Rhythms of the Pachakuti: Indigenous Uprising and State Power in Bolivia

New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century

by Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, Stacey Alba D. Skar (Translator), Sinclair Thomson (Foreword)

In the indigenous Andean language of Aymara, pachakuti refers to the subversion and transformation of social relations. Between 2000 and 2005, Bolivia was radically transformed by a series of popular indigenous uprisings against the country's neoliberal and antidemocratic policies. In Rhythms of the Pachakuti, Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar documents these mass collective actions, tracing the internal dynamics of such disruptions to consider how motivation and execution incite political change.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Bolivia, Indigenous History, Sociology

336 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2014

About the author

Raquel Gutierrez Aguilar is Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Puebla.

Reviews

[Ella]

on how grassroots social movements rise and succeed in preventing government harm but then flounder when they gain access to the state system and have to make decisions within the structure that oppresses them. the reality of attaining a solution that lies beyond the state system feels insurmountable and distant. meeting spaces, unions, collaborative learning, and roadblocks work. continuing to live in the master’s house doesn’t. how do we dismantle the house while still in it? how do we move through/beyond the state as a collective?

[Christopher]

Between 2000 and 2005 the nation of Bolivia underwent a period of flux where people from a wide variety of backgrounds rose up to demand sovereignty over their own natural resources, particularly water and gas, and ended with the fall of two presidents and the rise of Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales. How exactly did this come about? In this academic work of both history and social science, Ms. Aguilar charts how such a diverse coalition of social forces in the country stood organized sporadically, joined together, and subverted the neoliberal direction of the country. She argues that a combination of factors to this period of Pachakuti, an Aymara language word referring to the subversion and transformation of social relations, brought this about including the rise of Evo Morales' MAS party as a national force and the ability of the people to organize swiftly and hold firm on their end objectives even when the path forward seemed undefined. The story involves workers and indigenous people as well as key political figures like Morales, Oscar Olivera, Felipe Quispe, and the two president's and other key politicians who were subsequently deposed by popular protests and revolts. What is especially unique about this book is the author herself, who was born in Mexico, involved in the politics of the Mexican Left, and then moved to Bolivia and became involved in its politics there. Though her own experiences and political leanings seem to inform her theories behind this period, she does offer a unique insight into the different political movements of Bolivia. Still, this is an academic book and may not be as interesting to others. Her preface was particularly tedious and could probably be skimmed by those not interested in the minutiae of the book's underlying social and political theories. Still, for those of you who are interested in better understanding this unique period in recent Bolivian history, this multifaceted book would be a good place to start.

[Kelly]

So glad the English translation is now available. I love this interdisciplinary analysis by Gutierrez aguilar who is an activist herself. Each chapter focuses on a different moment or part of the indigenous rights movements of the early 21st century. Her introduction that calls out the movement for having failed is very interesting and insightful and I really like her use of the idea of "horizons of desire" for assessing how revolutionary various actors goals were. This book has a great mix of political/social theory and anecdotal as well as legal analysis.