EN SEPTIEMBRE, ESPEJISMO DE LA PLATA
Ovidio Roca 2013
Bolivian Thoughts
in an Emerging World. Lets remember who we were and what we are now in
beautiful Santa Cruz!
In this special day, I thought of nothing better for my homage to Santa Cruz,
but to show Ovidio Roca’s wonderful piece, he writes in HoyBolivia.com. (Posted
on September 24, 2013) |
In September, the silver mirage
Ovidio Roca
We are children of
Asuncion, mother of cities, who we got away and then we forgot, dazzled by the
brilliance of the silver that sparkles more than mate.
Since the beginning of their settlement in Mojos, in
1561, Santa Cruz has named its Governor and managed to get from Spain so many
liberties and exemptions that was virtually autonomous. Far removed from the
centers of power and trade, the Santa Cruz lived virtually isolated and not
felt the oppression of the Spanish Crown, what was feared were the abuses of
the Creoles who eventually came from Buenos Aires and Charcas and disrupted the
life and peace of the inhabitants. This is why before the dispute of powers
during the American emancipation, they preferred a distant King that doesn’t
govern them, to an authoritarian Creole above their heads; under this logic,
the Santa Cruz were realistically practical, i.e. virtually autonomous.
Bolivia was formed in 1825, based on a Confederation
of autonomous provinces. Those of the low lands, poor and isolated provinces,
who were illusioned with the mirage of Potosí silver and the prestige of the
Audiencia de Charcas, which led them to form part of a centralist Andean State,
which from the start excluded and now adverse us.
After the founding
of the Republic, the vast and unpopulated region of Mojos and Chiquitos
continued with its life of isolationism and all they knew of the mining
Republic was the arrival of the prefects sent from La Paz and those exiled by
the opponents of the shift regime.
Santa Cruz economic activity was basically, sugar cane, livestock, rice, corn,
and tanneries, leather manufacture and rustic mills for the production of
sugar. A
part of this production was sold to the mining areas and transported there on
mules and at great cost.
With the arrival of the railroad to Uyuni in 1880,
Santa Cruz production was completely displaced by products that came from Chile
and Peru, at virtually no transport costs.
Lets recall that this railway was built to bring
minerals to the coast, and back came the empty wagons; so practically free
freight, it allowed to bring products to the market of the mines and towns of
the West.
Santa Cruz at that time had less than ten thousand
inhabitants, which were without income to import some essential products and
despair spreads in them. Fortunately, come news of new job opportunities with
the discovery of quina and rubber in what is called the hyleaamazonica and as a
result much of the population of Santa Cruz, excited to find better horizons,
end up venturing into uncharted regions. Entire families moved by rivers, the
low lands and the mountains, founding and populating towns and villages as they
pass by. They built barracks, extracted rubber and took it to Europe; they
raised cattle, they made jerky, ‘chivé’ (‘moincho’), ’empanizao’; they
cultivated corn and rice and sold it to the barracks.
For more than four hundred years, Santa Cruz and the
Eastern society was forming their particular culture and psychology,
amalgamating the Spanish heritage and customs of indigenous peoples. During
this long period was a common history, a particular way of speaking, values and
principles of relationship and religious tradition. They are part of this
culture and Eastern identity, symbols, myths, stories and tales, music,
parties, meals, and all this cultural background is the mortar that allows you
to build the construction of a Santa Cruz State within a projected
Confederation of States of Bolivia.
It is claimed that the solidity of the state occurs in
societies with shared principles and values; with Governments that seek well-being
and peace; with responsible, workers, citizens who respect each other and also
demand the respect of others, and strong laws requiring that those coming to
settle in their territory must respect the local culture and integrate to it.
In the 1950s, thanks to a political and economic
conjuncture, “the March to the East”, not understood and yet fought by local
elites, gave way to the integration and development of this great region and
nation of the low lands.
Time passed by, and so passed the leaders and in this
age of multinational mess, the inhabitants of the plains of Mojos and Chiquitos
and the South, are walking aimlessly, as a result of our failure and fear of
taking our destiny. We talk a lot of autonomy, but we resist facing the
challenges and responsibilities, challenges, criticism and denials involving
this exercise. We like the autonomy discourse, but not the burdens, the
obligations, we misunderstood the hard daily work which means to build it. And
we are constantly fearful of the reaction of citizens infected of populism,
waiting that all come up, as a gift, because we believe that the only thing we
need to do is protest and extend the hand to get attended. Unfortunately,
democracy has resulted in an ochlocracy and elected officials, are slaves and
dependents of the votes (because they want to be re-elected), so to look good
with the voters, do not assume their work with responsibility and efficiency.
Sometimes we forget that Santa Cruz recently grew,
when in the decade of the 1950s, aside of just protesting and given speeches,
we decided to build, do the things that were needed, and this leaders and
committed personalities made it, people of honor and conviction, receiving the
confidence and the economic contribution of their fellow citizens created local
institutions, service cooperatives, the institution’s development, the COOPP,
the modern agriculture and agro-industry, and inspired a generation of
professionals, who took the challenge of working with technical expertise and
responsibility for the common good.
Currently, the plurinational State, with its equivocal
views on Nations, races, cultures, economics, history, they have been tearing
apart the Bolivian nation project, so there is the need for a new layout or
rather back to an old approach, the concept of Federation of provinces, federal
states, such as the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Germany.
We are heirs to a race of explorers and founders of
towns, a peaceful people who away from everywhere, insisted on their progress
at the expense of labor and overcoming the distances. If autonomy is not
stacked, the current challenge is to advance towards the federalization of the
departments and form the Federal Republic of Bolivia, and that requires great
responsibility, hard work, and many makers. In September, is the chance to
think about this.
ovidioroca.WordPress.com
