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February 4, 2007 Quechua

The Majority Language Among Indigenous Languages Original Article in Spanish by Inge Sichra

Translation by Gwen Stowers February 2007 Abstract This paper will look at the diversity of Quechua, its permanence after all these decades and the social significance of the symbolic identity it has acquired even among monolingual speakers of Spanish, in the bilingual City of Cochabamba, Bolivia. To understand the uniqueness of this indigenous language, in the first part we will summarize the trajectory Quechua has taken in the last five centuries and the role and spaces that have been assigned it in accordance with the interests of political hegemony. We will conclude looking at the current useage of Quechua in the urban context, reflecting on some of the notable contradictions in terms of its subordination relative to Spanish; and its diffusion, vitality, social acceptance and value which is as much symbolic as pragmatic. Introduction Quechua is not just any language. Quechua is associated with the glorious epoch of the Inca Empire and its amazing geographic expansion; it was written for the first time in the 16th Century and has been studied over the space of two centuries in the lecture halls of the University of San Marcos in Lima (Meneses). Due to its historic diffusion during the Tawantinsuyu Epoch and the Colonization, it has influenced Spanish in the entire region, even giving space to Andino Spanish (Rivarola, 2000). Quechua is spoken traditionally in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, the north of Argentina, the southwest of Colombia including Bogota, in communities in Antofagasta, Chile, and the region of Acre of Brasil. There are millions of Quechua speakers (between eight and 12 million) in the Andes Region but also in pockets of migration in capital cities like Buenos Aires and Lima and in the Amazon Region. Its presence is well-known in commerce (fairs and markets, the Cancha in Cochabamba), political-administrative areas (in Cuzco), labor (migrants in Virginia), educational areas (in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), and in communication and the media. It provides daily community, domestic, private, religious, ritual, musical and literary functions and has been declared the official language in Bolivia and Peru. Above all, however, Quechua is an indigenous language, with the title “original,” which in Bolivia symbolizes the political, territorial, judicial, organizational, and cultural justification of the Quechuan community. At the same time the survival of Quechua is dependent on its functions within the language of power, written tradition and international validity that is Spanish. Thus there is a certain level of displacement of Quechua as much in social functions as in the generational transmission. It is as if the language withdraws from the public and finds refuge among the elderly, as if the historic empowers but does not give space in the modern world of globalization. The loss of Quechua has been accelerated with the migration to the large capital cities of the

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departments, where parents prefer their children learn Spanish hoping that will pave the road to assimilation and higher social status. This tendency towards the displacement of Quechua acquires a slow, rocky rhythm in Bolivia, where the vitality of the language is assured in the rural areas (Sichra, 2003). The panorama has been enriched thanks to the reemergence of multi-ethnicities and their political value in the country. Within this constellation, declaring oneself to be part of an indigenous community is no longer a stigma. To everyone’s surprise, in the 2001 census, 62% of the national population described themselves as part of an indigenous community, while 30.7% consider themselves part of a Quechua community (Molina and Albo, 2006:69-70). Mextizos who speak Spanish are seeking to learn Quechua because they see reflected in this language the spirit of “the National,” “the Bolivian,” “the ours.” Professionals value the doors that open in these times of dramatic internal migrations. Children and grandchildren who do not learn Quechua from their families return to their communities to identify themselves with the Quechuan culture, silenced but not lost. Quechua has been incorporated as the language of instruction and study in the Bolivian bilingual/intercultural public education project. Even though the world loses about 6,000 languages each fortnight (Crystal, 2001:32), the future of Quechua is not yet written. The Establishment of Quechua as a Majority Language When the Spaniards invaded the Andes at the beginning of the 16th Century, they expected what the Chronicler Acosta called a “true jungle of languages” (Cerron-Palomino, 1988). 350 years have passed since a conquering Colla Tribe came from Lake Titicaca to establish itself in the Valley of Cuzco. The thus established region of the Eighth Inca Pacha Kutiq of the Inca Dynasty embarked on a plan to conquer the neighboring communities. His successor Tupak Yupanki subdued the divided and weak Colla kingdom at the end of the 15th Century and extended the empire to Bolivia and Chile. Thus began a policy of forced migration in a territory that extended from Colombia to Chile, with many ethnicities, communities, tribes, and dominions becoming loyal subjects in the conquered territories, those called “mitimaes.” Thus were spread techniques for the intensive cultivation of the ground, irrigation, construction of terraces and the Cult of the Inca (Vega, 1983). Histsorian Caballero (1980) wrote a Chronicle of the 16th Century concerning the state of the Inca Wayna Qhapaq in the Valley of Cochabamba:

“It was necessary to repopulate these lands, and so the Inca distributed land to more than 14,000 members of a numerous entourage, wisely effecting the distribution among men of the coast, the collas of Tihuanaku and Pucarani, the Indians of Carangas of Totora, Charcas, Araucanos and Lupacas, Urus and many others.

It was Wayna Qhapaq who had just 50 years before the arrival of the Spaniards established the use of Quechua as the language of the Empire. Fray Martin de Murua wrote in 1590:

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“A este Ynga, Huaina Capac, se atribuye hauer mandado en toda la tierra se ablase la lengua de Chinchay suyo, que agora comunmente se dize la Quichua general, o del Cuzco, por aver sido su madre Ynga, natural de Chincha, aunque lo mas cierto es haber sido su madre Mama Ocllo, muger de Tupa Inga Yupanqui su pare, y este orden de que la lengua de Chinchay Suyo se ablase feneralmente hauer sido por el una muger muy querida, natural de Chincha. (Torero, 1975:246).

From this we understand that Quechua developed in the western region of the Empire (the coast and central Peruvian Sierra), in the Chinchaysuyu. This region was of great religious and economic importance, and the adoption of the language served to consolidate the empire, whose center was Cuzco. In this manner, a language policy of introduction and diffusion of Quechua placed Quechua above languages such as Aymara, Puquina and “other languages where they talk and understand, that they call Hahuasimi, that means the language different than the usual”(Monzon, 1586/1965:221). A century later, chroniclers like Cobo registered the profusion of languages in the valley. In part, this language diversity was the consequence of the system of archipelagos, leading to the diffusion of languages and dialects in discontinuous territories and distinct ecological niches (Mannheim, 1991). When Francisco Pizarro entered the land of Tumbes, Peru, in 1532, a plague was unleashed in the Empire that took the life of Wayna Qhapaq. The power of the Empire was split, thus precipitating war, when his two sons Wasqar and Atawallpa fought over the succession. The Conquerors took advantage of this weakness and entered the divided empire, quickly installing their administration and consolidating their power structure, supported by the Catholic Church. In 1545, Jeronimo de Loayza, Archbishop of Lima, prohibited the translation of the catechism to the native languages. Finally in 1552, the First Council of Lima authorized translations. Thus the mission of religious conversion was supported in the Indigenous languages. Quechua along with Aymara and, in a small measure Puquina, were used as methods of evangelization by the colonial administration. In 1584, 52 years after the arrival of Pizarro, a work in Quechua, the Christian Doctrine (this followed a year later with the Confession and Third Catechism) was printed for the first time on the continent. A general type of Quechua established by the Third Council of Lima was used as the written version of the language. Consecutively they produced the first printed description of the Quechua language, monumental lexical-grammatical works aided by Spanish missionaries like Domingo de Santo Tomas in 1560 and Gonzalez Holguin in 1608. In this period of study professorships were developed at the Cathedral of Lima in 1551 and of San Marcos in 1579, where the writing received important attention. In this same period, professorships for the study of Quechua were instituted in Quito and Charcas. (Meneses, 1982). Quechua, as well as Aymara, were used for evangelization as well as the diffusion of science and writing. Further, Quechua acquired an important function in the regional and local levels of administration. Ten Documents were recently discovered in Peru of the

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epoch of the flowering of Quechua, between the 16th and 17th centuries; composed of legal announcements, accusations written by notaries and letters or petitions of indigenous authorities, in various cases from women of the indigenous elite. They provide evidence of the strength of Quechua in legal and administrative arenas. Further, an important segment of the structure and administration of the Incas that was shaped by the Kurakas (Caciques), served the Spaniards to verify tributes, further supporting the diffusion of Quechua in the expansion of Spanish domination beyond the area of the original Inca influence. During the Colonization, Quechua expanded to the eastern and low regions of Peru, to the south of Colombia, to the low areas of Ecuador and to the northeast of Argentina (Heath and Laprade, 1982), In the 17th Century, the Crown determined to establish the Catholic Faith in Spanish and used the instruction of Spanish for political ends. Though these measures resulted in a repressive politics of linguistic assimilation, they actually promoted bilingualism. The maintenance of Quechua, along with the weak imposition of Spanish, aided the Encomenderos and Creoles in maintaining their positions of power. The Caciques (Kurakas) and official translators named by the religious and administrative authorities articulated between monolingual Quechua Indians and monolingual Spanish Creoles and whites. The children of the Caciques were educated in a manner that ¨neither hid nor protected the native rituals¨(Glave, 1990:460) so they could serve as intermediaries between the indigenous and Spanish worlds. They were educated in the Spanish language and culture in the Colleges of the Caciques founded by the Jesuits in Cusco, Lima and Quito. Among the future Caciques was José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera. The Bourbon Reforms established after 1770, especially those of Carlos III, promoted the development Spanish, ¨to achieve the extinction of the different idioms in use. . . and to only speak Spanish¨(Rivarola, 1990:108). A constant series of Indigenous uprisings between 1780 and 1782 in the area belonging to Bolivia (in the Viceroyalty of the Peruvian leadership of Tupaq Amaru – in the name of José Gabriel Condorcanqui and continued by Tupaq Katari (Julián Apaza) in the Viceroyalty of Rio de La Plata), were decisive in changing linguistic policy. The physical extermination of indigenous intellectuals in the centers of power at the end of the 18th Century provoked the decline of the Aymara and Quechua languages and cultures. The same indigenous aristocracy, the Caciques and principals who initiated the process of independence from the Spanish Crown utilized only Spanish to summon the anticolonial rebellion. (Godenzzi, 1995). Thus began the unending process of social and political marginalization and the progressive abandonment of the major indigenous languages, Quechua and Aymara, in the new republics. Notwithstanding the policy of forcing the use of the Spanish language in all the Andes nations, the Quechua languages and varieties were maintained in large measure. Actually two languages as different as Spanish and Portuguese were recognized; the Quechua composed of the varieties of Central Peru (Ancash y Huánuco, as well as Junín, Pasco, the mountains of Lima, Huancavelica and the mountains of Ica), chronologically the

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oldest, and the Quechua formed of those varieties commonly called Ayacuchana, Cuzqueña and the regions of later diffusion like Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and the Peruvian jungle. In Argentina we also encounter the variety Ayacuchana in Santiago del Estero as well as the Cuzqueña of Jujuy and Salta. The Quechua spoken in Bolivia is a variety of the Cuzco Quechua, whose characteristic is the series of aspirated and glottalized sounds that this variety shares with Aymara. The Bolivian Quechua is grouped in Chuquisaqueño-Potosi and Cochambamba and is linguistically a single variant, based on the high intelligibility that exists between these speakers of Quechua. A variety closer to the Quechua spoken in Puno is distinguished in the North of La Paz in the zone of Charazani and Apolo. Quechua and the City of Cochabamba To reward the Colonizers, while at the same time avoiding the rise of an influential caste of landowners, the Spanish Crown introduced the idea of distribution and jurisdiction of missions (encomiendas y repartimientos). For the mission, a Spaniard was assigned an entire community to extract tributes for the Crown and receive payment for their work. The Crown rewarded all the Spanish Colonizers who participated in the founding of the cities with grants of land, and basically fountains of earnings (Engel and Engel, 1975:185). Cochabamba was founded in 1574 as a center of agricultural production to serve the mining centers, beginning with the commerce of coca. The other urban centers, Potosi in 1546, La Paz in 1548 and La Plata de Nuevo Toledo (Sucre) were all oriented exclusively towards mineral wealth. One important characteristic of Cochabamba is that the agents began to ignore the prohibition of the Crown to possess lands in their administrative missions from La Plata to Nuevo Toledo. On the other hand, they developed Creole settlements in the valley, on land bought from the communities to benefit from agricultural commerce. During the Republican Epoch, all Colonial legislation that prohibited the accumulation of lands and recognized Indian rights to property and labor were eliminated, giving rise to the latifundio (large landed estates)(Jordan Pando, 1972). Encomenderos and hacendados located in the Cochabamba Valley, learned from childhood the language of the Indians. Many cultivated Quechua in literary circles in the city, presenting poems and writing theatrical pieces. Quechua was seen as matched with other languages of prestige, such as French and Latin, and welcomed in the cultured circles of respectable people. The Mestizos were becoming bilingual, while the indigenous were remaining monolingual Quechua, thus guaranteeing a system of dependency and exploitation. In the 20th Century, the schools in the pueblos, for example, did not tolerate the presence of children of the Indians. A diagnosis of the educational process in the province of Tapacari, Department of Cochabamba, in a school founded after 1940 reads:

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“The great majority of the ex-students live in the nearby communities, and remember all the threats and prohibitions dealt to their parents and to them. . .the patrons of the area opposed all functions of the school. . .Some patrons beat the parents of the family until they took their children out of the school. (MECyD, 1999:4-6)

At the beginning of the 20th Century, in the City of Cochabamba, Spanish was used as much in the commercial as in the public spheres, even though adjacent sectors in the center of the city also recognized the presence of Quechua. Garcia Merida (2006:12) spoke of Cochabamba entering into the modern developing Republic, and thus the term “rural city.” The denomination Llajta for the city of Cochabamba visualizes this characteristic. Uprisings on ranches and haciendas of the Altiplano (Aymara-speaking) and the Valley of Cochabamba (Quechua-speaking) after the defeat of the Chaco War in the 1930s, lead to the National Revolution in 1952. With this rebellion against the haciendas, the National Revolutionary Movement MNR came to power, using a policy of assimilation to incorporate the indigenous people into the state. The most important of the measures included agrarian reform, the nationalization of the mines, universal suffrage (previously only for those who could read), free and universal schooling. Rural and urban education were instituted, both with the objective of using Spanish to civilize the Indian. From then until the 90s of the 20th Century, it was politically correct to refer to all indigenous people as campesinos (farmers), without reference to ethnicity, values or even less, cultural identity. The expropriation of the haciendas at the base of the agrarian reform and its political effects, precipitated the exodus of established families from the city farms. Contradictory loyalties and complex affective relations between servants and masters during and after the process of reversion of the property to the historic and legitimate owners were part of the profound social changes. I, (Sichra, 2006), spoke with different people concerning the recollections they had of this exodus from the city farms of their parents and the displacement of Quechua in the family:

“Well, in this sense, you know that I lived during the epoch of MNR. . . in that time I saw how my family was pursued politically; the peasants of the area were always full of love and they brought us, once the farm was expropriated, potatoes, other root vegetables, they were always bringing us things (Pepe, 3.6.04).

The geographic mobility produced by the agrarian reform in 1953 broke the language boundaries and caused a bilingualization as much in the capital of the department as in the rural areas. On the one hand, the villages that until then had been composed of mestizos endured a massive migration toward the capital city of the department, bringing along Quechua as well. The peasant sector, on the other hand, entered directly in contact with the state urban institutions, also bringing their language but, at the same time, needing Spanish to defend themselves. The rural population felt the expansion of Spanish

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via the radio, school, church and political activity of the agrarian unions as an effect of the MNR policy of assimilation and Spanish adoption. Since the Spanish founding, Cochabamba has been maintained as a largely bilingual city. The area of the Cancha, (a large outdoor market) and the surrounding neighborhoods, composed primarily of people coming from the rural areas, is strongly marked with the Quechua language and culture. In contrast, within the bosom of the families of the ancient haciendas, deprived of their properties by the 1952 Revolution, the Spanish-Quechua bilingualism was lost within a generation. For the adults, Quechua ceased to be functional in the city, and they did not transmit the language to their children, thus losing the relation of speaking Quechua that the family cultivated earlier when they possessed the haciendas;

“The theme is this, I believe that we have lived that stage that generated the dynamic, where the Quechua is spoken only by rural people. . . Now, it is obvious that the connotation that I see in my family, that my father also has stopped involving us with Quechua because there are no more farms to tend. Perhaps they also saw that the perspective was no longer necessary. (Pepe, 3.6.04)

Quechua had lost its utility for the people in the city. Generally, the post-agrarian reform generation was not exposed to Quechua, contrasting strongly with the previous generation:

“This middle class had been the patron of the society and had also driven the Quechua, having to understand in some manner, and they know, even if they don’t say they know, but they know. I tell you honestly that I believe the Camba is the only one who does not know. . .my mother who originated in Cochabamba, she knows, she speaks well, she speaks Spanish well, she speaks Quechua well, but we, her children, do not. (Ariel, 29.6.04)

Nonetheless, many ex-landowners maintained their pleasure with the language, above all in its literary expression: “My father spoke Quechua and more than that, he liked it. . .he is learned, cultured. And the last experience we had at home was that he taught me a poem that helped take my daughter to college,” Pepe told me. Sandra (3.6.04), told me her parents spoke with the peasants in Quechua, but they did not speak it at home. “My father was great at finding nicknames and joking with people, friends and acquaintances. In a group of friends, he would leave us, the young people, at the edge, he left us out of his jokes.” It is common to hear the surprise of the generation born in the 1950s and later when they refer to the ability of their parents, above all the men, to create and recreate the artistic and expressive aspect of Quechua in social gatherings where there is probably some nostalgia in reliving those past times of the hacienda. Along with the ambivalence of the generation of the Agrarian Reform (those born after the 1950s and living its affects in the first years of their lives) toward the language—not

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using the language for reasons of physical distance, labor and politics with native speakers while they continue cultivating the language in poetic expression and recreating this in the same generation—they had less favorable reactions toward the Quechua that is used by the peasants;

“After 1952, many things changed. One time I heard my grandfather speak, when I was a girl, in Quechua. Nonetheless, I think that, for us, they said that Quechua was not a language but rather a dialect of no importance, and with all these ideas of 1952 for us, from there we developed in my generation the idea that Aymara, Quechua and Guarani were not important. For this reason we have not given the language the importance it merits.¨ (Carol.3.6.04).

Standing out in this testimony is the change in perception towards Indigenous languages, beginning with how the older person used the language (and probably respected it) in the family, to the devaluation of Quechua, as a language as well as the other attributes and, finally in identifying with the peasants. There are also parents who had the opportunity to continue their exposure to Quechua, as in the case of the following mother;

“I was born in the city, but everyone spoke Quechua and we also had possibilities as employees, for example. I had my grandfather who lived in Quillacollo and had property about three kilometers from Quillacollo, that in those days were all rural. And so I understood very well the Quechua. I speak it, but not perfectly, but I speak a lot. (Petra, 23.6.04).

In a few cases of those I interviewed, their family histories are lacking in the Indigenous language. In the case of Marite, the motive was not the hacienda, but her father’s participation in the Chaco War. According to her, her father was given a superior rank in the war since he had finished high school. To give orders, he had to learn Quechua that he did not used previously. She remembered how her father objected to the use of Spanish phrases with Quechua structure as used by his wife. In the 1990s the idea of the indigenous as communities emerged forcefully in Bolivia, and above all, in the low regions (the Amazon), where the 1990 Indigenous March for Territory and Dignity marked a new constellation of forces. The Indigenous Political actors were known for the Supreme Decrees that established the first indigenous territories; laws like the 1991 Ratification of the Agreement 169 OIT governing Indigenous Communities, the electoral reform, the 1994 Introduction of Changes in the Political Constitution of the State that recognized Bolivia as multiethnic and multicultural, the Educational Reform that incorporated interculturalism and bilingualism and the social participation at the center of the education system, and the Popular Participation that redistributed fiscal income and created more than 300 district divisions for the State Administration. A student of one of the colleges investigated in this work mentioned earlier discussed the confusing effects of these changes on urban life;

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“It is important because, now the people say, before in the 1980s, they did not speak very much Quechua or Aymara, because before the people of the country stayed quiet, according to what people said. Things have changed now, and the people are beginning to ask for justice. . .We are in a situation that has, we say campesino parlimentarians or deputies that need to speak, because now Quechua speakers are not only in the country but also in the city. (Claudio, 10.6.04)

The people felt the political as well as folkloric and popular significance of the presence of the Indigenous languages in the city and in the centers of power, based on the political participation of those earlier excluded from the state and governmental decisions and actions:

“Before we were put down, people felt it degrading to speak Quechua, like being in a second category. In contrast, these days this is not so, they do not feel they are second-class because there are parlementarians who speak Quechua. . . this allows the language a bit more status and they see government representatives also speaking the language, this will help to reinforce and vitalize the language. (Ramiro, 10.6.04).

This helps Quechua as well as other indigenous languages in Bolivia as they symbolize the reclaiming of the social and the political spaces. With this, the urban spaces, at least in the Andes, are opening for the languages and the people, now more than ever with the government of Evo Morales. Bilingualism in Summary Bolivia has a series of three national census studies that have looked at multilingualism, with distinct questions about language, and thus we can see ourselves at a distance of three decades. The 1976 census asked which languages were spoken with the most frequency in the family and “Which Bolivian languages do you speak?” The 1992 Census maintained the second question but only for the population of six years and older, or those who were in school. The 2001 Census modified that question, highlighting the use of the languages (“What language or languages do you speak?) for the entire population and included the question “What is the language you learned to speak as a child?” for the population four years and older. The population 15 years and older was asked, “Do you consider yourself to be a part of one of the following original or indigenous communities?” Box 1 Linguistic Data on Bolivia, a comparison of the last three census collections Census 1976 Census 1992 Census 2001 Know Spanish 78.8% 87.4% 82.6% Know Quechua 39.7% 34.3% 27.6% Know Aymara 28.8% 23% 18.5%

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Know other indigenous languages 1.1% 2.5% 1.5% Only know Spanish 36.3% 41.7% 52.6% Only know an indigenous language 20.4% 11.5% 12.3% Know indigenous language and Spanish 43.4% 46.8% 35.1% Total 4,613,4 5,256,3* 8,261,2 *six years or more Molina and Albo (2006: 102,103,111). As you can see in the last column of Box 1, in 2001 at the national level, about a quarter of the population (27.6%) speak Quechua, about a fifth (18.5%) speak Aymara and 82.6% speak Spanish. The three cases include monolinguals, bilinguals and trilinguals. Quechua is not only the most spoken Indigenous language, but also that used in most departments. The 2,281,198 speakers of Quechua in the country are distributed in the traditional Quechua departments of Cochabamba (38.2%), Potosi (22.6%), Chuquisaca (13.1%). The traditional Aymara departments are La Paz (6.9%) and Oruro (5.9%) but also in departments that have a lot of migration such as Santa Cruz (11.2%) and Tarija (1.6%). (Molina and Albo, 2006: 113). In the same column, at the bottom, we can see that about a tenth of the national population (12.3%) claims to be monolingual in an indigenous language, about a third (35.1%) is bilingual Spanish with an indigenous language and a little more than half of those studied in the census (52.6%) were monolingual in Spanish. In 25 years in Bolivia, monolingual Spanish grew by 16.3%, while those monolingual in an indigenous language fell by 8.1%, and bilingualism dropped by 8.2%. We need to be aware, however, that the Bolivian population doubles in a quarter of a century. Due to this simple demographic growth, in all the categories we have a growth in absolute numbers. If we pay attention to the evolution of the linguistic situation in the three census figures, Quechua speakers have dropped 12.1% in 25 years while Spanish speakers grew by only 3.8%. As we can see at this point, thanks to the phenomenon of migration from the rural to the cities and capitals of the departments, this contributes to the spaces of reproduction of Andino languages and cultures. In the following box, we refer to the Department of Cochabamba, that together with the Departments of Chuquisaca and Potosi, forms the region of the Interandino Quechua Valleys.

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Box 2 Population of the Department of Cochabamba 1976 Census 1992 Census 2001 Census Urban Area 269,824 (37%) 580,188 (52%) 856,409 (59%) Rural Area 451,007 (63%) 530,017 (48%) 599,302 (41%) INE (2002 In the Department of Cochabamba, more than half of the population (59%) lives in the urban area, 41% in the rural. By urban area we mean areas with populations of more than 2,000 people. In 25 years, the population in areas of more than 2,000 people grew by 22%. In absolute numbers, however, we observe that in a quarter century the urban population has tripled while the rural population has maintained at a stable number. This speaks to the strong internal migration we experience in the capital of the Department, even though recently migration to European countries like Spain and Italy has overcome traditional migration to Buenos Aires and north American cities. Continuing, we will focus on Cochabamba, the capital of the Department, on the municipality of Cercado that in the 2001 census registered 570,000 people. Box 3 Languages spoken in Cercado, populations six years and older, the last two census 1992 Census 2001 Census Quechua 180,427 (50%) 193,553 (43%) Aymara 30,012 (8%) 39,294 (9%) Spanish 343,427 (95%) 433,107 (97%) Others (Guarani, other Indigenous.) 492 (0.1%) 990 (0.2%) Others 21,625 (6%) 30,376 (7%) Total 359,521 (100%) 446,063 (100%) INE (2002) and Albo (1995, Vol. 1:40-41). In the City of Cochambamba during the last decade, there has not been much variation in the percentage of speakers of Spanish or of Aymara while there has been a drop in the use of Quechua by seven points. If we consider the Quechua and Aymara speakers in the last column, the monolingual and bilingual speakers of Indigenous languages in the 2001 Census are more than half the population cited.

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The strength of bilingualism in the City of Cochabamba can be seen in the following box; Box 4 Languages Spoken in Cercado, populations six years and more, last three census records. Monolingual Monolingual Bilingual Others Total Spanish Indigenous Indigenous/ 6 Years + Spanish 1976 Census 63,233(34%) 8,447(4%) 112,704(61%) 1,445 0.7%) 185,829 100% 1992 157,096(44%) 6,391(1.8%) 187,642(52%) 8,392(2.3%) 359,521 100% 2001 205,351(46%) 11,090(2.5%) 227,756(51%) 1,866(0.4%) 446,063 100% INE 2002 and Albo (1995, Vol. 1:40,41). As you can see in Box 5, the bilingual character of the city persists even at the end of the last three decades, having diminished only 10%. The tendency towards monolingual Spanish also persists, having grown 12%. It is also interesting to look at the actual numbers: in three decades, bilinguals in the city have doubled, while monolingual Spanish speakers have tripled. This evolution is especially noticeable in the 1980s and 1990s, when privatization of the mines and state enterprises within the framework of restructuring the Bolivian State towards neo-liberal policies produced the migration to the City of Cochabamba and the region of the coca plantations (Chapare) in the southeast of the Department. In the third column we can see that half of the population of Cochabamba is bilingual, while the other half is composed of monolingual Spanish speakers (46%) and monolingual Quechua or Aymara (2.5%). Judging from the figures in the first column of monolingual Spanish, we are probably looking at a slow process of moving towards Spanish in the city, which presents an unexpected turn in times of sociopolitical processes as dynamic and strong as those we know in Bolivia. In any case, being bilingual in indigenous languages and Spanish in Bolivia, specifically in the City of Cochabamba, actually, is not an indicator of discrimination or associated with a lower social position. Declaring the active or passive dominance of Quechua or of Aymara is not a negative, sanctioned as it could have been when the dominance of the indigenous language was used as a racial criterion. The term “Indian” which was used until before the National Revolution of 1952 had a clear racial connotation that was expressed in the Civil Registers, in the census, where the child was registered by the color of skin. The emphasis in the Spanish schools, which

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favored Creole currents after the 1930s, was to transform the Indians by liberating them from their oppressed condition, incorporating them into the market, and civilizing them, in a true Mestizo current of salvation (Howard-Malverde & Canessa, 1995). The strengthening of National Unity involved the stripping of all that signified “the Indian” (literacy, the indigenous language) in order to create an homogenous state, elaborated for the National Revolution of the 1950s, and seen as an Indigenous demand in the 19th Century;

“We need to recognize that in the masses of Indians both in the Altiplano and in the Valley, during the years from 1825 to 1870 the most important goal for education was to eliminate illiteracy. It was hoped the country would be united when everyone could read and write Spanish, since this would signal the equality of the races and social groups. (Mesa and Mesa, 1999:423).

The glaring persistence of bilingualism in the city did not mean that children had equal exposure to the indigenous languages and to Spanish as first languages, as is shown in Box 5. Box 5 Language in which people learn to speak in Cercado, population four years and older, 2001 Census Quechua Aymara Spanish Guarani Total And other Native Languages Men 36,466 (8%0 9,966 (2%) 173,803 (37%) 2,195 (0.5%) 222,430 (47%) Women 48,795 (10%) 11,779 (2.5%) 183,665 (39%) 2,2443 (0.5%)246,482 (52%) Total 85,261 (18%) 21,745 (4.6%) 357,468 (76%) 4,438 (1%) 468,912 (100%) INE 2002 The first language acquired for 76% of the population is Spanish, and for 18% Quechua. Since the census only has one option to answer this question, bilingualism is not recognized from birth, that is simultaneously acquiring two languages from the beginning of infancy. As Molina and Albo (2006:32) suppose, the probability is high that the response reflects the effect of the prestige of Spanish. At any rate, the figures presented do not allow us to affirm that the transmission of indigenous languages in the city is assured. It remains to be seen the grade of bilingualism produced in the families during the early socialization. Speaking with a bilingual doctor on this finding, he confirmed that he did not learn Quechua at home but rather during a year in the province, 25 years ago in Tarata, 60 kilometers from Cochabamba, because he had no choice because so many of

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his patients were Quechua-speaking. It appears that bilingualism is acquired outside the home, in the street, thanks to the public use of the language. Zenobio Siles, a popular communicator and bilingual journalist, born in the city, tells us;

“If we look at Cochabamba, I believe that half of the people are bilingual, that is they speak two languages, but here in 50 years, it may be that they will be monolingual but in Spanish. . . But on the other side, people are beginning to read and write in Quechua, and this can strengthen it more. Because just as the children are in some form descendents of the Quechua culture, they are children of Quechua, they are always listening to their parents speak Quechua in the streets, people speaking in the micros, they are always talking and thus they are accustomed to the sounds. (Sichra, 2005: 245).

In this testimony we see the simultaneous bilingualism that the 2001 Census did not register which is most likely a passive bilingulism, that is people recognize and understand the language because of their exposure to it in the early years of life, but they don’t speak the language, rather Spanish becomes dominant. More than the exposure to oral Quechua, we encounter the effect that reading and writing can have on the maintenance and valuing of the language. To complete our look at the multilingual characteristics of Cochabamba, I want to refer to a recent phenomenon of ethnic valuing in the country that is reflected in the figures of the last census. To understand the change that has been produced in the recognition of the original cultures as well as the visibility of Quechua and the Quechua people in the city, we have the testimony of Vidal Arratia of Potosi, educator and social communicator:

“I have an older brother who said, ‘why do we need Quechua if there are no longer Quechuas, you are the only ones!’ For example, I am coando, we coabamos because my mother was an expert curandera but not now, these things make us stay bad, I will not visit you anymore.’ And so, sometimes, it is bad, sometimes good, there is always the doubt, not like now, now I say what I like, but before. . .(Sichra, 2005: 242).

Moving ahead, the 2001 Census reveals a change in ethnic consciousness in the indigenous communities that were investigated. The discussion of whether the formulation of questions brings up not only the value of publicly expressing indigenous membership but also the sympathies of those who are not indigenous but are supportive of political causes of the communities relates to the unexpected and massive victory of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) en the December 2005 elections, which has been interpreted as support for indigenous movements by indigenous and non-indigenous people alike. The variety of options given for responding to the question has permitted a recuperation of the uniqueness of those pueblos that, since the time of the Colonization were grouped together and given the common label of indigenous by the dominant sectors (Molino and Albo, 2006: 34).

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Box 6 Self-perception of membership in Indigenous Communities in Cercado, population 15 years and above, 2001 Census Quechua Aymara, Guarani None Total Chiquitano, Moxeno, . . Men 77,294 (22%) 17,151 (5%) 2,368 (0.7%) 62,703 (18%) 159,516 (46%) Women 89,951 (26%) 18,033 (5%) 2,706 (0.8%) 74,185 (22%) 184,875 (54%)

Total 167,245 (48%) 35,184 (10%) 5,074 (1.5%) 136,888 (40%) 344,391(100%)

INE 2002

As we can see in Box 6, of the population 15 years and above in the city, almost half claim to belong to the Quechua community If we add the ethnic categories (the first three columns), we have 60% of the population that considers itself belonging to Indigenous communities in the city. Even though the population group included in the question about languages spoken (Box 5) also includes children 6-14 years, making the base of the comparison with Box 6 different, we can still say that those belonging to indigenous communities includes indigenous language monolinguals (2.5%), bilinguals (51%), and also a percent of monolingual Spanish speakers (exactly 6.5%). In accordance with the Census, in the City of Cochabamba, the ethnic identification does not necessarily imply dominance of an indigenous language. This helps us understand the second and third generation of migrant families who identify with the indigenous community of origen but do not speak the indigenous language. As Molina and Albo (2006:23) maintain, apart from the language as the most objective feature of the indigenous culture, the declaration of the self-awareness of membership is a subjective perception: “the identification of the subjects respecting their social group of reference and belonging” (ibid). Thus even with the loss of language, people do not necessarily lose the awareness of belonging, whether cultural of political. As was expressed by Zenobio Siles, the bilingual journalist mentioned earlier:

“In the cities, I believe Quechua is difficult. Even though everyone speaks Quechua, this is getting to be less all the time, but the people still want it in their hearts, they are Quechua not just because they speak the language and because they are communities, this is true, this ensures they will continue to be Quechua, this cannot be erased.” (Sichra, 2005:244).

It is important to contextualize that this declaration of membership is not generalized even among Quechua speakers, even less when it involves a public declaration. Above all it is the first generation of migrants that resents their origin and seeks to hide their language due to their desire to insert themselves, at whatever cost, in the space of hegemony of Spanish and the prestige it has:

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“In the city you can see so many people who are peasants. . .I have seen houses that are a mess, families more Quechua than we, when they see the Spanish, they don’t want to know anything about Quechua. For them it is an insult to speak Quechua, they don’t feel good about it. My neighbors are like that.” (Zenobio Siles in Sichra, 2005:243).

After reviewing the numerical extent of Quechua in Boliva and Cochabamba, it is important to describe the distinct public spaces where Indigenous Languages and Spanish represent contact and community.

The Presence of Quechua in the City

Even though Cochabamba is a bilingual city, in public, government and legal offices, banks, the police and so forth, the use of Quechua is not regulated, except through negotiation or through the stubbornness of the client or citizen. There are government measures that have resulted in the use of indigenous languages in urban public spaces. For example, the government of Sanchez de Lozada decreed in 1996 the payment of Bonosol for all Bolivians over 65. This measure led thousands of elderly, monolingual indigenous speakers to banks where the bank workers had to meet this linguistic challenge. Some banks in 2006 initiated services for indigenous-speaking clients, not yet implemented in Cochabamba. Brochures in Quechua describing client services can be obtained from the superintendent of Banks and Financial Entities. One government measure that could change the language landscape in public institutions was announced in June by the Ministry of Education and Cultures: “To be a candidate for president, deputy or prefect, -public functionary or a teacher you are required to learn Quechua.” (La Razon, 25.6.06).

Another example is the politics of Popular Participation with the creation of rural municipalities throughout the country with the resources to attract technicians and professionals of multiple disciplines (service, education, construction, etc.). In the department of Cochabamba these positions require Quechua. But even without leaving the city, doctors, architects, lawyers, police, and others all see the necessity of at least understanding Quechua if they want to communicate with their patients, workers and clients. Offers of employment with ONGs, projects of rural development, public health, announcements in newspapers and pamphlets and posters require Quechua as the only requirement. Many businesses, including family businesses and factories with workers use the language to speak among themselves and as group identification.

The media has had little programming in Quechua. Early-morning radio programs are aimed at conserving traditions in the rural areas. A new midday program with morning news is directed to the sector marketing agricultural products (Kancha parlaspa). An investigation by Guzman (2006) on Quechuan urban radio noted the growth in recent years of Quechua programs and broadcasting in these hours as well as weekends and other hours. There are many programs about the sociopolitical reality as well as local, departmental, national and cultural programs. The interesting thing about this study is that they discovered a diverse audience of listeners, not only migrants. Thus, the broadcasters are responding to many concerns, among them the diffusion of the

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indigenous language as a symbolic element that expresses, more than the Quechuan culture, the validity and presence of social movements in urban spaces.

The Public Defender broadcasts public announcements in Spanish against discrimination of language, gender, and culture. In the Cochabamba airport flight information is provided in Quechua, especially when many Quechua-speaking families gather to say goodbye to the hundreds of migrants who leave daily for Europe. Prepaid telephone call cards offer the option of receiving information in Quechua, Aymara, Spanish and English. The use of indigenous languages on cell phones is popular and common, something that you don’t realize when telephones are restricted to fixed locations.

A great place to find Quechua is the Cancha, the extensive city market that brings together 100,000 families of commerce each Wednesday and Saturday as they occupy stands where they are met by an equal number of buyers. We must also mention the creation of weekly fairs in each municipal district in the last few years, a fact that has brought Quechua (at least one day each week) to zones of primarily Spanish speakers, including those of the middle class.

It is interesting to see the influence of the “q’uwa” or ritual of burning offerings on the first Friday of each month in private areas as well as public institutions and businesses the width and breadth of the city.

Beyond these broad, impressionistic ideas of the indigenous languages in the City of Cochabamba, Albo (1995, Vol. III: Mapa 14) elaborates, with the figures of the 1992 Census, showing the magnitude of bilingualism in the city neighborhoods, demonstrating that is not only the marginal neighborhoods or those surrounding the earlier mentioned La Cancha that maintain Quechua.

An interesting phenomenon is the presence of the indigenous languages in the city’s very extensive public transportation service. The daily movement of city dwellers, in the neighborhoods surrounding the Cancha and the City Center, from one end of the city to the other has been facilitated via a free-market transportation system with few restrictions other than those the transport workers themselves impose. On the other hand, public transportation is used more and more by the Spanish-speaking sectors of the population, whose resources have diminished with the current economic crisis and who opt not to use taxis as they did in the past (personal observation). In this form Quechua and Aymara have more spaces for diffusion and contact with Spanish.

In terms of the written diffusion of Quechua, within the public reach there are only posters with commercial notices and announcements of folkloric events. There is almost no circulation in the city of any material written in Quechua: we can mention only the bilingual newspaper Conosur Nawpaqman published by the Center of Communication and Andino Development (CENDA) for provinces south of Cochabamba that is sold in some key places like the Plaza Principal, at the entrance to the Universidad Mayor de San Simon, and at public events of a political character. Publications in Quechua circulate in intellectual circles, in the Academy of the Quechua Language, and in ONGs. The last few years have seen limited efforts to publish chapters of Quechua/Spanish dictionaries in the

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daily local papers (Opinion) or weekly supplements in Paceno dailies (Presencia, La Razon), like that edited by the Consejos Educativos de los Pueblos Originarios (CEPOs) with local, national and international notices. It is worth noting that the Windows operating system added in Quechua in 2006.

Quechua in the Educational System in the Urban Area

As an object of study, Quechua receives little attention in the system of higher education. In the entire country, only the Universidad Mayor San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca in Sucre offers a course of studies in Language in the Faculty of Humanities specializing in Quechua with the goals of teaching, written and direct translation, and investigation in areas of applied linguistics such as communication, public relations and international relations in national and foreign organizations in Quechua.

In the Universidad Mayor de San Simon Quechua is offered in certain courses of study like medicine, engineering and agriculture, that require a proficiency exam at the end of two semesters of weekly classes. The Maestria in Intercultural Bilingual Education for indigenous students of Andino countries (PROEIB Andes) began in 1998 to consider the use and development of indigenous languages, including Quechua. The Catholic University provides two semesters of instruction in Quechua in social communication, law and philosophy. Two private normal schools in Cochabamba, the Catholic and the Adventist, teach Quechua. The Catholic Normal School teaches Quechua as a second language with a series of modules produced by that institution; they also have modules for Quechua as a First Language in the specialty of teachers for the first and second cycles of the primaria (the first six years of school). In the school of Nursing of the Seton Hospital Quechua is included in the first semester. The Regional Academy of the Quechuan Language offers courses in Quechua, just as the Maryknoll Institute of Languages has offered for decades.

Clearly the Educational Reform decree of 1994 encouraged intercultural bilingual education in the rural areas of massive use of indigenous languages. The urban areas in general and Cochabamba specifically have not been incorporated in the application of the above-mentioned educational policy.

Of the 274 public fiscal education units in the city in 2001, seven administrative establishments for Fe y Alegria (Faith and Happiness) under the convention (2.5% of all establishments) offered some teaching of Quechua at the primary and secondary levels(Sichra, 2001).

Curiously, private colleges demonstrated a greater disposition to incorporate Quechua in the curriculum: in 2001 we registered ten of 89 establishments or 11.2% of all private colleges (ibid). The teaching of Quechua in some private colleges was implemented two decades before the Educational Reform of 1994, particularly religious colleges.

Information provided by the Unit of Information and Analysis of Service Department of the Education SEDUCA in 2002, showed 59 teachers responsible for the subject of Quechua (called “proper language” in public schools), the majority of those in the last

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year of primary and the first years of secondary, 59 teachers for a population of 132,932 students in the pubic sector. The surprising thing is that two-thirds of those teachers were concentrated in the Cercato Education District that corresponds to the central zone of the city, with limited migrants, a smaller bilingual population, better prepared in terms of education infrastructure and more students at the secondary level.

Judging from the demand, this inattention is not justified, since there is sufficient evidence of favorable attitudes in terms of the inclusion of Quechua in the urban teaching from parents as well as the students, as much in public schools as in private colleges. A number of investigations made on behalf of PROEIB Andes in Cochabamba reveal the demand for intercultural bilingual education as much from the bilingual population of the semi-urban zones as from the monolingual Spanish speaking population in general.

In the semi-urban zones this demand is based on the importance of knowing an original language: “The students maintain that Quechua is part of their culture, their life and thus part of them. . .In their labor activities, students and parents communicate in the original language and in Spanish. The people who know an original language have definite spaces and people with whom they communicate without prejudice. This shows that in those urban contexts there is a linguistic loyalty towards the original language” (Arratia, 2004: 149,150). It is also necessary to develop labor activities using the indigenous language.

Without doubt, there is also evidence of the negation of original languages on the part of the Quechua-speaking students. The parents see that permanent contact with the foreign culture makes students embarrassed of the original languages. . .they see in education a space for the students to learn and strengthen their Quechua” (Arratia, 2004, 149). It is interesting that parents “see not only the need to teach of the original language, but also initially the need to consider the motives for discrimination against the original languages and cultures. Only then is it possible to think in terms of teaching the writing of the language” (ibid). There is an additional motive for learning original languages in the schools expressed by students whose parents have not transmitted the original language and that is the necessity of communicating with the monolingual family, with the grandparents, to overcome the sensation of dismembering of the family produced by the migration to the city.

One characteristic of the urban education problem is the silence of those involved. Teran concluded (2004:3), “Concerning the demand on the part of the parents, if they are aware of what their children need to learn, they don’t make this evident, perhaps because their conditioning as migrants does not let them do this. They are resigned to the fact that their children will assimilate Spanish in the educational system. As a result, though bilingual intercultural education began about ten years ago in the urban areas, it is moving slowly.”

Spanish-speaking parents and students, in public (Teran, 2006) and private sectors(Sichra, 2006), see the advantage of learning original languages as second languages in order to communicate with the rural and semi-urban populations, above all for professional goals, just as they recognize the value of English as a second language. The recovery of the language and cultural diversity as the essence and heritage of the country is another criteria recognized by monolingual Spanish-speaking students. For

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both propositions, speaking, reading and writing an indigenous language is an indispensable strategy demanding materials and well-prepared teachers, just as they have in English.

Finally, a survey of teachers (Bustamante, 1999) showed their support of bilingual modalities, above all in the semi-urban areas of migration, based on the need of their bilingual and even trilingual students. At the same time, the teachers saw the need to learn how to deal with possible rejection of the language on the part of parents as well as teaching colleagues “for whom Quechua would be seen as a backwards movement.”

Construction of Identity: Meanings of the language in one sector of society

The incursion and permanence of the indigenous languages and cultures in urban areas has an effect on the population in general, establishing new behaviors, attitudes and perceptions among non-indigenous people.

One response of the population to the internal migrations is a gradual process of interculturalization and bilingualism, inscribed along with a social dynamic of conflict on the part of individuals belonging to the minority Criolla group, those holding the power in the country. Recent social movements and their political effects question the social-political configuration of the country, provoking reactions in the sectors that see their exclusive, hegemonic position being questioned. With movements and uprisings across the country, the peasant and indigenous organizations have become fundamental protagonists of change in Bolivia over the last five years, provoking ruptures of contracts with transnational corporations, resignation of a president, and election of the first president of indigenous origin, thus imposing a political agenda on the revising of the nation. “The Other Bolivia” in its confrontation with the dominant urban sectors is generating ample discussion and reflection in public spaces about the recasting of national citizen identity in terms of respect for ethnic diversity.

Over the year, unthinkable events occurred, many of which probably inspired fear in the hegemonic sectors of Bolivian society. The political reality has changed profoundly since December 18, 2005, introducing processes of change in the, until now, unquestioned establishment. The political changes also affect the politics of education and language, requiring that the educational system begin to respond to the social reality of ethnic and language composition and develop a diverse and inclusive character.

Political changes were initiated about a decade ago in Bolivia with changes in the Constitution and the introduction of paths of Reform, “This society has a series of defects and one of those is this, that we don’t dialogue, we are a society of absolute and profound non-communication.” (Romero de Campero, 2005: 5).

Based on this lack of communication underlying our earlier mentioned investigation of Quechua in private colleges, we can appreciate the parents’ concern for the importance of Quechua in the educational environment, and particularly in private schools with middle-class Spanish-speaking students.

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As you can see, we have many ideas of the perceptions parents have concerning Quechua in education. Incorporating the indigenous language in the school environment for students is an important political step to show recognition and value of the language, but above all, for the construction of Bolivian Society and national identity.

The Political Meaning

The Bolivian social conflict affects the support and affections of family members for other sectors of society and this is sufficient motive to think that schools should favor the process of reflection.

“And now more, in this time in which this ethnic problem has become so important. And there is a polarization about what to do or not do, that we also need to look inside the families, then, how they perceive the children, I believe it is important to analyze this, don’t you?” (Petra 23.6.04)

Confronting the world that surrounds us and beginning to form our own perception of diversity is important to this mother as a reason for exposure to Quechua in the school.

“I hope that learning Quechua will, at least, give the students another context, understanding that there are other people, because there are colleges where they don’t speak, and they are completely absorbed in abstractions of what it can mean, that is to say, one stone more, one more tree in the road, without understanding the other people, no? People only realize the existence of diverse people when something concrete bothers them. . .the microbus, the trufi, the taxi.” (Marite, 2.6.04)

Passing from the daily to the ideological plane, in the next testimony, Rene, a sociologist, sees in the teaching of Quechua a preparation of the youth to support change in society. His posture has something to do with the social failure of his generation and the expectations of the new generation confronting the delayed work and commitments:

“Personally I believe it is essential to maintain Quechua, even though we begin mixed. . .in the colleges. And now in these times of cultural and political change and forces rising from below, it is important to make the most of the elements. We are the bridging generation, the generation that failed in everything, we have never had a revolution, we never learned Quechua, we have never done anything, instead we passed the time enjoying ourselves, we have had so many setbacks trying to construct something. Something has to work out. . .” (Rene, 2.6.04)

From a less ideological perspective, but also referring to the construction of a Bolivian society that accepts as fundamental the idea of living together, overcoming racial discrimination and appreciating the richness of diversity, Pepe, a civil engineer, sees the importance of teaching the indigenous language as a support for understanding the other

“Now we are in the fight between q’aras and t’aras, I say in all the environments where I am, I am in Bolivia and I am q’ara and I plan to remain in Bolivia and I

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have not thought about other countries that are based on color or race. . . I believe in diversity and I believe in living together, maintaining customs and maintaining all those characteristics, and within this point of view, it appears to me that Quechua needs to be taught and studied, from the perspective that language models perception” (Pepe 1.6.04)

The work of the college is explicit, teaching the indigenous language to encourage the understanding of the culture:

“In a situation like we have here, they are affirming the others, the other ethnic and linguistic groups and I believe that there is also good reason to consider that there are existing groups with their own culture, with their own language, no? And try to develop a better understanding and connection between the different cultures investigating even at a very basic level a different form of expression. Because I don’t see language disconnected from culture.” (Ana, 3.6.05).

The teaching of Quechua is a utopian ideal for Sandra, an anthropologist, since there are not other subjects that support the human and political formation in a stronger sense.

“Alone, the teaching of Quechua cannot provoke the understanding of social relations. It must be accompanied by other subjects such as social sciences and religion. In my cousins, the teaching of Quechua caused no change. Even less they give the usage, it is very detached, like an exotic thing.” (Sandra, 3.6.04).

Ariana also does not perceive any change in communication between the western and indigenous with the teaching of Quechua, given the inherent social distance, nonetheless, she believes it is important to continue teaching the language.

“I think that the two worlds are so separated that the language has no great impact even though I am 100 percent in favor that we do this, they teach Quechua so they have an understanding, but in my children it has not had a great impact, they have no great interest in the Quechua culture.” (Ariana 3.6.04).

Social distance expressed as class difference is the explanation of Petra, an economist, for her daughter’s loss of interest in Quechua.

“I don’t see results, this is the second year my daughter has studied Quechua, I don’t see a great interest in learning Quechua. I have the impression that it is the same contour, the social class that is there, that perhaps does not look upon the Quechua language with value because they do not consider it to be of their class, isn’t this so?” (Petra, 23.6)

Other parents also observe attitudes of indifference in their children even though they don’t give an explanation that has anything to do with social origin or the social context of the college.

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Patriotic Meanings: The National Identity

In the following testimony, Ramiro considers that the learning of the language can be an instrument to recuperate the conscience of the historic value of the native:

“Sadly we don’t have this predisposition of the children, of wanting to learn Quechua, I hoped they would be predisposed to learn their native language, that we would be able to inculcate a little of the importance of knowing a little. . .I am delighted that they were Quechua, that they would speak. And so I hoped they would speak Quechua, I hoped they would know their culture, their ancestors and all that so they could enjoy their history, no?” (Ramiro, 11.6.04).

Even more than the appropriate historic development, Quechua would help generate a collective identity. Quechua as an historic concept connects with an imaginary ancestor,

“I believe that Quechua is another form of rescuing our ancestral cultures, the collective aspects that go along with language and forms of social organization, and also rescue the experiences of the campesino life.” (Pepe 1.6.04).

Pragmatic Meanings/Instrumental: Communication in the Country and the City

The most common argument favoring the teaching of Quechua is the necessity of the language for professionals to perform their work in rural areas. Jimena, a chemical-environmental engineer, had this experience:

“In my professional career I have had many problems because I did not speak Quechua. For example, when I did my research with campesinos North of Potosi concerning the handling of water, often the people did not speak Spanish. And thus, I had to take companions from the university who spoke Quechua so that they could help me, since I should have been able to speak Quechua. Before I did not pay attention to the importance of Quechua, but now I believe we need to have the knowledge. . .never did I think that the people with whom I would work would be from the country and probably not speak Spanish.” (Jimena, 27.6.04)

The university development in the disciplines of engineering (technology careers) does not prepare students to face the linguistic and cultural reality of the Quechua-speaking region. Students who speak Quechua are sought as translators and helpers in Quechua, and thus constructing the notion of economic capital;

“This is exactly what I want to say, I have a cousin who became a civil engineer here in San Simon and he is an hydraulic engineer. And so, after finishing his studies, he took classes in Quechua because he had to go into the country. Whatever work one develops, sometimes you have to go to the country and you need to communicate with the people there, it is our language, and to me it is important to learn it, no?” (Petra, 23.6.04).

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Knowledge of Quechua is a professional tool for this mother of the family who is an economist, specifically for her work in the country. In the last part of the testimony appears a reference concerning geographic distance that includes, without doubt, the social distance, “the people over there.” The distance gained with a language that is the common heritage (Bolivian) and not only of the rural population.

Attorney Ariel gives an example of these unbalanced encounters, in which the strategy consists not only of “knowing Quechua” but also “knowing how to speak Quechua;”

“Before I noticed that popular participation did not allow us to speak or did not permit the originals to speak. Now popular participation has permitted more participation, more involvement in decisions and sometimes as professionals we have direct dialogue in the consultations of the Consejeros de Participacion Popular (CPP). I tell you honestly, those professionals who speak Quechua have the advantage. I have seen that, the utility of knowing how to speak Quechua. An agricultural engineer who speaks Quechua works with me and I have to take her to visit all the people because she speaks such wonderful Quechua, with such facility. That is to say that professionals such as her have the advantage.” (Ariel, 29, 6.04)

Attorney Ariel distinguishes between those professions that require the dominion of Quechua and those that only need a little;

“For some types of work, knowledge of Quechua is indispensable, fundamentally in the professions like agronomy, civil engineering, medicine, sociology, law, even though economists and advisers are somewhat liberated from this because they are more involved in the books. But in most other areas, including those working in the provinces or when someone comes from the provinces who speaks Quechua.” (Ariel, 29.6.05).

The only professionals not needing Quechua are those focusing on numbers or figures and not involving communication or relationships with people.. For the rest, and independent of whether it is a rural or urban environment, the necessity of Quechua in the performance of the profession results from the geographic and economic mobility of the subjects with they relate;

“Within the Cochambino context, we encounter the necessity, including social, for professionals to have an understanding of Quechua. If you look in the waiting room, and there is a peasant waiting there, just as a middle-class woman waits for me, it is absolutely vital that I speak Quechua. In my case I am a lawyer and so of necessity I must resolve problems, interrelate with the people.” (Ariel, 29.6.05).

Because of social necessity, Ariel refers to resolving the relational aspect of communication. This case treats of a less symmetrical relationship, concerning a client with resources to pay for the attention received from the professional, and the economic dependence that this implies. Nonetheless, there is labeling of clients that establishes a

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social difference between them and the professional. Ariel gives an example of “those people,” monolingual Quechua clients who live in the city:

“I had a client who did not speak even one drop of Spanish, not one word of Spanish and she lived in the city. She had a house, and she had a very beautiful house, very beautiful that she had bought, she had a dishwasher in the kitchen but she washed the dishes on the floor. Truly, I went there with my wife but she washed the plates in a bowl on the floor and we showed her it was a dishwasher but she did not understand.” (Ariel, 29.6.05)

Monolingualism in indigenous languages, visible economic recourses and permanence in the city is a combination of characteristics that challenges the social stereotype as well as the stereotype of the client of the lawyer:

“And this was a client who only spoke Quechua, some words she spoke, I understood, but when I wanted to speak with her, she understood half of what I said, when we worked to understand one another. Sometimes she is here in the afternoons because all of her situation of lands. . .she is a woman of much economic power but she does not communicate in Spanish. I see the taxes, I see the house. I see it all.” (Ariel, 29.6.05).

The presence of Quechua in the city is a reality, even though for some parents of families this is only evident in anecdotal situations. Nonetheless, as we can see in the following testimony, professionals need to find ways of responding to clients. Lalo, a pilot with Lloyd Aereo Boliviano told us 27.6.04:

“I think that everyone needs to know Quechua, because it is a language that, whether we want or not, we are involved with it, interrelated with it, and in some moments we need it, clearly, sometimes less and sometimes more, but in some moments we use it. I needed help, in a very interesting case. We had a flight from Cochabamba to Sucre, when we saw 50 children boarding, all from the country and not one speaking Spanish. And so, since by regulation when we demonstrate the use of the emergency equipment, the passenger needs to understand what is being said, so we saw the difficulty of, . .someone had to be able to make sure everyone understood what had to be done in an emergency, and so this was a great problem for us and we had to find someone to speak the language. We called and began to investigate who spoke the language. We found someone in the office and explained to them and they had to go with us to Sucre and then return with us. We did what needed to be done, right? And this was one story.” Lalo, 27.6.04).

The experience of this pilot reveals the simple but effective paradox of Quechua, the speakers of Quechua are numerically-speaking not a minority, nor are they isolated or behind the modern world and globalization. Nonetheless, the language does not occupy a space in technical and sophisticated labor fields such as aviation. Quechua has a restricted functionality more in the symbolic sense that nourishes new elements day by day.

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We have developed in this last part some meanings that parents of the middle class attribute to the indigenous language. Their expectations of the incorporation of Quechua, of the proven vitality of Quechua in the urban environment have to be seen within the construction of “ours” during an epoch marked by constant and notorious counter-hegemonic movements led by popular and indigenous movements. When I did this investigation, the current government had not been elected.

At the same time, for those interviewed, the indigenous language is not used only in the pedagogical sense but rather as a resource, that is, a social implement. More than the knowledge of the indigenous language, the use of Quechua is seen by this part of Cochambino society as a benefit in the pragmatic, cognitive and affective sense, and a support for the needed interculturalization of the students.

Epilogue

We have tried to show through these pages that the majority of the indigenous languages are characterized by multiple contradictions within a field of historic, social, political and educational tensions.

In the first place, the contradictions in the area of behavior and attitude permit us to see that Quechua is a living language of presence and social significance. If this were not so, it would not generate reactions for and against the language, we would not be able to create images concerning its place in society, rather there would be static position for its reason to be. Relating to this, the generational displacement of the language provokes discussions among those affected, very often discontented and resentful of the deprivation they suffer as a result of not knowing a language that would benefit them.

In the second place, the political changes in Bolivia are so dynamic that something established as coherent in one period may be contradicted in another. If it was coherent that Quechua identified the rural population that maintained and nourished the agriculture-centered culture with direct relations with the earth and nature and this represented “the other Bolivia,” the contradiction of this points at the identification with Quechua as an inclusive manner of understanding the Nation and of rescuing diverse roots of a common past and of living together in this great territory of Bolivia.

And in the third place, the social forces that maintain Quechua, and the feeling of Quechua, have not pushed the language to a full development, they have not transformed nor modernized the language to meet the needs of the transformation of society. There is no debate that Spanish is the language of power, or that Quechua does not occupy all the public spaces and is maintained in a subordinate position both by the speakers and non-speakers, without favoring the practice of writing, linguistic creativity, adaptation to new social functions, or its use for the holders of power. The individual or collective militancy that has transformed forgotten and lost original minority languages on other continents into pride and linguistic recuperation has not been generated for this language.

We remember, in closing, that tens of millions of people divided by various national borders speak Quechua. In the overview of these pages, we see the distribution of this

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language is not restricted to the criteria of original language of the speakers, or rural traditional cultural space, which is the case of minority indigenous languages. We noted the valuing by non-indigenous people of Quechua as a national symbol and as a part of a multi-cultural multi-national state. Now we need to develop the political will that will build on such an auspicious social process and transform it into an opportunity of strength for the transformation and even rebirth of Bolivia.