Historias Podcast

Rafael Archondo and Isabel Siles’ Sobre un barril de pólvora, is a comprehensive review of the former president’s life, Hernan Siles Zuazo (1913-1996). He was one of the founding members of the nationalist revolutionary party (MNR) in 1942. He was elected two times as president (1956-1960 and 1982-1985), and his role was vital to consolidate revolutionary achievements like Agrarian Reform or social participation and pluralistic democracy.

The authors highlight Siles Zuazo’s commitment to human rights and civil liberties. During his tenure, power was peacefully transferred to the next elected president. Siles was a kind of tragic hero because of his conviction in using peaceful means in political struggles.

Dr. Sarah Hines explores residents of Cochabamba struggle for access to water that is linked to broader historical processes such as the dispossession and dismantling of indigenous communities in the 19th century, the Bolivian revolution of 1952, and the dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s.

Her book argues that the Cochabambinos defeated privatization in the Water War in 2000 because they defended something they had fought for and won decades earlier, especially in the context of the 1952 revolution.

Dr. Nicole Pacino is an associate professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Nicole has studied the effects of the policies of the 1952 Revolution on rural health, particularly on indigenous women. Her work shows how maternity was a central axis of the nationalist policies of the MNR that strived to create/consolidate the nation.

Elizabeth Shesko argues that conscription evolved into a pact between the state and society. It was not only imposed from above but also embraced from below because it provided a space for Bolivians across divides of education, ethnicity, and social class to negotiate their relationships with each other and the state.

Shesko contends that state formation built around military service has been characterized in Bolivia by multiple layers of negotiation and accommodation. The resulting nation-state was and is still hierarchical and divided by profound differences, but it never was simply an assimilatory project. It instead reflected a dialectical process to define the state and its relationships.

Kevin Young traces the history of Bolivian struggles over mineral and hydrocarbon resources, highlighting the complex legacies of Bolivia’s 1952 revolution.

His work also revolves around the various economic projects that party officials, political party leaders, activists, urban factory workers, university students, and mine workers proposed to address a key question for Bolivians: How to overcome economic dependency and underdevelopment?

To make sense of these debates, Young uses the term resource nationalism, which he will explain in detail in this interview.

Dr. Natalie Kimball analyzes the politics of abortion and reproductive rights in Bolivia from the mid-twentieth century to the present. They focus on the cities of La Paz and El Alto, exploring this open secret that brings to light the complex relationship of Bolivian nationalist, military, neoliberal, and leftist governments with women’s reproductive rights.

Elena McGrath explores how culture and material conditions create revolutionary conditions. In this interview, Elena helps us understand how the lives of mine workers and their families changed after the revolution.

Elena demonstrates that the revolution brought the mine workers and their families an unprecedented sense of citizenship that did not limit to the right to vote but also to the right to education, health, and social security linked to their work in the mines. In this way, Elena shows us the concrete ways in which the revolution transformed the lives of the mine workers.

Dr. Thomas Field, author of *From Development to Dictatorship: Bolivia and the Alliance for Progress in the Kennedy Era,* discusses the fall of the Revolution in 1964 and the accession to power of General René Barrientos. He argues that, unlike other military regimes, Barrientos did not reverse the most prominent conquests of the Revolution.

His interpretation of the Barrientos regime challenges previous understandings of the rise of the military in Bolivia. He also discusses the deep legacies of the Bolivian revolution in today’s politics.

Dr. José Gordillo studies the role of the peasants in the 1952 Bolivian Revolution. His book is an ethnography of local political struggle, adding to an increasingly rich literature on the revolution that seeks to understand revolutionary political dynamics from below.

En este episodio escuchamos al politólogo Rafael Britto quien fue además parte de la campaña del ahora presidente de Colombia, Gustavo Petro. Britto nos habla de las condiciones, de las oportunidades, y de los desafíos que enfrentará este nuevo gobierno de izquierda en América Latina.