Race and Politics

People have written whole books - dedicated their entire careers - to the issue of race and politics in Bolivia. The interplay between the two is so complex and has such a long history that I can't possibly do it justice here. And yet, I can't not write about it, because even being here for only a week, I can see how it's so visceral in the day-to-day life of Bolivians.

Here's the short story. There's a thinly-veiled rivalry between La Paz and Santa Cruz- the highlands and the lowlands. La Paz is the legislative center of the country and the largest city in the highlands. The people who live there are short, dark-skinned and mainly indigenous. Santa Cruz is the economic powerhouse of the country and is the largest city in the lowlands. The people who live there are paler, taller and mainly part of a white elite. Ask someone from La Paz and they will probably tell you that people in Santa Cruz are racist and less cosmopolitan. Ask someone from Santa Cruz and they will probably tell you that people in La Paz are backwards and uneducated.

The longer story (to the best of my understanding): For about 400 years, Bolivia was ruled by a small white elite. Even though the government is located in La Paz, those who lived in the mostly white Santa Cruz had enough political clout ito get money and resouces funneled to the then 30,000 person city. Somehow in the 1990s, the population as well as the economic capacity of Santa Cruz exploded and now the city totals 3 million, including some people from the highlands who have moved down there to take advantage of the economic growth.

Fast forward ten years, and in the early 2000s, a strong political movement arousefrom the indigenous majority of Bolivia (totaling more than 80% of the population) about their lack of representation in government. They fought back against their history of white, elitist rule, and in 2005, celebrated a serious victory by electing Bolivia's first indigenous president.

And that's when things got complicated. Santa Cruz suddenly felt like they had their legs cut out from under them. With a non-white president based in La Paz, they argued that the interests of the lowlands were not being fully considered by the government. They started lobbying for regional autonomy, arguing that the size of the region and its economic import necessitated local rule (the most extreme fringes of the party even talked about cessation from Bolivia). In attempts to curry more support for their cause, the Santa Cruz political machine pit indigenous groups against each other- pointing out that the president and the new migrants from the highlands taking local jobs did not look like the same as the lowland indigenous people.

How will these divisions among regions and race resolve themselves? Well that's anyone's guess. But in the present, it affects almost every conversation you have with Bolivians. Even ones that seem as innocous as: where else should I visit while I'm here?