Earth Politics: Religion, Decolonization, and Bolivia’s Indigenous Intellectuals

Earth Politics focuses on the lives of four indigenous activist-intellectuals in Bolivia, key leaders in the Alcaldes Mayores Particulares (AMP), a movement established to claim rights for indigenous education and reclaim indigenous lands from hacienda owners. The AMP leaders invented a discourse of decolonization, rooted in part in native religion, and used it to counter structures of internal colonialism, including the existing racial systems. Waskar Ari calls their social movement, practices, and discourse earth politics, both because the AMP emphasized the idea of the earth and the place of Indians on it, and because of the political meaning that the AMP gave to the worship of the Aymara gods. Depicting the social worlds and life work of the activists, Ari traverses Bolivia's political and social landscape from the 1920s into the early 1970s. He reveals the AMP 's extensive geographic reach, genuine grassroots quality, and vibrant regional diversity. Ari had access to the private archives of indigenous families, and he collected oral histories, speaking with men and women who knew the AMP leaders. The resulting examination of Bolivian indigenous activism is one of unparalleled nuance and depth.

Andrés Jachakollo Ticona (November 10, 1921 - November 16, 1994) was the first indigenous Bolivian to become a Bahá’í. He served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Bolivia and as an Auxiliary Board member.

Acknowledgments ix

1. Building the Indian Law and a Decolonization Project in Bolivia 1

2. Nation Making and the Genealogy of the AMP Indigenous Activists 31

3. The Beginning of the Decolonization Project: Toribio Miranda's Framing and Dissemination of the Indian Law 55

4. Against Cholification: Gregorio Titiriku's Urban Experience and the Development of Earth Politics in Segregated Times 81

5. Between Internal Colonialism and War: Melitón Gallardo in the Southern Andean Estates 115

6. Against Whitening: Andrés Jacha'qullu's Movement between Worlds in the Era of the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952 135

Conclusion. The AMP's Innovations and Its Legacy in Bolivia under Evo Morales 171

Appendix 1 189

Appendix 2 193

Notes 199

Glossary 227

Selected Bibiolography 233

Index 251