A Revolution for Our Rights: Indigenous Struggles for Land and Justice in Bolivia, 1880–1952 (review)

By nesting her study of the struggle of Cochabamba’s indigenous communities for land and justice between 1880 and 1947 within Bolivia’s grand political narrative, Laura Gotkowitz has written a book that belongs on the shelves of scholars whose interests extend beyond the borders of that land-locked nation. It is certainly required reading for Andeanists of all disciplines and social movements specialists.

The book scrutinizes the dynamic between national political actors and indigenous leaders from Cochabamba. It dissects the inherent contradictions of the liberal promise to extend citizenship to Bolivia’s indigenous majority, a promise made in 1825 by Simon Bolivar, and its failure to achieve that by 1952. Bolivian political elites, whether they classified themselves as liberals or republicans, creoles or mestizos, military socialists or populists, understood that, however much it changed, the “Indian Problem” was not going away. To the contrary, the indigenous population (which stood at 70 percent in 1939) was increasing at such a rate that predictions suggested that in the future the Indian element would absorb both whites and mestizos. The core of A Revolution for Our Rights narrates the story of the changing strategies, tactics, and networking employed by indigenous leaders between l860 and l952 as they sought fuller political inclusion. That journey began in a discrepancy between Liberal attempts to end the Indian community on one hand, and Liberal courting of Indians as allies in their civil wars against Conservatives on the other. Detailed discussion explains how indigenous leaders transformed the post of colonial cacique into that of republican cacique apoderado. The journey ends with the 1947 cycle of violence and a call to scholars to rethink indigenous participation in the 1952 MNR Revolution.

Gotkowitz examines competing modern visions of the future and how gender and race complicated the issues of nationality and citizenship. She discusses how defeat in the War of the Pacific created openings for indigenous participation in national politics and offers a better explanation of why the Chaco War was such a pivotal event in Bolivian national history by viewing it from the perspective of the Indian communities that were disrupted by the constant recruitment of soldiers. Their relentless protests meant that for much of the war the government fought both an external and an internal enemy. Her analysis helps explain why in the aftermath of that humiliating defeat the military was able to recast itself into a viable political force. In turn, Gotkowitz discusses the unusual appeal of National Socialism and its even stranger role in forwarding the agenda of the indigenous majority; this helps to clarify why the mestizo nation project played out differently in Bolivia. All these subjects are viewed from the perspective of indigenous actors.

That indigenous leaders from Cochabamba were wise in statecraft, there is no doubt. By studying political engagement from the bottom up, we learn that issues important to indigenous people were those that had an impact on the local community such as schooling, land rights, community autonomy, labor contracts, and family concerns. These were local concerns but with a national twist, for politicians in La Paz lifted them to the national level through forums such as constitutional conventions and the 1945 Indigenous Congress.

A Revolution for Our Rights demonstrates a thorough knowledge of contemporary theory and rests on a solid foundation of archival research. There was a lot of digging through what some might consider old fashioned and dreary political sources: constitutions, congressional debates, political congresses, and court cases at the national and provincial levels, which provide the threads of the story. It took the skill of a master artisan to weave them into an innovative social and cultural study of political engagement. Countless monographic studies are then used to fabricate the larger tapestry. The book is readable. Finally the text is studded with cameos that provide a human dimension to...