Un resumen en fotos, part 2, Día del Campesino

Last Thursday I celebrated Día del Campesino in Ukureña, a small pueblo outside of the city which is famous for being a center of the agrarian/campesino revolution in Bolivia.

A bad translation for Día del Campesino is Peasant Day; it used to be Día del Indio (Indian Day?), which many people still use, before “campesino” replaced “indio” as a more p.c. term to describe indigenous people who live in rural areas.

It was somewhat excruciating listening to several speeches half in Quechua/half in Spanish before Evo started speaking, and his speech wasn’t the most transcendental – but it was absolutely fascinating to see how the crowd, and later the press, reacted to him. The campesinos love him, nudging each other (“did you hear that?”) and clapping enthusiastically when he announced that each mayor would be getting a tractor to lend out, or milk to distribute to schools, and pushing like crazy to shake his hands..

Meanwhile, back at home, the biggest news on TV and being debated at everyone’s kitchen table were just two parts of his speech, and nothing about the history of the Ukureña movement, or some of the controversial new foreign-sponsored projects that Evo mentioned, for example. On one hand they stressed that Evo had changed the name of the day (scandalous! dictatorial!). Even more attacked by the press was Evo’s brief request that everyone sing the national anthem with the right hand on the heart and the left fist in the air for Bolivia Day this weekend (trying to provoke another indigenous uprising, surely!)

I know there’s distortion out there, it’s nothing new – but seeing how fired up Evo criticizers get about these details is extremely annoying. On the other side, Evo continuous poking at the opposition, no matter how harmless and even fun it may seem to his supporters, is not doing much to promote national unity in a terribly divided country. And that’s what’s going to prevent him from really making changes in the end.

On a side note, we discovered one of the coolest jobs in the Bolivian government. The Vice Ministerio de Coca (Vice Ministry of Coca) was on the premises with an SUV full of coca which they threw at the delighted crowd and people on the streets. We met a couple of friendly coca ministers who treated us to a big bag to hand out and for our own chewing pleasure.

P.S. Yesterday was Bolivia Day – it’s always refreshing to be in a place where patriotism can be safely celebrated by wearing the colors of the flag and listening to national music. Viva Bolivia!