Demonstration in El Alto October 2003. Students armed with home-made rocket launchers.
Photo courtesy of Nacho Calonge.
Photo courtesy of Nacho Calonge.
EL ALTO REBEL CITY:
SELF AND CITIZENSHIP IN ANDEAN BOLIVIA
Combining anthropological methods and theories with political philosophy, Sian Lazar analyzes everyday practices and experiences of citizenship in El Alto, a satellite city to the Bolivian capital of La Paz. More than three-quarters of El Alto’s population identify as indigenous Aymara. For several years, El Alto has been at the heart of resistance to neoliberal market reforms such as the export of natural resources and the privatization of public water systems. In October 2003, protests centered in El Alto forced the Bolivian president to resign. The growth of a strong social justice movement in Bolivia culminated in the December 2005 election of Evo Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, and it has caught the imagination of scholars and political activists worldwide. El Alto remains crucial to this ongoing process. In El Alto, Rebel City Lazar examines the values, practices, and conflicts behind the astonishing political power exercised by the citizens of El Alto in the first few years of the twenty-first century.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2004, Lazar contends that in El Alto, citizenship is a set of practices defined by one’s participation in a range of associations, many of them collectivist in nature. Her argument challenges Western liberal notions of the citizen by suggesting that citizenship is not only individual and national but in many ways communitarian and distinctly local, constituted through different kinds of affiliations. Since these affiliations emerge in El Alto most often through people’s place of residence and their occupational ties, Lazar offers in-depth analyses of neighborhood associations and trade unions. In so doing, she describes how the city’s various collectivities mediate between the state and the individual. Collective organization in El Alto and the concept of citizenship underlying it are worthy of attention; they are the basis of the city’s formidable power to mobilize popular protest.
I have collected some video clips which illustrate some of the points I want to make in the book, and are referred to in its pages. They illustrate similarities between Dances, Demonstrations and Civic Parades. Please feel free to post comments about these or any other aspect of the book here.
The Kullawada in the Rosas Pampa Entrada of September 2000, at the palco. I and my partner are dancing in the front as the mascots: the Awila and Waphuri.
The same Kullawada in the Diana the following day; some of the dancers are a bit the worse for wear after a day, night and morning of drinking. At the end of the clip you can see the two couples who were pasantes.
A full Morenada comparsa from the Gran Poder fiesta 2003. Note: this is a large file. It took over half an hour for the complete group to pass the palco, and I include the full clip here to give an impression of the grandeur of the biggest comparsas. Note the elaborate costumes and the two large bands. This particular one comprises dancers from the Eloy Salmón street market in La Paz. They are usually thought to be very wealthy, as they sell large electrical goods.
An extract from the Eloy Salmón comparsa, showing the women Morenada dancers. You can see how even though this group had two very large bands, many of the dancers could not hear the music.
An extract from the Eloy Salmón comparsa, showing one of the bands. Morenada bands are very expensive, and are expert performers.
An extract from the Eloy Salmón comparsa, showing a group of male ‘Moreno’ dancers and the band following them.
A rather more modest Morenada comparsa, from the pueblo of Quilloma in 2003. The dancers are migrants from Quilloma who now live in a number of zones in El Alto, and who return nearly every year to dance in their pueblo’s fiesta. I participated as a dancer in 2000.
A comparsa of students dancing in the Entrada Universitaria of 2003. T he students tend to dance more energetic dances than the Morenada in their Entrada. This particular dance is called Tobas, and is a figurative representation of indigenous groups from the Chaco region of Bolivia.
See Bolivianísima for clips and descriptions of dances.
A demonstration by students from the Universidad Pública de El Alto in August 2003, demanding autonomy for the University. I include it and the following extracts here to indicate the similarities in physical form between fiesta dances, demonstrations and civic parades.
A civic parade of schoolchildren in El Alto to celebrate Independence Day on 6th August 2003. Schools often begin their parades with the youngest children dressed as soldiers and nurses, or heroes of the struggle for independence from Spain. In this clip you can also see students dressed in the costume of different departments of Bolivia.
Adults parading for Independence Day in 2003. This extract and the following one show the continuities between children and adults’ participation in civic parades. For example, the adults here are divided into gender specific groups, and identify the collectivities they represent by means of standards and banners at the beginning of the group.
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