Acting Inca: National Belonging in Early Twentieth-Century Bolivia

Introduction: Indian Problems, Indian Solutions

1 Introduction Indian Problems, Indian Solutions On March 29, 1899, in the midst of a civil war pitting the Liberals against the Conservatives, the Liberal Party supporter and Aymara indigenous community leader of Peñas, Juan Lero, received a letter from a neighboring Indian community leader. Its author confirmed support for the Liberal Party and a willingness to coordinate military efforts among Bolivia’s highland indigenous communities on behalf of the Liberal leader, General José M. Pando. “I write to inform you,” stated José Maria Galligo, the community leader of Guayllani, “that here we are ready to take up the railroad tracks and fight against Alonso [president of Bolivia and head of the Conservative Party]. Please tell us on which day we should mobilize. We await your reply.”1 This correspondence illustrates the network of indigenous community leaders that developed in the second half of the nineteenth century in Bolivia. These leaders played key roles in defending their community lands, in petitioning the government, in brokering political alliances, and in testifying in courtrooms . Cesiliano Gallego, the Aymara community authority of Merque Aimaya, assured Juan Lero in April 1899, just days before the end of the civil war, that the people of Merque Aimaya would also lend their support to the Liberals’ final push for victory. “I got your letter . . . in which you told us to prepare our community,” he wrote. “We are ready for tomorrow; wait for us and we will bring honor to Pando’s forces.”2 2 | introduction Figure 1. Mapa de Bolivia por Luis Garcia Meza, division político-administrativa de la república, Ministerio de Colonización y agricultura 1908. Courtesy of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress These letters between Aymara leaders, or caciques apoderados, illustrate that the Aymaras’ support for the Liberal Party was both widespread and coordinated through indigenous leadership; it permeated many communities in highland Bolivia in the corridor between La Paz and Oruro extending south toward Peñas and Challapata and into the Department of Potosí. introduction | 3 Figure 2. Mapa General de la República de Bolivia por Luis Garcia Meza, 1909. Courtesy of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress Aymara support for the Liberal cause is explicit in the letters just cited and remained evident throughout the last days of the civil war, which ended in April 1899. Esteban Ari, an Aymara supporter of the Liberal Party, referred to “the reign of justice” that he believed the party’s rise to power would bring.3 Ari’s comment indicates that real hope for political change existed among Liberal Party supporters living in small communities throughout the 4 | introduction highlands, and they continued to reiterate their support for the party after the civil war. The shift of power from the traditional elite of Bolivia, who owed much of their fortune to the rich silver mines of Potosí and to the fertile valley lands, to the highland-based Liberal Party in La Paz was especially significant in terms of redefining regional clout and political power in favor of western highland Bolivia. The Conservative Party concentrated political authority in the capital seat of Sucre; the Liberal Party fought for a federal model for the Bolivian nation. Capitalizing on the emerging tin boom in western highland Bolivia that would dominate the nation’s economy in the early twentieth century, the Liberal Party headquartered in La Paz, a city perched at approximately 12,000 feet whose proximity to the tin mines made it home to a new “tin baron” elite. As General Pando and his faction attempted to consolidate both economic and political power in highland Bolivia, they reached out to the dominant regional population, the Aymara indigenous group, for military support. Rather than portray the Aymara-Creole alliance in support of the Liberal Party as a union of convenience, I suggest that this working partnership profoundly shaped the nation-building project in early twentiethcentury Bolivia. Understanding the Reverberations of the Civil War of 1899 and Early Twentieth-Century Nation Building From December 1898 until April 1899, highland Bolivia was the site of a civil war that ultimately led to the rise of the Liberal Party and the transfer of the majority of the government from Sucre to La Paz. The highland Aymara indigenous group played a key role in this transformative process through the alliance between Aymara communities and Creole politicians. Rather than...