La Paz's Colonial Specters: Urbanization, Migration, and Indigenous Political Participation, 1900-52

This original study examines the activism of urban inhabitants during the 1952 National Revolution in Bolivia, who faced racial discrimination and marginalization despite their political support for the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR). It reassesses the contingent, relational nature of Bolivias racial categories and the artificial division between urban and rural activists. It also demonstrates how race, class, and gender intertwine in urbanization and conceptions of the city and nation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 14 January 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This original study delves into a crucial yet overlooked facet of the 1952 National Revolution in Bolivia: the activism of urban inhabitants. Many of these activists hailed from the Aymara-speaking indigenous community, and their actions profoundly impacted the urban landscape, politics, and perceptions of "indigenous" and "neighbors" within the city of La Paz. Luis Sierra meticulously traces the experiences of these urban residents, highlighting their encounters with racial discrimination and marginalization despite their political allegiance to the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR).

La Pazs Colonial Specters offers a fresh perspective on the fluid and interconnected nature of Bolivias racial categories and the artificial divide between urban and rural activists. Building upon a robust foundation of existing historiography on Bolivia's indigenous population, Luis Sierra pioneers the exploration of neighborhoods' role in urbanization, while also delving into the ways in which race, gender, and class discourse shaped the interactions of migrants with other urban residents. By questioning the reasons behind this multiclass and multiethnic group's continued labeling as "un-modern" indigena by elites and the state, the author employs La Paz as a case study to illustrate how race, class, and gender intertwine in urbanization and shape perceptions of the city and nation. This unique study, of interest to scholars, researchers, and advanced students of Latin American history, urban history, activism history, and ethnic conflict, spans the previously neglected first half of the 20th century, shedding light on the urban development of La Paz and its racial and political divisions.

Weight: 528g
Dimension: 163 x 241 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350099166