Territories and citizenship: The revolution of the Chiquitanos
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Territories and citizenship: the revolution of the Chiquitanos Eduardo Cáceres On 3 July 2007, after 12 years of frustration and persistent struggle, President Evo Morales handed over the legal titles to the indigenous million-hectare territory of Monte Verde to the Chiquitano people (numbering an estimated 120,000). Morales also gave land titles to the Chiquitanos of Lomerío (259.188 hectares) and Bajo Paragua (200 hectares). The event was attended not only by Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, but also by several ministers, three elected mayors (of San Javier, Concepción, and San Miguel), ten local councillors, a senator, a congressman, and two members of the constituent assembly, all of them Chiquitanos. 1980 All this sounds impressive. But the depth and speed of change can only be understood by taking account of the situation a few years ago. José Bailaba, who is one of the leaders of Chiquitano movements and was elected senator in 2002, remembers that until the 1980s: …everyone used to have to work for free for three days on road maintenance service, paying for our food and everything. We were forced to do the work that they, the authorities and the Catholic Church, used to assign us… 1 Younger than Bailaba, Justo Seoane (a leader and elected major of Concepción) recalled that: …the Monsignor had to call the townspeople of Concepción by ringing the bells. ‘Neither paicos nor cunumis 2 can own land,’ they said…they thought we were only fit to obey orders from the authorities. 3 Colonial condition Inhabitants of Bolivian lowlands, the Chiquitanos originally occupied the semi-humid forest of El Chaco. They grew food around their hamlets, and went fishing and hunting in the forest. This semi-sedentary pattern was altered during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries because of the Spanish conquest. Due to a kind of ‘missional pact’ 4 with Jesuits, however, the Chiquitanos avoided the worst consequences of colonial rule. Accepting the evangelisation and their confinement to reducciones , 5 they maintained some traditional institutions and authorities and gained access to education and training in many arts. As stated by an eyewitness in the eighteenth century: At the end, you found everywhere carpenters blacksmiths, weavers, tailors, shoemakers, lathe operators, clockmakers. In the holidays you heard excellent music from voices and instruments: pipe organs, harps, violins, flutes and clarinets. 6 This case study was written as a contribution to the development of From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States Can Change the World , Oxfam International 2008. It is published in order to share widely the results of commissioned research and programme experience. The views it expresses are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Oxfam International or its affiliate organisations.
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