Via Otto @ Inca Kola News an essential article- Racism, Domination and Revolution in Bolivia by Adolfo Gilly- on the deep cultural roots of what is emerging and the racial and class dynamics so ignored by our media, as Otto says ‘If you are reminded while reading of the situation in Apartheid-era South Africa and the industrialized nations’ attitudes towards the black majority movement at that time, I wouldn’t be surprised.’ A wee excerpt [full article here]-
That dividing line is sharp and deep in Bolivia. It is not only a class domination, although that does exist. It is above all about a racial domination that was shaped in the colonial times and reaffirmed in the ogliarchic Republic from 1825 onwards.
In that domination, being a full citizen means being white or an assimilated mestizo. To become a citizen, an Indian must stop being Indian and see themselves and be seen as being white; break from their concrete historical community, that of the Aymaras, the Quechuas, the Guaraníes or another one of the many indigenous Bolivian communities; and enter as a newly-arrived subordinate into the abstract community of the citizens of the Republic. The Indian does not expect that the Republic will change and be like his people. Instead, it is required that these people change their men and women, renounce their identity and their history and be like the Republic of the whites, the rich, the eucated, the Spanish-speakers – where, for everyone else, the inerasable color of their skin will forever condemn them (those men and women) to second-class citizenship. That is the nature of this domination.
The strength of the revolution taking place in Bolizia is supported by an ancient civiliation, invisible in the law but one that persists in the languages, customs, belief, relationships of solidarities and communities, both rural and urban. The dominated brown-skinned people were not brought from other lands. There were there before, they were and they continue to be the native civilization. The filmmaker Jorge Sanginés, in an unforgettable film, called it “The Clandestine Nation.” Guillermo Bonfil named it “Deep Mexico: A Civilization Denied.” Following in their steps, I have named it “a subaltern civilization” in my book, “Historia a contrapelo.”
Clandestine, denied or subaltern, the social and cultural framework of those native civilizations appears at the moment of organizing the uprisings and the rebellions of their heirs and bearers, because those rebellions and uprisings are roots as deep as the root of racial domination.
27 September, 2008 at 10:35 pm
True from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego.
27 September, 2008 at 10:51 pm
So I guess in another way this is not just political but a liberation movement. Much as the media ignore that, but it suggests it cannot be denied and the US is (quelle surprise) on the wrong side not just politically but morally.
27 September, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Been that way for the past 500 years. The Europeans established a power scheme based on race and ethnicity and the Americans simply exploited once they brushed away the remnants of the European Empires. Do a Google search for images of Latin American leaders, you know those group pictures at one summit or another. Better yet, find a few over let say, the last couple of decades. Look at their skin tone, complexion and features.
That will give you all the answers you need.