Estado Plurinacional

There are not that many fairly recent books on Bolivian society and history in English, and even fewer on her literature and arts. So it is no surprise that almost every anglophone reader would grab a copy of Herbert Klein’s A Concise History of Bolivia as a handy reference, should one find the history section in the travel book or online sources insufficient or unsatisfying. After reading most of the book, I have to say Bolivian history is quite fascinating in the sense that the tensions and issues of nationalism are more pronounced there than in other Latin American countries. The New World is, after all, the birthplace of modern-state nationalism, if you agree with Benedict Anderson.

A Concise History of Bolivia is supposed to be a textbook or reference book, so I cannot fault the author of being too boring and heavy on facts and numbers. It is unfair to compare it to the great works of history such as The Black Jacobin or The Search for Modern China, but, given the stature of the author (he is a one of the few, highly-regarded specialist in this area at Stanford, not a freshly-minted PhD),  he should have done a better job than its current form. I am not even talking about the big, meta, or interpretative level such as historiography, but the more immediate, mundane concerns of readability. At times, the text gets annoying repetitive, and let me give you an example by citing the first sentences of the two paragraphs on the first page (209) of its long chapter, entitled “From the National Revolution to the Cold War, 1952-1982”:

“Bolivia in 1950 was still a predominantly rural society, the majority of whose population […]”

“Largely rural and agricultural, Bolivia could not even feed its national population by the middle of twentieth century.”

We got that.

I think the editor at Cambridge University Press should have also caught this problem, as it happens quite often throughout the book. Basically, you can pretty much imagine what Bolivia has been facing since the early days of the Republic, if you were God and had the power of putting a bunch of ethically, culturally, and economically diverse peoples to live within an artificial national border. To make matter worse, the smaller population of Bolivia with her even smaller number of literate, Spanish-speaking elite, there were not that many good leaders to choose from. Those who rose to the top by whatever means might not be up to the challenges. Now, as a sovereign nation, add foreign affairs and defense to the to-do list. Bolivia is unfortunate to have had leaders, civilian or military, who had probably too much bravado and too little in terms of aptness in politics, who were short sighted, or who were just plain greedy. Many wars, notably the War of the Pacific and the Chaco War, ended very badly for Bolivia, and especially, the last one was quite a political disaster. The people were fed up with the center-right, traditional, conservative political establishment, as the economy stagnated, mines closed, and then lost a war, and they turned readily to the left. Some time later, the military staged a coup and right wing return to power. Then the cycle continues, except in modern times there was fortunately no more wars. Bolivia’s history does give very good guidance of what is happening today.

I am also a bit disappointed by a little too brief coverage of the War of the Pacific (1879-1884). There is the aggressive, death drive-driven little boy in me that is fascinated by war or combat history because it is “cool” or “exciting.”  Every time, I immediately formulate some ideas how to turn a real military conflict into a strategic game. Being concise, this book is not going to give all the details. But still, the volume is quite generous in giving away the economic statistics, the exact number of mines, factories, and other tedious stuffs, the price of silver, trade balance and imbalance, so on and so forth, which I find, unfortunately, painful to read in such great details.  The War of the Pacific seems to be quite a trauma still felt keenly in Bolivia’s national imagination, so although actually not much fighting went on in today’s Bolivian territory, I would read more about the whole fiasco had been articulated during that time. What the War of the Pacific did to the national psyche, the Chaco War (1932-1935) did to the political order. It bankrupted the whole generation. The book is also lacking in Bolivia’s cultural development, the scanty mentions do not appear to give the reader any sense of continuity, which is fundamental in discussing a humanist tradition.

I have not really look into the bibliography at the end, but the sheer quantity looks quite impressive. I started reading another book called, Unresolved Tensions: Bolivia Past and Present. It is an edited volume with a splendid introduction (by John Crabtree) and organized around various issues and problematics, instead of historical periods. Each section (big issue) also contains a mini introduction to what is at stakes. I must say this book is a lot more readable and relevant to the current state of things in Bolivia. I like the editor’s approach and pretension to what the collection of essays are going to achieve: “ostensibly concerned with the present and the future, these conflictual issues also involve differing interpretations of the past […] and how it relates to the present. Though a good deal of the book touches on history, this sends to be selective history–not necessarily historian’s history–the illuminates the concerns of the early twenty-first century” (5).

I think for the purpose I have, I would have skipped Herbert and dive straight into Unresolved Tensions. Bolivia is probably the only state in the world that integrates “E pluribus unum,” sort of, in her official name, “The Plurinational State of Bolivia” or “玻利維亞多民族國.” I wish her people well. Unlike that ego-maniacal Asian country that claims to represent “the People,” Bolivians are fortunate to be able to work out their differences, little by little, in a just and fair manner known as democracy.

Nosey the critic says, “It’s a okay!”