems of power and reorganize the government with the goal of decolonizing society from colonial systems of homogenization as well as capitalism and imperialism (as the law is anti- both of those) in the context of a population who wants to integrate into capitalist culture and focus their priorities on their own family’s success? This is a complicated, but major question for me. Undoubtedly, the goals of the Plurinational constitution and the education law, ‘Avelino Sinani-Elizardo Perez’, are central in my own analysis of systemic and cultural change, but for it to occur in a top-down, government-sponsored way does not seem 100% responsible. To me, it fundamentally means that the government considers its own ideas as superior to those of the people it represents.

Now, this gets even more shifty, as everyone I’ve spoken to from the government and Ministry of Education has insisted that the constitution and education law are guided by an incredible amount of popular participation.

A seminar by a rep from the Ministry of Education justifies the widespread participation of education related organizations from all over the country

Further justification of participatory nature of the law. Translation: "An Education Law From Bolivians For Bolivians: -end participation of consultants; -stop expenses in the creation of the new education law; -active participation by nationally-based organizations and institutions; -participation of historically marginalized sectors...; -a new Education Law coming from the masses"

This definitely makes me feel better about the whole process, or at least it did before coming here. While a few teachers have told me that they have participated in local or national meetings for the development of these proposals, the majority that I have spoken with have told me that they haven’t been aware of these ‘participatory’ goings-on. One teacher who teaches math in a teacher-training institute in Cochabamba went to a national curriculum meeting in Sucre, a number of hours away from his home, and had prepared for weeks by reading and coming up with ideas. On his arrival, there were a few seminars/lectures by various education-related organizations, and finally a proposed curriculum was passed around by the Ministry for the participants to sign—with no real participation and barely any discussion.
Moreover, there have been a number of teacher protests and strikes against the new education reform, but the folks I have spoken with who’ve participated in these have done so simply because they don’t know what is going on with the reform—they had not been invited to participate in the planning process, and there had been apparently little-to-no communication about the progress of the change of plans for the education system from any of the appropriate organizations (Ministry of Education, SEDUCA…, teacher unions, etc.), and rather their information came from a small but strong group of ‘Trotskyist’ teachers, who seemingly (according to all the teachers I’ve spoken with, who are not part of this group) resist any type of change at all which recognizes the existing system of government, and advocates for a complete political and social reorganization based on a pure class analysis.

But anyway, whether we (anyone) likes it or not, the new constitution was passed by an overwhelming majority, and the education reform is part of it (the part that still needs congressional approval is not whether there will be a reform, but rather some of the specific terms of it). With everyone I’ve spoken with, this is non-debatable. The rejection of the colonial idea of the ‘mestizaje’ is strong in Bolivia, especially with those involved in the government. The recognition of the country’s diversity is essential to the country’s plans for development, and these plans are seemingly based out of educating the younger generations in a culturally respectful and non-assilimilationist way. The terms of the decolonization process are definitely not clear, but with better communication and common definitions, it could be. In fact, these two aspects would probably be able to bring the resistance to the changes into a productive debate, rather than a kind-of “I’m right!” “No! I’m right” argument.

But who really knows? Maybe it’s not even productive of me to be doing this research at this stage of the reform. Things will definitely change, but a plan for cultural decolonization is in the works, and in a few years it will surely prove to look at the Bolivian example and see what processes have been successful and supported, and what has remained unclear and maintained colonial hierarchies, or in even more academic language: the coloniality of power and knowledge.

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Okay, I promised some pics that are a little more fun. These were from the “costume party” at a friend’s apartment last weekend. Somehow I was Harry Potter… with a mustache??? whatever…

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