Santa Cruz: The Mask of the Carnival of Autonomy

The place: El Cristo, where a big stage and sound system were set up, thanks to the donations of the comparsas (a kind of local fraternity) and other generous souls. [ http://www.eldeber.com.bo/20050126/santacruz3.html ]

And so the famous council was a really a party, with traditional bands playing taquiraris and carnavales, the famous pop group Azul Azul (inspired authors of the hit single “The Bomb”) and... confetti, dropped from an airplane.

[ http://www.eldeber.com.bo/20050129/santacruz7.html ]

“The band was there, only Rubén Costas spole, and that plane that went by tossing papers scared me. I thought there would be some message on those papers, but there was nothing...” my mother told me by telephone. A lot of noise for something called a “council” – nobody discussed ideas.

According to an article on Erbol Erbol, the dialog was as enriching as the following:

Do you all agree that today we convene this assembly, to represent and lead us in the founding of a legitimate process towards the autonomy of the department of Santa Cruz?
The assembly answered “yes.”

Do you all agree to authorize this assembly to organize elections for the first elected prefect of Santa Cruz, in the event that the national government does not?
The assembly answered “yes.”

Do you agree to authorize this assembly to hold a binding referendum on autonomy, in the event that the national government does not?
The assembly answered “yes.”

After Costas’ brief speech, the carnival continued, the camparsas of rich youth (basically the only kind of camparsa there is in Santa Cruz) continued the party in the local liquor stores and in the streets, with their 4x4s blaring music.

[ http://www.eldeber.com.bo/20050129/santacruz_4.htm l ]

Hooray for the autonomy of the people! Even without being there, I know the kind of demonstrations that the comparsas put on very well, as well as the famous civic councils, which aren’t much different. It is the culture of the spectacle, in the city overrun with beauty pageants and more than three free “social life” newspapers, full of “VIP” photos.

But even I was surprised by the tone they used to talk about “autonomy.” Plurality, they say, of course. But, why don’t they want to wait for the Constituents’ Assembly in 2005, and participate in a project to renew Bolivia? Why did they try to destroy the blockade that peasant-farmers set up in the Montero-Santa Cruz highway? Why did the newspaper El Deber call the peasant-farmers in El Torno “deranged settlers” when they put up their own roadblock? Why did the people who blocked the road in Yapancani reject the Council of the Santa Cruz elite?

Autonomy: Between the defense of identity and accommodation of the elites

That the Bolivian government is and has been extremely centralist is inarguable. So are the cultural differences between the people of the Andes and of the southeastern plains. But Bolivia’s cultural landscape is diverse, and Santa Cruz’s “notables” don’t represent this cultural diversity in any way, and even less the socio-economic situation most Bolivians face. The reclaiming of regional autonomy is not inherently negative, but the way the it’s being brought about in Santa Cruz smells a bit rotten...

On the other hand, as one can see in other parts of the world, a re-discovery of cultural identity and/or new claims of racial superiority often accompany fast, large-scale immigrations to those areas from other regions or countries. Generally, the countries or regions that get crowded are the rich ones... and the poor go where there’s work, hoping  for better lives. And so these autonomist movements in Santa Cruz have a lot to do with the the economic and demographic growth that the city and the region have experienced in the last fifty years. One could say the the supposedly “real” Cruceños are reacting to two new concerns – both the cultural changes that come with growth and “mixing” of the population (if any real mixing is going on between the white elite and immigrants), and, for those that have particular interest in the economy, a growing fear of popular power and the changes happening, particularly in the Andean part of the country.

And so, since the new social movements have started to gain strength in other parts of Bolivia (starting with, let’s say, Cochabamba’s “Water War” of 2000), the discourse of autonomy has begun to color the Santa Cruz political scene (the Camba Nation Liberation Movement was also created in 2000, though the rhetoric of regional autonomy has since been eagerly taken up by others, from business leaders to local politicians to the Civic Committee).

Since then, the city has taken almost any excuses to threaten secession. During the “gas war,” the civic committee and the businessmen threatened to secede. And now, because of what began on December 28 with Argentina’s decision to limit its diesel exportations, causing a rise in diesel and gasoline prices, and eventually, has taken down the local office of the National Agrarian Reform Institute and removed the local prefect from power, setting an agenda that includes a referendum on autonomy for April of this year.

It’s hard to understand the logic: an economic problem – the rise in diesel and gasoline prices – became a political problem. Maybe the government’s price hike was a reasonably reaction to Argentina’s decision, one that is part of a larger plan for moving Bolivia towards a more natural gas-based economy and industry. Maybe not; I’m not qualified to say. But what does the rise if fuel prices have to do with “autonomy?” Why, when the civic committee and business leaders staged a two-day business shut-down, did business association vice president Antonio Franco declare to El Deber, “Here we are demonstrating that all the sectors in Santa Cruz are united, and that the president is wrong when he says this is about small, minority groups?” Doesn’t the price hike affect all Bolivians? Weren’t there transportation workers and students, right in Santa Cruz, on hunger strike? That the businessmen are a minority is well known. The rich in Santa cruz are really very few, and some are really very rich...

Who is behind this carnival’s mask? The logias (powerful secret societies)? The comparsas (not-so-secret societies that are most visible at Carnival time with their expensive cars and beauty queens)? The multinational corporations? The city people who follow along, often unconscious of the implicitly exclusionary values of their supposed autonomy? Or all of them together?

The Santa Cruz society of the the spectacle and the mundane has raised the green-and-white-striped city flag as its queen for this carnival, with the Provisional Autonomous Assembly, composed of leading society members who no one elected, as the crowning comparsa. What comes next? Miss Autonomous Santa Cruz?

This is a translation of the post "Santa Cruz: la mascara de Carnaval de la Autonomía". Please make comments to the original Spanish version.