Culture Shock! Bolivia - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

The Social Setting 95

was derived from taxes of bribes from foreign exploiters went
into the deep pockets of a few well-placed intermediaries.
During this time, the country’s Creole population, mainly
of Spanish descent, was oblivious to the wealth of culture that
originated from pre-Inca Aymara, Inca and Quechua cultures.
But the languages and customs of resilient Quechuas,
Aymaras and other native cultures survived the dehumanising
effects of hyperexploitation.
At the time of the Conquest, so highly developed in
agriculture, food distribution, architecture and the arts was
the Andean culture that it was impossible for the colonisers
to simply replace it with their own way of life. Spanish
and indigenous customs merged. To this very day, certain
collective forms of land ownership and community stemming
from the pre- Incas continue to function, such as a vision of
extended community called the ayllu.
Spaniards who were engaged in commerce were obligated
to learn at least rudimentary Quechua or Aymara and a priest
who hoped to convert the locals needed to know enough to
incorparate their spiritual concepts, such as the Pachamama
(Mother Earth) into Catholic ritual.

Revolution and Reform

Independence from the Spaniards was gained by a local
Creole class (Spaniards born in the Américas) in 1825, with
little changing in the dynamics between the Creole minority
and the indigenous and Cholo majority.
In the years leading up to 1952, the simmering
discontent within the underclasses seethed into massive
resistance. Populist politicians,
led by Victor Paz Estenssoro,
stepped in to fan the fl ames, and
Paz’s Movimiento Nacionalista
Revolucionario (MNR) eventually
won an election in 1951. When
the establishment annulled the
election, the insurrection, led
by miners, escalated into the
Bolivian Revolution, catapulting

The Chaco War

The 1932 Chaco war between

Bolivia and Paraguay, partly

engineered by rival foreign

oil companies, brought

indigneous peasants, for the

first time, into contact with

Bolivians beyond their region,

stimulating a new national and

militant consciousness among

the oppressed.