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Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Postmulticultural Bolivia

Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Postmulticultural Bolivia
By Nancy Postero

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Upon winning the 2005 presidential election, Evo Morales became the first indigenous person to lead Bolivia since the arrival of the Spanish more than five hundred years before. Morales’s election is the culmination of a striking new kind of activism in Bolivia. Born out of a history of resistance to colonial racism and developed in collective struggles against the post-revolutionary state, this movement crystallized over the last decade as poor and Indian Bolivian citizens engaged with the democratic promises and exclusions of neoliberal multiculturalism.

This ethnography of the Guaraní Indians of Santa Cruz traces how recent political reforms, most notably the Law of Popular Participation, recast the racist exclusions of the past, and offers a fresh look at neoliberalism. Armed with the language of citizenship and an expectation of the rights citizenship implies, this group is demanding radical changes to the structured inequalities that mark Bolivian society. As the 2005 election proved, even Bolivia’s most marginalized people can reform fundamental ideas about the nation, multiculturalism, neoliberalism, and democracy.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #379535 in Books
  • Published on: 2006-10-26
  • Released on: 2006-11-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 312 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Postero's study offers a refreshing change from the national-level analyses that characterize much of the literature on indigenous politics by focusing on how state reforms are experienced at the local level... [Her] account of indigenous struggles in Bolivia is fascinating and a must-read for those with an interest in the field."—Canadian Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Studies


"Nancy Postero's timely study points to events in Bolivia as part of a new historic moment with resonance beyond its borders... Postero builds on her valuable ethnographic study to make a powerful and subtly evidenced argument."—Journal of Latin American Studies


"Postero documents the remarkable way the Guaranís have leveraged legislative changes meant to circumscribe their rights to fight for an expansion of those rights....Her account for the Guaraní struggle to find a voice in Bolivia's political process illuminates the long, rocky road many countries in Latin America face as they grapple with the question of how to reduce social inequality and poverty." —BOOKFORUM

From the Inside Flap

Upon winning the 2005 presidential election, Evo Morales became the first indigenous person to lead Bolivia since the arrival of the Spanish more than five hundred years before. Morales’s election is the culmination of a striking new kind of activism in Bolivia. Born out of a history of resistance to colonial racism and developed in collective struggles against the post-revolutionary state, this movement crystallized over the last decade as poor and Indian Bolivian citizens engaged with the democratic promises and exclusions of neoliberal multiculturalism.
This ethnography of the Guaraní Indians of Santa Cruz traces how recent political reforms, most notably the Law of Popular Participation, recast the racist exclusions of the past, and offers a fresh look at neoliberalism. Armed with the language of citizenship and an expectation of the rights citizenship implies, this group is demanding radical changes to the structured inequalities that mark Bolivian society. As the 2005 election proved, even Bolivia’s most marginalized people can reform fundamental ideas about the nation, multiculturalism, neoliberalism, and democracy.

From the Back Cover

“Postero has written a timely and intriguing ethnography of Bolivia during what she terms the new ‘post-multicultural’ moment. In this book, Postero offers an insightful historical discussion of Bolivian politics at local and national levels, and provides us with nuanced ethnographies of struggles over neoliberal and multicultural policies. This book will be an important reference for all those seeking to understand the contemporary dynamics of indigenous contestation in the lowlands and highlands of Bolivia.”—Maria Elena Garcia, Professor of Anthropology, Sarah Lawrence College, and author of Making Indigenous Citizens: Identities, Education, and Multicultural Development in Peru
“Postero documents the remarkable way the Guaranís have leveraged legislative changes meant to circumscribe their rights to fight for an expansion of those rights....Her account for the Guaraní struggle to find a voice in Bolivia's political process illuminates the long, rocky road many countries in Latin America face as they grapple with the question of how to reduce social inequality and poverty.”
—BOOKFORUM

Customer Reviews

"Now We Are Citizens" at a Glance5
Nancy Grey Postero's Now We Are Citizens is a tremendous contribution to Latin American and indigenous studies. Situating the political struggles of Santa Cruz's Guarani Indians within a larger historical and political context of indigenous-state relations in Bolivia, the author renders comprehensible the largely ineffective multicultural reforms of the 1990s.

Just as earlier efforts by the Bolivian state to answer the "Indian Question" failed to address the needs of the nation's large and diverse indigenous population, the neoliberal reforms of the 1990s only benefited a small percentage of indigenous subjects who possessed the economic, political, and technical tools to fain a footing in Bolivian civil society. Most indigenous subjects, however, felt that they had been "left out" of the country's democratizing processes. This resulted in a series of movements beginning in the early 21st century in which indigenous Bolivians, allied with other popular sectors, began demanding the citizenship rights that these reforms were supposed to have guaranteed them. As Postero illustrates, this new, "postmulticulturalist" moment in Bolivian history may serve as an exemplary political model for other native groups in the Americas, for in Bolivia it led to the 2005 election of indigenous leader Evo Morales as president.

Skillfully written and wonderfully engaging, Now We Are Citizens promises to be an important source for both the academic specialist as well as anyone interested in making sense of Bolivia's complex political and cultural history.