Andean Utopias in Evo Morales's Bolivia

Abstract

As indigenous people have emerged as political actors in Bolivia, indigenous activists, the media, and scholars have begun to articulate a new discourse that represents Andean culture as coherent, enduring, and fundamental to the transformation of contemporary Bolivian society. This essay focuses on the ways new president Evo Morales and his government are utilizing idealist utopian visions of Andean culture, such as the notion of pachakuti, to negotiate spaces for social and political reform. Is this just strategic essentialism? Instead of assuming continuity of Andean culture, I demonstrate instead how elements of traditional narratives and myth are arranged and enacted to produce consensus about the kinds and forms of change that are appropriate and possible in given historical conjunctures. This may be effective political strategy, but it also carries dangers, including reverse racism, fanning the flames of ethnic violence, and Andino-centrism.