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

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This original study examines a vital but neglected aspect of the 1952 National Revolution in Bolivia; the activism of urban inhabitants. Many of these activists were Aymara-speaking people of indigenous origin who transformed the urban environment, politics and place of indgenas and neighbors within the city of La Paz. Luis Sierra traces how these urban residents faced racial discrimination and marginalization despite their political support for the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR). La Pazs Colonial Specters reassesses the contingent, relational nature of Bolivias racial categories and the artificial division between urban and rural activists. Building on rich established historiography on the indigenous people of Bolivia, Luis Sierra breaks new ground in showing the role of the neighborhoods in the process of urbanization, and builds upon analysis of the ways in which race, gender and class discourse shaped migrants interactions with other urban residents. Questioning how and why this multiclass and multi-ethnic group continued to be labelled by elites and the state as un-modern indigena, the author uses La Paz to demonstrate the ways in which race, class, and gender intertwine in urbanization and in conceptions of the city and nation. Of interest to scholars, researchers and advanced students of Latin American history, urban history, the history of activism and the history of ethnic conflict, this unique study covers the previously neglected first half of the 20th century to shed light on the urban development of La Paz and its racial and political divides.

Reviews

La Pazs Colonial Specters will be important to Bolivianists of many disciplines and to scholars of urbanization generally. It is also a significant contribution to the literature on the various ways that Latin American politicians and intellectuals ... conceptualized and integrated their Indigenous populations. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
In La Pazs Colonial Specters, Luis Sierra offers us a bold reimagining of how Bolivias indigenous advocated and advanced their community interests in the decades before the Chaco War. They pushed back against racism, residential segregation, and other forms of exclusion, and in the process helped paved the way for deeper social transformations that occurred after 1952. * Jonathan D. Ablard, Associate Professor of History and Co-director of Latin American Studies, Ithaca College, USA *
Sierra's analysis is astute, his research is meticulous, and he uses a comparative lens to contextualize the lived experience of race in La Paz. Providing new insights into the popular basis of Bolivias 1952 revolution, his rich depiction of contestations over urban space shows how a mobilized populace profoundly shaped their society * Elizabeth Shesko, Associate Professor of History, Oakland University, USA *
Using a blend of urban geography and governmental documentation, Luis Sierra offers an innovative interpretation of La Pazs neighborhoods and the fragile concept of the city as a whole. With an emphasis on the role of urban space, Sierra invites us to rethink dichotomies prevalent in Latin American historiography, such as: rural vs urban, indigenous vs Creole, and state politics vs local political initiatives. * E. Gabrielle Kuenzli, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina, USA *

Author Bio

Luis M. Sierra is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Global Initiatives Office at Thomas More College, USA, where he teaches World Civilizations and US History as well as graduate classes in Environmental History, US and Latin American Relations, The History of Modern Sports and Piracy and Black Markets. His research focuses on urbanization and indigenous politics in La Paz, Bolivia.