Black hole indigeneity: the explosion and implosion of radical difference as resistance and power in Andean Bolivia

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the coming to power of Evo Morales and el Movimiento al Socialismo, an indigenized language of resistance became the language of power. In this paper I explore how epistemological and ontological ‘radical difference’ was co-opted and used to legitimize Bolivian state power. I argue that when institutionalized and instrumentalized within the state apparatus, indigeneity – as an emancipatory device of radical difference – implodes on itself and its radical potential is lost in the black hole that is coloniality. This paper provides an analytical and historical horizon against which recent political events in Bolivia can be understood.