92 CultureShock! Bolivia
EVOLUTION IN FIRST GEAR
How do Bolivians deal with the extremist geography? They
adapt. The blood of altiplano dwellers carries extra red
blood corpuscles. The skin of lowland dwellers develops an
inherent mosquito repellent. The people in Oruro cope with
the melancholy of the Altiplano by staging a joyous and
uninhibited Mardi Gras Carnaval, for which they rehearse
the whole year.
The visitor’s plane will land smoothly in El Alto, but a
cultural crash landing is possible unless there’s a crash
course on rapid adaptation, in order to speed up one’s
inner evolution.
This chapter will discuss the overall social context that
visitors will descend upon, and then jump into real situations
that might provoke culture shock.Festivals
If shock treatment is the preferred strategy, then stepping
immediately into a Bolivian festival might help to accomplish
the goal of adaptation in record time. The origins of modern
Bolivian festivals date back to the Spanish Conquest. Zealous
priests, the agents of colonialism, co-opted the religions of the
original peoples by infi ltrating Catholicism into indigenous
festivals: the ‘if you can’t beat ’em’ join ’em’ strategy.
Imagine an ethnic festival in London with the English
members of parliament making a grand entrance performing