La Potencia Plebeya

Historical Materialism #55

by Álvaro García Linera

In addition to his role as Evo Morales’s vice-president, Álvaro García Linera is one of Bolivia’s foremost intellectuals. With a theoretical trajectory beginning in efforts to combine Marxism and Indianism, then developed in reaction to the neoliberal turn of the 1980s and in contact with the mass social movements of recent years, García Linera's Plebeian Power can be read as both an evolving analysis of Bolivian reality through periods of great social change, and as an intellectual biography of the author himself. Informed by such thinkers as Marx, Bourdieu and René Zavaleta, García Linera reflects on the nature of the state, class and indigenous identity and their relevance to social struggles in Bolivia.

English translation of La potencia plebeya: Acción colectiva e identidades indígenas, obreras y populares en Bolivia published by Siglo del Hombre Editores and CLASCO in 2007.

Genres: Nonfiction, Bolivia, History, Politics

416 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Álvaro Marcelo García Linera (born 19 October 1962), is a Bolivian politician who has been Vice President of Bolivia since 2006.
He was born in Cochabamba and graduated from San Agustín High School. Then, he studied mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City but did not obtain a degree. After failing his studies at UNAM, he returned to his native Bolivia and attempted to put some of his long-held socialist ideology to practice and joined the Katarist "Ayllus Rojos", a series of experimental, Marxist-inspired native communities in northwestern Bolivia. When this attempt at grass-roots politics failed, García opted for a more radical approach. Alongside Felipe Quispe, he organized and worked in the insurgent Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army. After being caught destroying electrical distribution towers in rural La Paz, he was arrested and charged with insurrection and terrorism. In 1991, along with his brother Raul, he was convicted for theft of $441,000 destined to pay salaries of teachers of a local university (12), to this date, even thought he was found guilty, he continues to pressure the government to return the money that was confiscated from that crime. UMSS, the university affected is also trying to get their money back and get legal action against the Garcia Lineras and their gang.

While imprisoned, he studied sociology but did not obtain a degree failing again. After his release he taught at a university illegally since Bolivian universities require their faculty to have a professional degree. He also was a political analyst, and news commentator. He made people think he is an academic, but he does not hold any academic degree, known for his support of indigenous and left-wing political movements in South America (in spite of his upper-middle class upbringing and the fact that he is of Spanish descent). He wrote a monograph about the different political and social organizations that were a part of the political rise of the MAS and other indigenous factions, Sociología de los Movimientos Sociales en Bolivia (Sociology of Social Movements in Bolivia), which was published in 2005.

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al ser una recopilación de varios artículos de García Linera, los que más disfruté fueron aquellos que trataban los temas por los cuales decidí leer el libro: los de indianismo/indigenismo y las reflexiones sobre el período boliviano más reciente. La primera parte, la más marxista es la que más me aburrió de todas, no porque fuera mala sino porque bueno como politóloga formada en la UBA vemos marxismo en muchísimas materias y desde miradas diferentes. Lo mucho que perduró el Estado racista y excluyente en Bolivia jamás dejará de horrorizarme y escandalizarme

[Marie Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very, very dense read. I enjoyed it nonetheless, it was elucidating to learn more about the political and social struggles of indigenous people in Bolivia. Would recommend if you are looking to gain context on how and why Bolivia became a plurinational state.