The return of the 'Rebels with Wisdom' Email this page Print this page
Posted: January 23, 2006
by: Lisa Garrigues / Today correspondent
David Choquehuanca on the new Bolivia
On Dec. 18, Bolivians elected their nation's first Indian president, Evo Morales, a 47-year-old Aymara from the Altiplano. Morales, who took office on Jan. 22, has promised to nationalize the country's resources, support a new constitution that will give Bolivia's Quechua and Aymara majority more power, and cut the salaries of the country's politicians, including his own, in half.
David Choquehuanca is Evo Morales' adviser on indigenous affairs and a longtime activist in indigenous issues. He was interviewed for Indian Country Today in La Paz on Jan. 5.
ICT: How do you view the significance of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president for the indigenous people of
the continent?
CHOQUEHUANCA: We have suffered a systematic exclusion, we have been discriminated against. Our ways of life have been devalued. This has been accompanied by a systematic plundering of our natural resources, and corruption.
We have had important leaders in our history, people like Tupac Katari and Tupac Amari. Tupac Katari, before he was killed, said: ''I will return and I will be millions.'' The struggle of Tupac Katari was not just the struggle for territory. The struggle of Tupac Katari was the recuperation of our identity and our culture. The struggle of Tupac Katari was so that we could live in harmony, not only among ourselves, but with nature.
We speak of a pacha kuti, which means return to balance. We are now in the era of pacha kuti. And the laram kuti have appeared. These are the ''rebels with wisdom.'' These rebels with wisdom have begun to rebel against the laws of plunder.
All of the laws that have been created since the Spanish arrived have been created to rob us of our natural resources. So now we have rebelled. Up until now we have been managed by laws made by men. These laws made by men have brought us into complete disharmony. We have to learn how to act in accordance with the laws of nature.
ICT: How will the way Morales govern be influenced by the Aymara and Quechua cultures?
CHOQUEHUANCA: One of the sayings we have in our program at MAS [Movement Toward Socialism] is to live well. All the development programs, the government programs, the institutional programs are wanting to live better. We're not looking to live better. What's more, we don't want anyone to live better. All we want is simply to live well. We want to return to being qapac. We want to return to being qamiri. Qapac, in Quechua, and qamiri, in Aymara, mean a person who lives well.
Stealing is not living well. Lying is not living well. Not working is not living well. Exploitation is not living well.
We are going to act according to these three principles: Ama sulla, ama lulla and ama kella. Don't steal, don't lie, and don't be lazy. These are principles not only of the Aymara and the Quechua but they are principles of the culture of life.
For 500 years we had ceased existing; we no longer were. We want to exist, to be, again. For 500 years we have lived in darkness, we have put up with exclusion, we have put up with humiliation, our natural resources have been plundered and we have just stood there watching. So after these 500 years, we said enough: We are human beings, we have rights, we have our territory, we have a culture, we have begun once again to value ourselves.
And we have a lot that we can share with the world. We have values, we have principles that we can share.
The change is beginning. For us, the fact that indigenous people are taking on a more important role, the fact that there is now an indigenous president, is a message for everyone. Because we are carriers, the carriers of a proposal for life.
The indigenous brothers and sisters in the north, in the United States and Canada, are also the carriers of the culture of life. We are all similar, we are related, but we are also different. In our flag, the wiphala, there are different colored squares, but each square is the same size. For us, there are no majorities or minorities; we are all the same size.
Respecting similarities and differences is another of the values that allows us to live in a state of balance. We not only have to speak to our brothers and sisters in the north, we also have to speak to all of our brothers and sisters. And we shouldn't just concern ourselves with human beings, because concerning ourselves only with human beings is forgetting about mother earth, mother nature.
We want to live well. And we're not talking about just economic values.
For some the most important thing is money, not life. We disagree with this, and we will fight.
ICT: Will the new government encourage investments from the Native nations of the United States and Canada?
CHOQUEHUANCA: Evo Morales has said that we will accept all relationships that are just, that are based on honest commerce.
ICT: Can you talk about what plans Evo Morales has to send or receive delegations to the Native nations of the United States and Canada?
CHOQUEHUANCA: We not only have an interest in sending delegations but we also want to share.
ICT: Is there anything else that you would like to share with the brothers and sisters in the north?
CHOQUEHUANCA: We have a word that we use: Aruskipasipxananakasakipunirakispawa.
This means that we always have to communicate, we always have to stay in dialogue. This is what the world needs. We want to connect; we want to help each other. This doesn't mean that we need help. It means that we will all of us, help one another.
Posted: January 23, 2006
by: Lisa Garrigues / Today correspondent
David Choquehuanca on the new Bolivia
On Dec. 18, Bolivians elected their nation's first Indian president, Evo Morales, a 47-year-old Aymara from the Altiplano. Morales, who took office on Jan. 22, has promised to nationalize the country's resources, support a new constitution that will give Bolivia's Quechua and Aymara majority more power, and cut the salaries of the country's politicians, including his own, in half.
David Choquehuanca is Evo Morales' adviser on indigenous affairs and a longtime activist in indigenous issues. He was interviewed for Indian Country Today in La Paz on Jan. 5.
ICT: How do you view the significance of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president for the indigenous people of
the continent?
CHOQUEHUANCA: We have suffered a systematic exclusion, we have been discriminated against. Our ways of life have been devalued. This has been accompanied by a systematic plundering of our natural resources, and corruption.
We have had important leaders in our history, people like Tupac Katari and Tupac Amari. Tupac Katari, before he was killed, said: ''I will return and I will be millions.'' The struggle of Tupac Katari was not just the struggle for territory. The struggle of Tupac Katari was the recuperation of our identity and our culture. The struggle of Tupac Katari was so that we could live in harmony, not only among ourselves, but with nature.
We speak of a pacha kuti, which means return to balance. We are now in the era of pacha kuti. And the laram kuti have appeared. These are the ''rebels with wisdom.'' These rebels with wisdom have begun to rebel against the laws of plunder.
All of the laws that have been created since the Spanish arrived have been created to rob us of our natural resources. So now we have rebelled. Up until now we have been managed by laws made by men. These laws made by men have brought us into complete disharmony. We have to learn how to act in accordance with the laws of nature.
ICT: How will the way Morales govern be influenced by the Aymara and Quechua cultures?
CHOQUEHUANCA: One of the sayings we have in our program at MAS [Movement Toward Socialism] is to live well. All the development programs, the government programs, the institutional programs are wanting to live better. We're not looking to live better. What's more, we don't want anyone to live better. All we want is simply to live well. We want to return to being qapac. We want to return to being qamiri. Qapac, in Quechua, and qamiri, in Aymara, mean a person who lives well.
Stealing is not living well. Lying is not living well. Not working is not living well. Exploitation is not living well.
We are going to act according to these three principles: Ama sulla, ama lulla and ama kella. Don't steal, don't lie, and don't be lazy. These are principles not only of the Aymara and the Quechua but they are principles of the culture of life.
For 500 years we had ceased existing; we no longer were. We want to exist, to be, again. For 500 years we have lived in darkness, we have put up with exclusion, we have put up with humiliation, our natural resources have been plundered and we have just stood there watching. So after these 500 years, we said enough: We are human beings, we have rights, we have our territory, we have a culture, we have begun once again to value ourselves.
And we have a lot that we can share with the world. We have values, we have principles that we can share.
The change is beginning. For us, the fact that indigenous people are taking on a more important role, the fact that there is now an indigenous president, is a message for everyone. Because we are carriers, the carriers of a proposal for life.
The indigenous brothers and sisters in the north, in the United States and Canada, are also the carriers of the culture of life. We are all similar, we are related, but we are also different. In our flag, the wiphala, there are different colored squares, but each square is the same size. For us, there are no majorities or minorities; we are all the same size.
Respecting similarities and differences is another of the values that allows us to live in a state of balance. We not only have to speak to our brothers and sisters in the north, we also have to speak to all of our brothers and sisters. And we shouldn't just concern ourselves with human beings, because concerning ourselves only with human beings is forgetting about mother earth, mother nature.
We want to live well. And we're not talking about just economic values.
For some the most important thing is money, not life. We disagree with this, and we will fight.
ICT: Will the new government encourage investments from the Native nations of the United States and Canada?
CHOQUEHUANCA: Evo Morales has said that we will accept all relationships that are just, that are based on honest commerce.
ICT: Can you talk about what plans Evo Morales has to send or receive delegations to the Native nations of the United States and Canada?
CHOQUEHUANCA: We not only have an interest in sending delegations but we also want to share.
ICT: Is there anything else that you would like to share with the brothers and sisters in the north?
CHOQUEHUANCA: We have a word that we use: Aruskipasipxananakasakipunirakispawa.
This means that we always have to communicate, we always have to stay in dialogue. This is what the world needs. We want to connect; we want to help each other. This doesn't mean that we need help. It means that we will all of us, help one another.
