From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERTHE POLITICAL ROOTS OF DEVELOPMENTJeronima Quiviquivi is a force of nature. Surrounded by the youngestof her six children, sitting outside her new house on the edge of theindigenous village of Monteverde in the muggy heat of a tropicalafternoon, she recalls the struggles of her people, the ChiquitanoIndians of lowland Bolivia.My father never realised about our rights. We just did what thewhite people told us – only they could be in power, be president. Wecouldn’t even go into the town centre – people swore at us. But thenwe got our own organisation and elected our own leaders andthat’s when we realised we had rights.Organising themselves at first under the guise of a soccer league –the only way they could meet and talk with Chiquitanos from othervillages – the indigenous activists of Monteverde fought for thingsthat mattered to them: land, education, rights, a political voice.Moments of confrontation helped build a common history: burstinginto the local government offices to seize the files proving that theunpaid labour they were forced to provide had been outlawed yearsbefore; a march on the distant capital, La Paz, which bolstered theirsense of common identity with Bolivia’s highland indigenous majority(see case study on page 31).Now the Chiquitanos have seized the positions of what was oncewhite power: they have their own mayors and senators and, in La Paz,South America’s first ever indigenous president, Evo Morales.18