Evo Morales

To this old Latinomericanista hag, Evo Morales is nothing short of a miracle. I spent a good 10 years of my life working on several different degrees in Latin American Studies : My BA was done through NYU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, my MA is in Hispanic American Studies and my ABD was in Latin American Literature & Culture. Not once through all of my years of stuydying and teaching my region's history, languages and cultures did I ever expect to see an Aymará man elected president of any country in Latin America, especially Bolivia.

The history of Bolivian indigenous people is intertwined with the displacement of miners and other laborers during the 1980's as well as with the agrarian reform movement. To say that the government of Bolivia unleashed a wave of brutal repression, torture and disappearance throughout the land is to put it mildly.

I had the luck to listen Domitila Barrios de Chungara talk at a conference back in the 80's of the plight of Bolivian indigenous people's during those years of corporate funded tyranny. She had become the voice of the new labor movement in Latin America, but a lonely one. A coup happened while she was out in Sweden speaking about the human rights abuses of the Bolivian government and she was forced into exile. If you want to read a heart wrenching story of how one woman unleashed her power as the leader of the Organizacion de las Amas de Casa (the Housewives Collective) you need to read