Word: bolivian
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...year 1952 is a watershed in Bolivian history, perhaps the first time the peasants in the Bolivian countryside were affected on a large scale by political activity since the days when Pizarro came searching for gold some four centuries earlier. The Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR), an essentially middle class party engineered a revolution in 1952 that transformed Bolivian society by mobilizing support among the nation's poor...
...life of Western society to which they aspire. In their trips to Cochabamba and to other cities in the valley, they observe a life style that makes them feel backward. The cholos fill the positions of schoolteacher, restauranteur, shopkeeper and administrator. They form the upwardly mobile sector of the Bolivian countryside. I hoped to be able to find some who would not be shy, who would be able to talk about their customs, their work and their political attitudes...
...supplement the often meager income provided by their household's farm. The watering spots marked with white flags are almost always the social centers in these rugged mountainside communities. In fact, one can almost go so far as to say that chicha is the lubricant of the nation, loosening Bolivian mouths and minds into an animated, sometimes raucous revel...
Here was where people came to buy their coca. Two-foot high transparent bags appeared green with the small leaves that the Bolivian Indians chew as part of a tradition dating back millenia. On the altiplano, where the nights are wintry and food scarce, the coca leaves, when chewed hour after hour, help to drive out the cold and to kill one's appetite. These Aymara no longer live on the altiplano, but it is still cold at night and food is far from plentiful. Shipped in hugh quantities from the jungle, the coca sells for incredibly cheap prices...
...next to the Englishmen, who was halfway through his banana split. Opposite him was a German who looked up as I sat down, smiled at me, and then went back to concentrate on his hot fudge sundae. And, across from me, was a fellow American, who was smoking cheap Bolivian cigarettes in between sips of his coffee...