Fast Facts About Bolivia 257thanks to a dramatic victory against Brazil. He starred for
the US Major League Soccer team DC United between 1996
and 2003. In 2009 he became the manager of the Bolivian
football club Oriente Petrolero.
Evo Morales
Evo Morales Ayma (1959), of Aymara heritage and the son
of poor peasants, became a labour organiser and leader of
the coca growers’ union. Scorned by Bolivia’s political elites,
Morales was elected to congress in 1997 thanks to his oratory
skills and philosophy of creative civil disobedience. He helped
develop the Movement Toward Socialism into a political party
and was elected president in December of 2005 with a record
54 per cent of the vote. The new Bolivian constitution,which
was approved in a referendm in January 2009 allows the
president of Bolivia to hold offi ce for two consecutive terms.
In December 2009,Morales was re-elected president with a
resounding 62 per cent of the vote.
Felipe Quispe Huanca (El Mallku)
Felipe Quispe Huanca (El Mallku) (1944) has risen in the
new century as a militant peasant leader and champion of
indigenous enfranchisement, with a component of cultural
nationalism that resembles the Black Power movement of the
United States. Quispe is perceived by some as more ‘radical’
than Evo Morales.
Jorge Sanjinés
Jorge Sanjinés (1936) has been one of Bolivia’s great fi lm makers.
His award winning Blood of the Condor (Yawar Mallku, 1969)
began a fruitful career in which Sanjinés blended pioneering
aesthetics with anti-racist and sociopolitical statements.
Alberto Villalpando
Alberto Villalpando (1942) is one of the main driving forces
in Bolivian contempory music. He is an eclectic composer
who uses classical instruments, voice and electronic devices
to create truly unique compositions.