Diccionario histórico de Bolivia

Abstract

The Diccionario histórico de Bolivia (DHB) is a major effort and one of the most complete historical dictionaries I have encountered. It spans the period from prehistory to 2001, with articles written by many of the most important Bolivianists alive. It covers not only historical events and people but also major books on Bolivian history published in Spanish (including important novels) and many newspapers in publication for five years or more, as well as the history of localities such as towns, departments, and provinces. Other contributions address major historical concepts: for example, capitalism, livestock and herding, mining, or romanticism. Volume 2 concludes with a series of 23 maps, ranging from pre-Inca societies to present-day ecclesiastical boundaries. It thus is not just a dictionary, but also a historical encyclopedia that will serve academic specialists, high school history students, and anyone in between.Each entry is followed by a valuable short bibliography and, for personages, a list of major publications. The entries on newspapers are extremely useful, offering a synopsis of the topics, the publishers and authors, and their political orientation. It even includes ephemeral and provincial newspapers. Unlike most national historical dictionaries, the DHB touches on events, personages, battles, and so on outside of the boundaries of Bolivia, so long as they had some effect on Bolivian history. Thus, the dictionary includes many articles on the colonial period, such as thumbnail biographies of the viceroys of Lima and Buenos Aires, even if they never set foot in Bolivian territory.The DHB is very much a creation of the editor, Josep Barnadas (in collaboration with Guillermo Calvo and Juan Ticlla). Barnadas is the major historical bibliographer of Bolivia today. He himself authored a large proportion of the articles; as he mentions in the introduction, the entire undertaking grew out of the hundreds of articles that he wrote over the decades as part of an unfinished project inspired and led by Alberto Crespo in the 1970s. In addition, more than three hundred other authors contributed to the two volumes. (I was also asked to contribute but was unable to do so.)Despite its usefulness, the DHB does suffer from some problems. First, the maps included at the end are rather elementary, and most do not contribute much. I also wish some of the biographies of major figures had been longer and more detailed. Perhaps most annoying is the editor’s insistence in using contemporary Quechua or Aymara transliterations of places and other names; thus “coca” becomes “kuka,” “Pocona” becomes “Puquna,” “Vinto” becomes “Wint’u,” and so on. Some place names I was unable to figure out, even after rereading them various times; since most of the maps continue to use standard Spanish orthography for place names, it will be hard to find them. This diminishes the value of the volumes for those not familiar with Bolivia’s geography. Also, the editor (perhaps wisely) did not alter the opinions of the authors; thus articles on controversial issues such as the Chaco War and the War of the Pacific have a very nationalist tone.All in all, this is an impressive work. It should be in the library of every serious Bolivianist and also in all major research libraries. The DHB creates, as the editor desired, an “infrastructure of knowledge” (p. 43) of Bolivian history and thus becomes indispensable for its study.