Forthcoming in Hispanic American Historical Review:
Struggles of Voice: The Politics of Indigenous Representation in the Andes. By José Antonio Lucero. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. Maps. Tables. Bibliography. Index. xvi, 236 pp. Hardcover, $65.00. Paper, $25.95
Both Bolivia and Ecuador have long been home to strong and well-organized social movements that have repeatedly challenged elite domination of state structures. Based on extensive field research and probing participant observation spread out over the past decade, together with a broad reading of the social science literature, political scientist José Antonio Lucero examines recent Indigenous movements in these two Andean countries to examine how representative voices in social movements are constructed. He raises two key questions: why are some movements more unified than others, and why are some voices more representative than others.
Lucero frames his discussion of representation in the context of parallel electoral campaigns in Bolivia and Ecuador. In 2005, Evo Morales won the presidency of Bolivia with a historic majority of the vote. The following year, long-time Ecuadorian Indigenous leader Luis Macas polled a dismal 2 percent of the presidential vote in that country's elections. This appeared to represent a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of Indigenous movements in the two countries, as in the 1990s movements were fragmented in Bolivia but strong and unified in Ecuador. Nevertheless, Lucero illustrates how the "fragmented social movement environment in Bolivia proved to be more politically effective than a unified one in Ecuador" (p. 4). Although activists often seek to find strength in unity, this conclusion parallels an observation that anthropologist Carol Smith has made in Guatemala that it was precisely ethnic diversity that complicated elite attempts at domination and hence allowed subaltern cultures not only to survive but thrive. Lucero cautions that unity should not be interpreted as success, nor should fragmentation be seen as a sign of failure.
Most studies of current Indigenous politics focus on high-profile and well-known organizations, such as the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). One of the most useful contributions of Lucero's work is that he points to the diversity and multivocality of Indigenous organizing efforts. His study underscores the reality that there is not one Indigenous movement in the Andes, but many different movements co-exist with often intersecting and sometimes conflicting interests and agendas. Lucero charts the shifting positions and prospects of the Council of Evangelical Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador (FEINE), which initially placed itself in opposition to CONAIE's confrontational politics but later also engaged in the electoral process through the running of candidates with its political party Amauta Jatari. Social movement organizations, Lucero observes, "often engage in pragmatic mixes of contestation and negotiation" (p. 170). The results can be unpredictable.
Lucero draws innovative and thought-provoking parallels between FEINE and the experiences of the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyo (CONAMAQ) in Bolivia. Whereas FEINE "Indianized Protestant Evangelicalism," CONAMAQ "transnationalized communal authority structures" (p. 155). Lucero expertly draws parallels between the two organizations to interrogate questions of authenticity and representation. Seemingly moving in reverse of the fortunes of Indigenous presidential candidates in the two countries, the "unlikely" FEINE realized more political success in Ecuador than the more "likely" CONAMAQ in Bolivia. It is not always possible, Lucero notes, for activists to know which political strategies will be successful.
As one example of competing arenas of representation, Lucero points to the example of the Council for the Development of Ecuadorian Nationalities and Peoples (CODENPE), a government development agency that worked in rural communities in Ecuador. CONAIE successfully argued that representation in CODENPE should be by Indigenous nationality and people rather than by organization, thereby assuring its domination at a cost to competing voices such as FEINE and the Federation of Peasant, Indigenous, and Black Organizations (FENOCIN). Such a strategic construction resulted in an underrepresentation of the densely populated highland province of Chimborazo which, not incidentally, has a high percentage of Indigenous evangelicals and hence was a strong base of support for FEINE. The story of CODENPE illustrates that the politics of representation can have very material ramifications.
Lucero concludes that in the 1990s CONAIE was able to capitalize on the discursive language of nationalities in order to advance its agenda until it made the fateful decision to ally with 2001 coup leader and later presidential candidate Lucio Gutiérrez that unraveled the organization's apparent hegemonic representative voice. At the same time, in Bolivia water wars in Cochabamba and gas wars in La Paz led to a collapse of neoliberal multiculturalism which opened up political spaces which allowed for the rise of Evo Morales. Lucero's work is an important and thoughtful contribution to the study of contemporary Indigenous mobilizations in the Andes, with broad theoretical contributions to important issues of representation, how voices are constructed, and whose interests they serve.
Marc Becker
Truman State University