“ … they want to mend that outdated system, that oppresses the indigenous nation. We have another option, a more viable path, more Aymara, more honest, that’s Tupak Katari and Zarate Willka’s path. Then we are going to regain our honour, our land, what corresponds to us . . .”
-Felipe Quispe Huanca
By: Ivan Ignacio
Translated by German Alvarez
Felipe Quispe Huanca, the Mallku, legendary leader of the Aymara people, and without any doubt the most decided and incorruptible man in the last times. In the year 2000, a carpet of stones that extended all along the Aymara high plateaus until La Paz city elevated him to the glory of power and the fervour of his oppressed people, writing history as the unbreakable leader of an era of change in favour of the first nations.
Today, the halo and fame of the fearsome Mallku has nursed several indigenous leaders who now pretend to challenge his supremacy. The newspapers, in the hands of the powerful lords of this country, have put him in the freezer, and if he made mistakes, he is paying for them in solitude. However, the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement (MIP), political instrument that he founded is still effective and with it, he is getting ready to start another of his battles for he has not surrendered, and still holds the charisma and command voice of the indisputable leader.
Under these circumstances, we arranged the interview and he didn’t make us wait. The Mallku is a sturdy and strong sixty-year-old indigenous man, who turns 61 on August 22nd. He has a very wide forehead, snub nose, and intelligence that he cultures daily from 5 o’clock in the morning. This denotes that he can provide much more than what you can imagine. He emits an air of respect and fear amongst those around him due to his unpredictable character.
His addresses are followed with great expectation because they are filled with live images, not exempted of his particular sense of humour. The course of his political future is still to be decided. It is a fame that accepts no assessors and among his activities he added the foundation of a soccer team called “Pachakuti”. He watches over it like a father and he feels proud of it for in this year it has harvested the first places.
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Ivan Ignacio (II). – Brother Felipe Quispe, today July 13 we would like to know your opinion about the current situation. In general, how are the first nations currently living in this territory of Qullasuyu and particularly the brothers of the Aymara nation?
Felipe Quispe Huanca (FQH). – Thanks brother. We are still living with this philosophical thought of being an indigenous nation, as we had before. In other words, we want to reinstate the Tawantinsuyu. Thus our programmatic principal for all the indigenous nations is reborn, because this is a long-term project. It is a project that we have outlined since the year 2000. It is true that we have paid with many lives and lot of blood in the demonstrations because the white men, or as we call them, Q’aras, have annihilated us gradually. That is why now the traditional political parties, those that work as political pawns for the transnationals, are getting ready for a general election to be held in the month of December. For sure they will instate one of them as president of that Republic called Bolivia.
We cannot stay behind; we cannot be passive spectators looking from the balconies or from the mountains how our executioners get in. We also want to be authors and actors in these coming elections. This way, the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement (MIP) has registered a Legal Entity number, it’s outlining its guidelines, and it’s managing the same parameters of those who manage this country. That is to say, we are legally registered.
In this way, we are going to show up with our own candidates, call them delegates or senators, and a candidate for President of the Republic as well. We are not going to get candidates borrowed from somewhere else, in other words, foreigners to our indigenous nations reality. In these days we are going to present our candidate, our indigenous nation, Aymara nation more than anything else, that is going to have its own candidates. It’s going to participate legally, but taking into account that this way is not only ours, I mean, it’s not like a way for us.
This is because I know that through democratic ways we won’t be able to change this country, we won’t be able to rebuild the Qullasuyu, because our goal is to seize political power, to regain the territory, the land that belongs to us. These are two principal important points that we are proposing. The rest are only branches because they are not the main trunk. Moreover, there is another arm that is not just hanging like that. It’s the one under the poncho that is also working, because we very well know that our ancestors such as Tupak Katari and Tupak Amaru rebelled and shook the Spanish colony, like Zarate Willka in the Republic had to rise and propose an armed fight against the white men, the landowner and the potentates of the time. There already was an indigenous government in Peñas, town currently located in the province of Poopo, or if I am not mistaken in Oruro.
Then, some guidelines have been established. Also, the self-determination of the Aymara nation has occurred, because we the Aymaras are located in various departments, not only in La Paz. Hence we are working in other instances, we are seeing in this sense that the Aymara nation also plans to self-determine as a nation, with its own army, with its own authorities, with our own symbols and emblems. All that we have, all that surrounds us . . . because, you see, we are a nation, we have our territory, we have our land, we have our religion, language, culture, philosophy, laws and we also have our ways and practices, and we are based on that. But, however, Bolivia has nothing. Bolivia is anchored in our territory; Bolivia doesn’t have its own language because that language belongs to the Spanish. I am speaking that language myself. It doesn’t have its own religion. The religion that they have brought is a bloody one. You get in a church and you are going to see a man who was sacrificed, that poor man was tortured, it’s pure blood. That is the kind of religion it has. We, on the contrary, have our wak’as, our illas, our mallkis, pachakamac, father Sun, mother Moon, the Pachamama, all the uywiris (those who bring you up). There isn’t such blood. Our religion is not a bloodthirsty one.
White men’s culture has contributed to inequality and disdain for our culture. That difference persists. I see that the indigenous nation is gathering little by little all its historical past; it’s moving forward in the communities because since the year 2000 we have had to push apart the state authorities, therefore there is a double power. We have gained a little power but they still have the control. What most hurts us is the Socialist Movement MAS party of Evo Morales because they want to mend that outdated system, a system that oppresses the indigenous nation. So we have to look beyond that. Our fight will continue. It isn’t something that will last only a couple of days but we also want to be the owners of ourselves, owners of our indigenous first nation.
I.I. – What’s that about the Qullasuyu (Felipe’s cell phone is ringing, hello... OK, we are going). Let’s continue. Then, when they talk about the Qullasuyu they think only about Bolivia. However, we have brothers in Peru, Chile, Argentina. How are these brothers linked to the rebuilding of the Qullasuyu? Is there any kind of coordinated effort?
F.Q.H. – Many people believe that the Qullasuyu would be located only here in what is called Bolivia. Geographically, however, the Qullasuyu extends to the south of Peru, the north of Chile, the north of Argentina, and likewise the Amazon on the Brazilian side. These means to rearticulate or broaden our territory, that is to say, that we automatically would be affecting other countries that are already republics like ours since 1825. Then, for us to advance further we have to have contact with our indigenous brothers of flesh and bone.
Because we cannot think like the q’aras, the white men, since they think in conquering with bullets, by the armed fight. No, no way. We have always characterized because our ancestors were first in contact with our culture, with our language, with our organization system. In this sense we are coordinating with our brothers in Peru, with the Aymaras and Qhishuas over there, and also with Aymara brothers in the north of Chile, in Tacna, in Iquique, and many other places where they are settled, and even we are in contact with the land of the Mapuche. They are also indigenous people despite having another language. They speak Mapurundung. We also have contact with the people in the north of Argentina.
A few times the brothers from Peru or from Arica have told us: we are watching. When the Indian in Bolivia takes power we are going to raise this seven-colour Wiphala (he is talking about the flag of the first nations, different to the official three-coloured red, yellow and green flag). Then we are going to rescue our honour, our territory, what used to belong to us, because the Tawantinsuyu (the Inca empire) had a sea, (he means the sea that was relinquished after the war in 1879 to the English interests positioned in Chile). The Tawantinsuyu didn’t lack a sea. Those who sold it cheap gave it to the white men, the mistis; Those were the white men who were managing the country.
We haven’t ruled, you know, since 1825, since Simon Bolivar. There have been many tyrants, many oppressors and executioners, the last of them Carlos Mesa, or Eduardo Rodriguez, all of them q’aras, all of them white men. They ruled, they sold our ancestral Pachamama, our mother. If there is a day when we take power, things will be very different. We cannot repeat history; we cannot sell cheap our country. We will defend it and will be able to give our life for our Qullasuyana land.
I.I. –At this time, it seems to be a contradiction because some brothers think that a political party is not the proper instrument. They say we shouldn’t create a political party, but now in this situation, in this elections time, the MIP is a political party, isn’t it brother? - Uh huh (assents) – Then, how can we explain this to the people who don’t want to understand that we must have a political party?
F.Q.H. – Those who say we shouldn’t have a political party are wrong. For sure those people are instruments of our executioners, of our oppressors, those butchers who have done their things in September-October 2003. For example, the butcher Tuto Quiroga is going to be a candidate now. We are going to defy him, face to face; we are going to discuss brain against brain. We have an instrument, a tool. That tool is called Pachakuti Indigenous Movement (MIP). If we didn’t have a tool, what could we work with? A mason can do nothing without tools; a mechanic without tools cannot fix an engine; an intellectual without a concept, without an ideology, without knowing the history of the history cannot write a book, not even a paper for a university course. From that perspective, the indigenous man must have his tool. That tool is the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement and with this we will do our fight on that stage, in that political arena where we are going to confront them, face to face.
We agree on the fact that we are not going to win. That in the parliament we wont’ be able to do anything because it’s going to be only three or four nobodies, but at least we will be there although we won’t be doing many things, but we will be inside because it is an option. But we are not going to settle for just that option of only being delegates or senators. We have another option, another more viable path, more Aymara, more honest, Tupak Katari’s path, Zarate Willka’s path; because our ancestors already proved it. Then a lot of people are thinking that the indigenous man has a limp, that he walks only on one foot. That foot is the democracy. However, if he is going to have two feet, it may happen that he puts his foot in it on this side or that he puts the other one somewhere else.
That is why we have both our arms too, because our ancestors managed even four: politics, military, religion and social issues. The indigenous movement was based on four fundamental pillars. However, perhaps we have forgotten to get back the religious aspect. I believe that we haven’t been careful about participating with social organizations. We are still working on that, because the MIP also has a spiritual component and at the same time controls social organizations such as the Peasant Workers Union Confederation and others. I think it is necessary to have this kind of fight and to make proposals on both legal and illegal ways.
I.I. – Can you make a small assessment of the participation of MIP members?
F.Q.H. – The MIP was born on November 14, 2000. We didn’t want to participate in the elections; we didn’t want to divide the indigenous people, especially the Aymara nation. We wanted to establish an alliance with Evo Morales, although Evo Morales has a borrowed acronym, or he paid for it, I think. That acronym belongs to the Falangists, to the Bolivian Socialist Falange (a middle class party) of the ex-falangist David Anez Pedraza. They had us participating with their acronym and gave to the Aymara nation just one candidacy. They wouldn’t admit ten or twenty; just one. Thus, the MAS was constituted by the quote of several political groups: Antonio Peredo from FunChe (Che Guevara Foundation); Felix Santos Zambrana from the Pachakuti Axis; Felix Vasquez from MUP; Evo Morales himself from MAS; Manual Morales Davila from the Patriotic Block; then, they have pulled one from each one. They wanted to pull one from us. I reported this to the committee and they rejected it stating that we were going to obtain ten delegates at least, and you see we got six delegates.
After the elections, the first thing we, the six delegates, did was to support the parliament for Evo Morales to be the president. There were around 45 votes for that, because they have 27 delegates, plus our six it added sacredly 33 votes, and Alejo Veliz joined us with a vote and Jerjes Justiniano from the Socialist party with another one, that’s 35 plus 8 senators and some black sheep that pasture around in the parliament. Then, Evo said no, I am not prepared, I haven’t been to the university, I don’t want to be president and thus he disappointed us, despite having us always supported the MAS.
The biggest thing we did was to have them pass the law for the construction of a school at the central station, a school for the labourers, and on the other hand we have presented a Law Project written in Aymara, Quechua and Spanish, in three languages for the Creation of the Indigenous University for the first nations that we are going to have approved when we found it ourselves in Wayrocondo; there were many projects there but six men cannot get the majority, because there the votes are counted when you raise your hand and that is what the neo-liberal majority watches. The neo-colonial majority has its representatives; most of those in the parliament represent the transnationals of the North American gringos. There they defend sacredly the interests of those capitalist organizations that we have in this country.
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I.I. – One last request, brother. This interview will be published at the international level, especially in Canada. There we are going to contact the brothers and we are going to translate it into English and French in order to reproduce the message. We want you to give us a message for the first nations brothers who live there, both those of us who are from here and those who are from there.
F.Q.H. – In the first place, I know the history of the struggle of our indigenous brothers in Canada. They already have their territory under control and it is like a nation, and despite they are not majority they are well organized, they have their own police force, they have their authorities. We also dream to come to that some time, but we may be criticized because here we are the majority with six million indigenous people both in the low lands, in the intermediate lands and in the high lands. We reside there. However, we are being governed by a small colonial minority anchored in our territory and those colonists, those foreigners, those lodgers have the power, total control over the military, the police, the laws, the three state powers; they are the rulers who do everything. However, we are confined to the hardest jobs, the harshest ones, in the mines, in the factories, in the farms, in the cities, everywhere, because we are like stones everywhere, but we are still in the organizing stage, preparing in full, because we have to give back to the indigenous brother his ideology, his indigenous nature.
It is a process that will take its toll, but I know that sooner or later we will seize power. That day when we have the power, we will call all of our brothers, the minor sons of the Qullasuyu for them to come and work here and make our ancestral country blossom. We need help for that, solidarity, brotherhood and indianity from all the brothers who live in those developed countries. They have to understand that it is their duty to give us a hand. We are not leaving this place; we’ll keep fighting.
Since the year 2000, we have proved with demonstrations, blocking paths and roads, participating in politics. So far we have deposed two neo-liberal governments, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and his successor Carlos Mesa Gisbert. The third one won’t be Rodriguez Veltze because we cannot do anything in five months, but the next neo-liberal to take office will be deposed too. It may be Doria Medina or Jorge Quiroga, son-in-law of the United States, who pretend to rule this country, but they will fall too because our brothers were immunized to the marrow of their bones with the first nations revolution and that is what I could say to all my brothers from other countries. Thank you very much.
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After taking some pictures we end the interview. The Mallku (the name for the highest authority in Aymara) astonishes for the fluency of his lengthy discourse. When he looks backwards he manages to see the future in a clear and precise way, formulating for these times a visionary and novel thesis that statesmen and politicians would envy. Lets remember the recent European Union. Would the Tawantinsuyu be some kind of hemispheric or Latin-American union to fulfill Bolivar’s dream? Regarding the problem about the sea, his project comprises nothing less and nothing more than its reintegration, for in more than one hundred years in captivity the politicians haven’t been able to pursue a maritime strategy to avoid the alienation.
Many people who criticize his proposal to go back to the Ayllu state that this is a thesis for the prehistory. But looking carefully, the Qullasuyu has eternal values that will never be outdated such as liberation, community organization, and revaluation of cultural identity, community production, solidarity and reciprocity of the Andes. What is to be discussed in these times is the idea that many warrior heroes were forced to take part in the armed struggle due to so much abuse. However, in another interview, the Mallku cites one of the greatest educators whose name was Avelino Siñani, who under the same circumstances managed to educate his people with the values of the Ayllu. Precisely, his school was called Warisata Ayllu School. It was some kind of Inca neo-empire blooming and a teaching example for all Latin America since Avelino Siñani practiced the liberation of the first nations through education. All the formation we have is due to him. Anyways, those tactics must go together to assure us that from this day no indigenous native will be oppressed or exploited.
Note from the author: deep thanks to Yvette Mejia and Zenon Quispe who helped to carry out this interview.
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