MANIFESTO DE TIAHUANACU
The Tiwanaku Manifesto, issued in La Paz, Bolivia, in 1973, is a founding statement of
Katarismo and reflects a synthesis of protest currents that made up that ideology.
Introduction
Inca Yupanqui told the Spaniards "A people who oppress another people cannot be free". We,
the Qhechwa and Aymara peasants and other indigenous peoples of the country say the same. We
feel economically exploited and culturally and politically oppressed. There has been no
integration of cultures in Bolivia; it has been a question of imposition and domination. And
we have remained at the lowest and most exploited strata of this pyramid. Bolivia has
suffered and still suffers terrible frustrations. Perhaps the biggest is the lack of real
participation of the Qhechwa and Aymara peasants in the economic, political and social life
of the country. We believe that without a radical change in this respect it will be
impossible to create national unity and achieve the dynamic, harmonious economic development
which is appropriate to our needs and our reality.
Bolivia is entering a new stage in its political life, one characteristic of which is the
awakening of peasant awareness. As we approach the pre-election period professional
politicians will approach the peasantry once again to obtain their votes and again they will
use fraud and make false promises. The political participation of the peasantry must be
genuine not fictitious. No party will be able to build the country on the basis of deceit
and the exploitation of the peasants. We, the peasants wish to present in this document the
ideas we believe to be fundamental to the economic, political and social order of the
country. This is not from party political zeal but from our central concern to liberate our
people.
Our culture is of first importance
True development is based on culture. People attach great value to their culture. The
systematic attempt to destroy the Qhechwa and Aymara cultures is the source of the nation's
frustrations. Politicians from the dominant minorities have attempted to create a type of
development based solely on a servile imitation of the development of other countries, while
our cultural heritage is totally different. Carried away by a practical form of materialism,
they have been led to believe that progress is based solely on the economic aspects of life.
We peasants want economic development, but it must spring from our own values. We do not
want to give up our noble inherited integrity in favour of a pseudo development. We fear the
false "developmentalism" imported from abroad because it is not genuine and does not respect
the depth of our values. We want an end to state paternalism and we no longer wish to be
considered second class citizens. We are foreigners in our own country.
Neither our virtues nor our own view of the world and view of life have been respected.
Schooling, party politics, and the introduction of technology have not achieved significant
change in the rural areas. Peasant participation has not been achieved because peasant
culture has not been respected or its character understood. We peasants are convinced that
development will only be achieved in the countryside and throughout the country when we
become the authors of our own progress and control our own destiny.
Rural schools use methods, curricula and language which are foreign to our cultural reality.
They not only seek to transform the Indian into a kind of mestizo with no definition or
personality but also to assimilate the Indian into western capitalist culture. School
programmes for rural areas are conceived within an individualistic framework, despite our
history being essentially community based. The cooperative system is inherent in a people
who developed modes of production based on mutual aid such as the ayni, mink'a yanapaco,
camayo. Private property, political sectarianism, individualism, class differentiation,
internal struggle all came with the Colonial system and were accentuated during the
Republican regimes. The agrarian reform is also conceived of within this same framework.
Economic and political power are the basis of cultural liberation. We must incorporate new
technology and modernize while not breaking with our past. Attempts to 'europeanize' or
'americanize' through education and politics will be yet another failure. If they are to
liberate the peasantry, political movements should be organized and planned with our
cultural values in mind. Indians are noble and just; they are restrained and respectful,
hardworking and deeply religious. However, this wealth which is treasured in the Indian soul
has never been understood or respected. Politics during the colonial and republican
governments was particularly destructive: some of us were corrupted and became involved in
corrupt political intrigue. They have wanted to use us as instruments to achieve their worst
ambitions and basest desires.
We are not prepared to continue along this road of servitude and corruption. The
catastrophic results are there for all to see. Because of political intrigues and lack of
education, Indians no longer want to be Indians. They have assimilated the worst defects of
other peoples and become the new exploiters of their own brothers. We invite them to join us
in a movement to recover our rights and our culture and to work together for the economic
and political liberation of our people.
Governments, politicians, economists and educators must accept that the "promotion" of the
Aymara and Qhechwa peasantry has failed completely because the wrong methods have been used.
We will attempt in the course of this Document to outline in general terms a policy for the
liberation of the peasantry.
Paying attention to history
Even before the Spanish conquest we were an ancient people whose character developed within
a highly socialized environment. During Colonial times our culture was neither respected nor
acknowledged - it was crushed and made subordinate. Independence, inspired by liberal
principles, did not liberate the Indians; rather, Indians were treated as a passive element
useful only as cannon fodder in the continual wars. For Indians the Republic is just one
more expression of the policy of oppression by the rulers. Liberation as embodied in Túpac
Katari's struggle for Indian freedom remains shackled. Belzu's Indian policy briefly raised
hopes among the peasant masses but the life of Indians continues to be degraded by shame,
exploitation and contempt. Busch and Villarroel sought to change this state of affairs but
were prevented from doing so by the national oligarchy. Two important laws promising freedom
were passed after the Revolution of 9 April: the Agrarian Reform Law and the Law of
Universal Suffrage. Thee Agrarian Reform Law was to set us Indians free from the
overpowering yoke of the employer. Sadly this law did not live up to expectations because it
was designed on the basis of excessively individualistic principles. Also, a number of
rightwing people within the MNR prevented its implementation, along with other laws that
would have encouraged investment, the introduction of technology and the marketing of
output. The Law of Universal Suffrage should not have overlooked the natural divisions
between indigenous communities. Sadly it has also often whetted the appetites for power
among our politicians. The Indian vote has been not the source of freedom but has given rise
to new forms of deception and exploitation. Old style politicians woo the peasants in order
to use them, not to serve them. Some shameful peasants have betrayed our history and our
people and have introduced corrupt political practices into peasant unions. Their duplicity
and degrading servile attitudes have tarnished our name and our longstanding traditions. We
must acknowledge this with humility, forgive it generously and carefully absorb the
experiences. The most important thing is to start out once again on the noble road pointed
out to us by our forebears.
We do not believe in the preaching of those parties which call themselves left-wing and yet
do not allow the peasantry to determine its own future. If a political party is to be a
means to freedom for the peasants it must be established, led and sustained by us peasants.
Our political organizations must reflect our values and our own interests.
The economy
Although the peasants produce 78 per cent of the Gross National Product, we receive only 34
per cent of the national income while factory owners and large landowners (who comprise 1.7
per cent) receive 21 per cent of the national income.
Although Bolivia has one of the lowest average per capita incomes in the world, barely
reaching 120 dollars per person per year, the majority of peasants hardly get 50 dollars a
year. Our food intake is one of the poorest in vitamins in the world. Our mortality rates
remain as high as they were 50 years ago. We live in a, subsistence economy. We work only to
survive and sometimes do not even achieve that.
However, no one can say that the peasant does not work. Government agricultural policies
have been fatal. We have been left to our own destiny. The country spends over 20 million
dollars importing agricultural products which we could produce ourselves. They prefer to
spend abroad than to pay the peasants. Bank credits, when they are extended to the rural
areas, are only given to the new landowners and the cotton, sugar-cane and cattle oligarchs.
Our impoverished economy has deteriorated seriously as a result of the devaluation
introduced by the Government last October. Nobody thought of the peasants. Urban workers,
teachers, public employees, etc. received a family bonus and the "wage 14". The peasant - a
true social outcast in our society - did not get even the smallest compensation (for the
resulting rise in the cost of living (1)) or incentive. Those selling agricultural products
find retail prices almost stagnant. The small increases do not compensate for the 40 per
cent increase in the price of transport. Whereas the prices of goods such as sugar, pasta,
rice, tools, chemical fertilizers which we buy have risen by anything between 30 and 80 per
cent. We have hardly been able to improve the prices at which we sell our output. On the
other hand, there is total lack of control over prices in the rural areas. And because
peasants are in the weakest position they always lose. This unjust situation cannot continue
much longer.
We do not suggest that this situation, can be overcome by paternalist government
intervention or by well meaning people. We believe the only solution is to be found in the
proper organization of the peasantry. The relationship between the prices of farm products
we sell and of what we need to buy from the cities reflects the balance of power. The
peasants are weak because they are not united, organized or mobilized. The present regional
and national organizations do not fully reflect the interests of the peasantry as a whole.
Political parties and the peasantry
In practice the Bolivian peasantry has never really belonged to any political party because
no party has represented their true interests or been inspired with their cultural values.
Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that of all the parties the MNR has best represented
the interests of the peasants insofar as it introduced the Agrarian Reform Law and Universal
Suffrage. Historically, the MNR had the opportunity to become the means for liberating the
peasantry. This, however, was frustrated due mainly to the influence in the party of certain
right-wing people who lacked any social sensitivity and halted the process of our
liberation.
Neither the present MNR, Barrientismo, nor the traditional left-wing parties are peasant
parties. The peasantry only voted for them because they had no other choice - we had no
party of our own. Those parties made capital out of the peasant vote, using it as a means to
attain and remain in power. The peasants must have their own party to represent their
social, cultural and economic interests if a balance of interests and representation is to
be achieved. This is the only way to ensure real, positive political participation and the
only way to achieve genuine and thorough development of the rural areas. The belief that
economic and political progress is possible without direct participation of the peasantry is
a grave mistake. The peasantry has always been a passive force because that was always what
was expected of them. The peasantry is what politicians have always wanted it to be: simply
a support for their ambitions. The peasantry will be dynamic only when it is allowed to act
as an autonomous and original force. Real political participation by the peasantry is
impossible because it is not allowed within the present economic, political and cultural
framework of our country.
The Armed Forces of the nation are mainly composed of people from the peasantry and must
begin to behave like them in terms of culture and ideas.
Peasant unions
Although peasant unions at grass roots levels and in many of their regional organizations
authentically represent the peasants, peasant unionization at departmental and national
level has often been used to further interests which are entirely foreign to our class. All
the defects of urban party politics have been introduced into the rural areas through
pseudo-leaders who have self-appointed themselves as peasant representatives. These leaders
have corrupted and continue to corrupt our Aymara and Qhechwa people while the government
looks on in a benevolent and indifferent manner. They are the people who have introduced
sectarianism, political intrigue, nepotism, economic and moral corruption, personal
ambition, hatred between brothers, false leadership and the lack of representativity into
the countryside. But nothing has done as much harm as paternalism - the naive expectation
that solutions come from outside, from above. It is we the peasants ourselves who must
develop the country and particularly the rural areas. Politically they have tried to treat
us like children and both governments and bad leaders have always tried to offer us as
'gifts' or 'charity' what in reality should be given us out of justice.
It is a blot on our unblemished Inca history that our alienated peasant leaders should have
proclaimed all recent Presidents of our country to be "Peasant Leaders". It would be best
for us peasants if governments and political parties were to leave us to elect our own
leaders freely and democratically so that we could formulate our own socioeconomic policy
inspired by our own cultural roots.
Past and even present experience shows that, when the peasantry from the Altiplano is free
to elect its hilacatas, hilancos and other local authorities, it does so in a very
democratic spirit and with all due respect for the opinions of others. The internal
struggles among peasants are always a reflection of the ambitions of outsiders.
Education in rural areas
Two very serious problems can be identified in rural education: the first is the content of
the curriculum and the second the chronic lack of resources.
It is no secret that the rural school system did not emerge from our-own cultural values.
School curricula are developed in the ministries and correspond to ideas and methods
imported from abroad. Rural education is a new (and most subtle) form of domination and
ossification. Training schools for rural teachers are no more than a system for brain
washing future teachers. The subjects taught and those who teach lack roots in our culture:
the ideas and values and the language, history and heroes which education transmits are
foreign to our reality.
In terms of practical organization, the rural school is a kind of NATIONAL CATASTROPHE. The
education budget is inadequate and badly distributed, giving much more to the cities than to
rural areas. At present 51 per cent of rural children cannot go to school simply because
there are none in their communities. Rural areas lack not only schools; they lack books,
blackboards, desks, teaching materials and above all teachers who really care about our
oppressed people.
We could continue describing peasant life to show its abject misery and how it is completely
abandoned by the authorities. There has been no revolution in the countryside; it has yet to
be achieved. But there must be a revolution, one which holds up once again the banners and
ideals of Túpac Katari, Bartolina Sisa, Willka Zárate ... The starting point of the
revolution should be our people.
Our famous Altiplano has no infrastructure, no roads, no electricity, no hospitals: there is
no progress. Adequate transport is totally lacking, the marketing system is very outdated,
technical skills are almost non-existent. There are too many Teacher Training Schools but no
Technical Schools. Practically everything remains to be done. We do not ask for it to be
done for us, we only ask to be allowed to do it.
We would not like to finish this Document - which will no doubt be the start of a powerful
autonomous peasant movement - without asking the press, the radio and all those institutions
which sincerely want to see the peasantry advance, to lend encouragement to our self-respecting desire to struggle for the genuine advancement of our people and the whole of
Bolivia.
Miners, factory workers, building workers, transport workers, the impoverished middle
classes, all are our brothers, victims in different ways of the same exploitation,
descendants of the same race and identified with the same ideals of struggle and liberation.
Only if we are united can we achieve a great future for our country.
We also ask the Catholic Church (the church of the vast majority of peasants) and the
Evangelical Churches to collaborate in the great task of liberating our Aymara and our
Qhechwa people. We want our lives to reflect fully our values without looking down on the
cultural heritage of other peoples.
La Paz, 30 July 1973
SIGNED
UNION PUMA DE DEFENSA AYMARA (The Puma Aymara Defence Union)
CENTRO DE COORDINACIÓN Y PROMOCIÓN CAMPESINA MINK'A (The Mink'a Centre for Peasant
Coordination and Promotion)
CENTRO CAMPESINO TÚPAC KATARI (Túpac Katari Peasant Centre)
ASOCIACIÓN DE ESTUDIANTES CAMPESINOS DE BOLIVIA (The Peasant Students Association of
Bolivia)
ASOCIACIÓN NACIONAL DE PROFESORES CAMPESINOS (National Association of Peasant Teachers)
1. Translator's explanatory note.
Source: Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Oppressed But Not Defeated: Peasant Struggles Among the
Aymara and the Qhechwa in Bolivia, 1900-1980, Participation series / UNRISD Participation
Programme ; report no. 85.1 (Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social
Development, 1987), 169-77.
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