Peasant and Revolution in Bolivia, April 9, 1952–August 2, 1953
1978; Duke University Press; Volume: 58; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1215/00182168-58.2.238
ISSN1527-1900
Autores Tópico(s)Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America
ResumoSOCIAL revolution is a phenomenon uncommon in history and certainly rare in individual experience. In Bolivia, as earlier in Mexico, and later in Cuba, revolutionary unheaval produced an intensity of emotion and experience unique to its participants.1 The events which began with the assault on traditional power on April 9, 1952, would have a profound and enduring effect on all members of Bolivian society. Perhaps no social group in Latin America has been as misunderstood as the peasantry of Bolivia; while students of rural Bolivia have noted the diversity of its population, generalizations based on impression, projection of foreign theoretical constructs and naive assertions abound in the popular literature. Che Guevara staked a revolution and his life on notions gathered during a brief visit to the country in 1953, only to return fourteen years later, as luckless redeemer ignored by an unappreciative peasantry. And Regis Debray has included Bolivian peasants, in one way or another, in his grand theoretical schemes.2 This paper will focus on the history of the peasantry during a particular historical experience: the period between the national revolution of April 9, 1952 and the Agrarian Reform Decree of August 2, 1953. This brief period is a crucial one; indeed, one could argue that it is the most important period in Bolivian post-independence history. During these few months a revolutionary movement seized
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