Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate

Kévin Healy

Description

Bolivia, like most developing countries around the world, strove for decades to imitate Western and particularly U.S. methods of development, importing the latest technologies, institutions, crops, and livestock. Finally, beginning in the 1970s, faced with many striking instances of failure in the application of the North American modernization paradigm, diverse sectors of Bolivian civil society turned inward to rediscover their country's own multicultural identities and agrarian wisdom as sources of strength upon which to build their own socioeconomic development. The shift spawned a proliferation of development projects grounded in a new "indigenization" or revitalization of cultural traditions. Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia is the story of Bolivian rural development and cultural change. Part I provides an overview of the history of rural development in Bolivia—the long history of anti-indigenous discrimination, the introduction of aid programs in the Western development paradigm, the rise of grassroots movements challenging this paradigm, and the array of initiatives now contributing to the revitalization of indigenous cultural resources. Part II consists of in-depth narratives of nine projects, giving an inside view of the processes that interweave cultural recuperation and developmental strategies. These stories illustrate the cultural barriers that must be overcome and the setbacks often faced by grassroots federations. The projects range from successful agro-exports such as organic chocolate and quinoa to the groundbreaking work of indigenous artists and artisans. In Part III, author Kevin Healy attempts to identify the numerous factors that helped engender successful outcomes in these projects and discusses the effects of globalization on Bolivian culture and development patterns. This inspirational story of social change led by idealism will be valuable for international policymakers, analysts, and aid officials, as well as native North and South Americans, and non-Native Americans who strongly identify with their struggles.

Sujets

• Histoire
• South America
• Latin America
• History

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268088200
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate

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Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate

Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia

Kevin Healy

                 Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame฀Press Notre Dame,Indiana฀46556 All Rights Reserved www.undpress.nd.edu

Copyright ©2001฀by University of Notre Dame Published in the United States o฀fAmerica

Hardback฀edition฀published฀in฀2017

This ebook has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this book do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dat฀a Healy, Kevin. Llamas, weavings, and organic chocolate : multicultural grassroots development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia / Kevin Healy. p. cm. “Recent titles from the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies.” Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 13: 978-0-268-01326-4(paper) isbn 13:978-0-268-08818-7(hardback) 1. Rural development projects—Bolivia.2. Cultural animation— Bolivia. 3Indians of Southof South America— . Indians conditions. 4. Bolivia— Social America—Bolivia—Economic conditions. I. Title: Multicultural grassroots development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia. II. Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies. III. Title. hn280.z9 c644 2001 307.1941290984— dc21 00-056801

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       

Contents

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Preface

National Integration within a Neo-Colonial Republic The Biases of Western Aid From Import Substitution to Globalization: A Tale of Two Economic Development Models

Indigenous Challenges to the Western Modernization Models

Dethroning Monocultures and Revitalizing Diversity

Cacao Bean Farmers Make a Chocolate-Covered Development Climb

The Quinoa Trail: From South American Salt Flats to Western Health Food Stores

Grassroots Development Trekking with Alpacas, Llamas, and Ayllus

Piloting Women’s Popular Education

Remaking Urban Public Education with an Andean Cultural Twist Recuperating a Wealth of Women’s Weavings in the Valleys of Chuquisaca

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An Artisans’ Journey from the Rural Backlands to the Regional Capital

Digging for Indigenous Potato Knowledge in the Mountains of Rayqaypampa

The Mouse That Roared: An Amazonian March to the Andes for Land Rights

Blazing a Trail of Multicultural Grassroots Development for a New Millennium

Notes Bibliography Index

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Preface

This book tells a story of development in Bolivia through the presen- tation of a range of grassroots development experiences from across the country. The stories serve as a documentary account of the sea change that is taking place in Bolivia and among large international development agencies. Bolivia, like most developing countries around the world, strove for decades to imitate Western and particularly U.S. methods of develop- ment, importing wholesale programs and the latest technologies, institu- tions, crops, food, and livestock from the West. Yet Bolivia’s social and economic inequalities kept growing. Moreover, the imported methods took a grave toll on the environment, which contributed to the deterio- ration of the carrying capacity of rural farms. Finally beginning in the s, faced with many striking instances of failure in the application of the Western modernization paradigm, diverse sectors of Bolivian civil society turned inward to rediscover the country’s own multicultural iden- tities and agrarian wisdom as sources of strength upon which to build development. This shift spawned a proliferation of development proj- ects grounded in a new “indigenization” or revitalization of cultural traditions. Bolivia’s “indigenization” process began and spread through a ground- swell of innovative development activities and initiatives promoted by grassroots federations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that ultimately changed not only the lives of thousands of Bolivia’s rural people, but perspectives held by those in the capital city’s corridors of power. These innovative thinkers and practitioners, excited by the new indigenization philosophy, uncovered a veritable cornucopia of formerly underutilized re- sources, many of which stemmed from ancient agrarian civilizations of the Andes. They also began altering prejudicial attitudes toward these resources in the business community, the government, the media, the large govern- mental foreign aid agencies, and the universities.

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preface

The Inter-American Foundation (IAF), OXFAM-America, Catholic Relief Services, World Neighbors, and Cultural Survival were among the U.S. aid agencies most able to respond to this call for support of indige- nous resources, organizations, and technologies when itfirst appeared. For twenty years I have served as Bolivia Foundation Representative for the IAF, discovering, funding, and following the progress of several hundred projects in education, agriculture, artisanry, women’s training, health, mining, social research, and housing. As an IAF staffmember, I was privileged to follow the work of thesefledgling organizations. While during this period I have served as a funnel for funds, the tide reverses now, as I act as a conduit for the communities’ stories, bringing them to the wider world. The book presents this story of Bolivian rural development and cultural change over the last half-century. Thefirst three chapters construct a histori- cal and contextual framework for analyzing the country’s process of cultural revitalization for grassroots social and economic development in recent de- cades. This framework presents three main perspectives of neo-colonialism, Western-centric foreign aid programs, and the prevailing economic develop- ment models over the last half-century as contexts in which these community- based organizations strove to reverse centuries of neglect, discrimination, and exploitation. Chapterbegins this sto rural d evelop-ry with a history of ment and underdevelopment in Bolivia both before and after the advent of Western aid. This chapter brings into focus a long neo-colonial history of anti-indigenous discrimination accompanied by assimilation policies and campaigns. The chapter also provides an overview of the socio-political con- text of contemporary Bolivia, including descriptions of the various ethnic groups, ecosystems, and regions of the country, to serve as background for the later chapters that take a close look at development projects in the various regions. Chapteroffers a history of the application of ethnocentric Western rural development models to the Bolivian countryside from its conception by North American advisors and their neo-colonial counterparts within the Bo- livian government primarily during thes ands. Chapterdescribes how macro-economic structures and policies over the past half-century have impacted on the socioeconomic development prospects of Bolivia’s indige- nous majority. This discussion follows the Bolivian history of the heavily foreign-funded economic development models of state capitalism and neo- liberalism within the national as well as global scenarios. Chapterdiscusses grassroots movements which mounted a challenge to the Western development models and shaped a socio-political context fa-

preface

vorable to expressions of indigenous culture for rural development acti- vism within a growing civil society. Chapterprovides an overview of the broad array of initiatives and development activities that have contributed to the recovery and revitalization of diverse indigenous cultural resources— crops, food, trees, shrubs, pastures, livestock, art, medicinal plants, organi- zational forms,flags, and land tenure forms—during thes ands. This chapter describes the activities of a minority of NGOs that have ded- icated themselves to development plans based on home-grown resources and technologies from indigenous communities. These groups combined the best of the Western and non-Western worlds in their projects while fa- voring the latter in their advocacy work. Chaptersthroughconsist of in-depth narrative histories of small- scale development projects managed by grassroots federations and NGOs that have evolved out of the new cultural revitalization-indigenization movement in different micro-regions. The project stories provide an inside view of the processes that interweave cultural recuperation and revitaliza- tion with NGO strategies for grassroots development. In each case, the highlighted organizations were able to overcome cultural barriers and insti- tutional discrimination and carry development across new thresholds. The nine project cases were selected from several hundred funded by the Inter-American Foundation and other donors in Bolivia between and. I used two key criteria in making my selections from this large portfolio. I gave preference,first and foremost, to projects that have enjoyed some measure of success and that have demonstrated staying power. I par- ticularly wanted to avoid those “flproject successes that lookash in the pan” good initially, maybe for a couple of years, but thenfizzle out. All the groups selecte d had spiritedly managed project activities for at least a decade, although this minimum cut-offpoint was easily exceeded in most cases. Impressive achievements have put these projects in an “exceptional projects” category, yet their problems illustrate many of the complexities found in most, if not all, local development endeavors. Since these effective organizations were challenged by problems familiar to grassroots develop- ment practitioners the world over, the narrative histories also focus on the mistakes, setbacks, and failures that invariably crop up on the difficult, bumpy road to social and economic change. Breadth is the other main criterion I used in selecting cases for inclusion in this book. I have included a range of projects to rfleect the broad ethno- cultural, geographical, historical, and ecological diversity of Bolivia, as well

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