Ciao!

hola Miguel - many thanks for this post, being a self spanish-learner, it gives me the opportunity to pick up new words and phrases. not to mention, more about Bolivia.

That excerpt from El Nuevo Dia’s editorial was extremely pompous. (I was unable to find the entire editorial in the online edition). It’s one thing to demand more economic and political autonomy based on the ability to more effectively and efficiently serve their citizens. I would think that all the departments would want that. But it’s another thing to frame this struggle for autonomy based on cultural differences that could potentially incite increased disdain and possible violence towards their fellow “lesser educated” countrymen and women.

Obviously the author used his subjective viewpoint to judge Cruceño middle class as “better educated”, but he/she did not say how he/she arrived at that conclusion. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas http://www.ine.gov.bo, in 2001 a total of 6,251 students in La Paz received their university diplomas (titulado). In the same year, 2999 Cruceños received their university diplomas. The populations between the two cities are fairly comparable (La Paz 1.4 million, Santa Cruz 1.2 million)

Sure, this doesn’t prove anything, it only proves that it’s clearly not an objective slam-dunk and does not permit the author to make such a blanket statement.

I also think that perhaps Miguel is misrepresenting the differences between the Orient and Occident. I don’t think he is purposely doing that, but to many readers unfamiliar with Bolivia, one may get the wrong perception of the country. After reading your brother’s description of Christmas Eve in Santa Cruz, I could not help but notice that it was an exact mirror of how I spent the last three December 24ths in kolla Cochabamba. Unless I was mistaken because your grandparents are Orureños, then I think that the huge cultural differences are not as pronounced.

Nor am I dismissing the large indigenous populations in El Alto and the Altiplano that were chiefly behind the civil unrest and confrontations of October. These marginalized groups do not accurately represent everyone living in the West. The large cross-section of middle class and urban working class do not support Evo, Quispe and other like-minded.

I am pleased that the editorial recognizes the crucial role of prefects in defusing this. However, it again returns to the loyalty question. Do the prefects, handpicked by the coalition leaders, serve their party or serve their citizens? If the prefects were directly elected by the people, they would be expected to better represent their constituents. This reminds me of the Governator’s (Arnold) campaign promise of ensuring that California gets their fair share of the federal money that they deserve. But certainly, he did not use the cultural/race card, in saying that Californians are hipper than their Yankee liberal compatriots.

Yes, I acknowledge that I am a bit sensitive to this issue. The political bumbling by the coalition system has added fuel to this fire and it could potentially carry over into the streets with violence towards “outsiders”, when perhaps they are not so much different.

Has there ever been a comment longer than the original post? ;)

Sorry, I get carried away, it just shows how much I miss school.

Eduardo:

It's not my intention to flame the camba vs. kolla rivalry that really does exist in Bolivia. But it's a reality that must be understood if anyone wants to understand Bolivian politics. There's a strong secessionist movement in Santa Cruz & Tarija, growing recently over anger at the October guerra del gas. This is reality. And it's more and more couched in cultural terms.

Yes, most people living in Santa Cruz are second-generation immigrants, children of kollas. But. Oddly. The most anti-kolla sentiments come from these very people (like my uncle, a self-described "anti-kolla" who was born & raised in Cochabamba).

I was also surprised by the Nuevo Día editorial. Primarily because it's not something I expected from that paper (perhaps from Estrella del Oriente or better La Nación).

But if you spend time in Santa Cruz lately, you'll notice a remarkable change. Great expense has been taken to "build" a cruceño & camba identity. There are more monuments to Santa Cruz historical/cultural heroes than ever before. And kolla heroes are no longer seen. There used to be a monument to Simon Bolivar at the corner of Ejercito & Irala when I was growing up. It's no longer there. There's no monument to Bolivar in Santa Cruz.

BTW, I've now posted a link to the original editorial (in post above). I couldn't before because it wasn't yet in the paper's online archive directory.

Imbecil...SCZ esta donde esta gracias al trabajo de los paceños!!!

hey miguel you are wrong and perhaps you might find this interesting to visit: www.nacioncamba.org

please for your own sake, read!

It's so ironic that this post is being blasted by both kollas & cambas accusing me of bias against them. I wasn't even stating my opinion here, just posted a reality — the often ugly face of regionalism.