Cover: Nicolas Prègre @nicoprg
NEIGHBOURHOODS
By looking at streets and avenue names in much of Latin America, one can learn about historical figures and dates. But we tend to not think about these too much, as they are such an integrated part of our routine that they lose their meaning. That meaning can be literal or historical, but, inevitably, the more comfortable one is with one’s surroundings, the less one actually knows about them. Which is why this 97th issue of Bolivian Express is dedicated to the neighbourhoods of La Paz, and to the residents and the history of each one. It’s a history of violence, love and modernisation.
Miraflores takes us to the Tiwanaku empire, where ancient ruins were excavated. Back in the 16th century, Garita de Lima was an area where travelers from Peru could rest; Calle Jaen used to be the market for camelid goods. An important moment of the 1952 National Revolution took place in Villa Victoria, which became known as Villa Balazos, or Villa Gunshot, after its residents, most of them workers, managed to stop the army from progressing any further. More recently, Gran Poder started in Chijini in the 1960s. It’s also in Chijini that the trans movement started gaining visibility in the 1970s with the participation of trans icons Barbarella, La Pocha, Rommy Astro and La Verónica in Bolivian folkloric dances.
The names themselves also tell us much. In Achachicala, a monument shows us the meaning of its name – a place where ancient, giant stones can be found. Calacoto comes from Qala Qutu, which also means ‘a lot of stones.’ There were at least three lagoons in Cota Cota/Quta Quta, which means ‘lake’ in Aymara. Munaypata is the heart of the city: munay means ‘to love’ and pata, ‘place.’ According to tradition, couples have been going there since colonial times. La Florida was named after the Orange State in a desire to emulate the idealised Miami lifestyle by building eccentric villas with large gardens.
La Paz is now expanding vertically in its center – Casco Viejo, Sopocachi, San Jorge, Calacoto – and horizontally in the south. The expansion of Zona Sur is fairly recent, but it has an interesting story as well. In the early 1950s, President Víctor Paz Estenssoro had a hippodrome built, where ‘glasses of milk were sold instead of soda. Horses were brought from Chile and Peru, but many died because of the elevation,’ wrote Bolivian historian Mariano Gumucio. The hippodrome proved to be a financial disaster, and the San Miguel residential urbanisation, with its streets in concentric circles that outline the failed venue, was born out of its failure. Los Pinos is one of La Paz’s first planned neighbourhoods where, according to its residents, the first trufi line started. Today, new suburbs are popping at the edge of the city moving its centre of gravity southwards.
This urban expansion doesn’t come with a cost. Pampahasi was part of the 2011 ‘mega’ landslide where 400 homes were destroyed. Neighbourhoods like Següencoma or Llojeta – which can be translated as ‘which sinks’ in Aymara – experience regular landslides; the latest one, in Bajo Llojeta, took place last April. Despite the fact that large sections of the city are in high-risk areas, unregulated and unsafe constructions are still being built. At the city’s frontier, loteadores cut trees and burn vast parcels of land to prepare the terrain for future construction projects without following regulations or taking the environmental consequences into consideration.
Next time you take the teleférico or bus or drive across town, make sure to pay attention to the neighbourhoods around you; each has a story to tell. Maybe even stop to read what a statue is about or what a sign has to say.
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LA SENDA VERDE WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
Description: La Senda Verde is home to more than 800 animals from almost 60 different species. They provide daily educational tours of the refuge to local and foreign visitors. Their mission is to save wild animals from cruelty and suffering, and inspire people to appreciate and take better care of nature.
Website: www.sendaverde.org
Location: Yolosa, Nor Yungas. Subtropical region east side of the Bolivian Andes.
Opening hours: 8:00-17:00
Photo: La Senda Verde
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DESTINATION
LAKE TITICACA
Description: It is a beautiful place to enjoy a weekend with family and friends, there you can visit the Isla del Sol, navigate the lake and enjoy fresh trout among other food. Lake Titicaca is located between Bolivia and Peru and is the highest navigable lake in the world. Sacred for the Aymaras and the Incas, it still has an important value for both countries beyond tourism.
How to get there: Take a minibus to Copacabana from the general cemetery, the road is safe and fully asphalted.
Photo: Guille Álvarez on Unsplash
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HOTELS
ECOLODGE LA ESTANCIA
Description: This eco-friendly ecolodge is located on Isla del Sol, offering a breathtaking setting with majestic views of the lake and the Cordillera Real. Working closely with the local communities, Ecolodge La Estancia is a spiritual getaway where you can easily disconnect from the world.
Address: Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca
Website: www.ecolodge-laketiticaca.com
Photo: Ecolodge La Estancia
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SHOPPING
MUNAY
Description: Munay is a Bolivian fashion brand, specialised in the design and production of clothing and accessories with a Bolivian touch. Thinking of getting a t-shirt with a colourful cholita print? Or maybe one featuring an old bus from La Paz? Munay is the place to find the perfect item that will match your style.
Address: Linares street #956
Opening hours: 9:30-18:30
Photo: Munay Outfit Design
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RESTAURANTS
LUPITO COCINA VEGANA
Description: Heart warmingly named after a rescue dog, Lupito is more than just a restaurant; it is a community project founded on the principles of ‘ethics, love and respect for all species.’ They offer a wide range of affordable vegan cuisine fusing global influences and Bolivian flavours. The relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff make this a hidden gem in Sopocachi.
Address: Cardón street #14
Opening hours: Monday-Saturday 12:00-14:30, Wednesday-Friday 18:00-21:00
Photo: Amelia Swaby
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CULTURE/EDUCATION
INSTITUTO EXCLUSIVO
Description: They offer language classes from beginner to advanced levels. Classes are individual or in groups of maximum 4 students. Timetables are flexible, each student can organise their classes according to their times. They also offer immersion courses to learn to communicate in various situations of daily life.
Website: www.institutoexclusivo.com
Opening hours: 8:00-21:00 from Monday to Friday
Address: Av.20 de Octubre 2315, Edificio Mechita, primer piso. Sopocachi-La Paz
Photos: Joshua Neaman
Scenes from the teleférico
As the longest cable-car mass-transit system in the world, the teleférico not only changed the way people of La Paz and El Also commute, but also the way they perceive their own city and fellow inhabitants. The topography of La Paz made it difficult in the past to navigate between neighbourhoods. This sense of disconnect has been promoted by centuries of informal segregation that has created a city with very strong cleavages between classes and very little social and urban mobility.
Until now.
It’s now possible to travel from El Alto to Irpavi in under 40 minutes – a journey three times as long in a minibus – two worlds as far apart from each other as one can imagine within one metropolis. There are some people from Zona Sur who have never stepped foot in El Alto, and vice versa. By linking physical geographical zones, the teleferico connects social, urban and cultural groups and opens a door to inclusion, mixing and a possible structural change to the foundations of a society.
It may seem naive to think that by simply creating a physical bridge between two worlds it is possible to connect them and that everyone will start liking each other, but one has to start somewhere. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for the backlash. Back in 2015, pictures of alteños sitting on the floor of the Megacenter unleashed racial insults and comments on social media.
La Paz is still recovering from the damages done by the colonisation and racial discrimination which created a city with a de facto apartheid structure. It is too early to assess how the teleférico is changing the city and how long it will take to overcome these barriers, but it is a first step and, if anything, a space for discussion now exists.
Photos: Lola Newell
A curious exhibition becomes a family tradition
Tucked away in Sopocachi, La Paz, the Museo de las Muñecas (Doll Museum) is a unique and curious museum that’s much more than a collection of children’s toys. It was founded in 2009 by Elsa Paredes de Salazar and her daughter Roxana Salazar in their old family home. The museum was a dream come true for Elsa, who had been collecting dolls her whole life.
Roxana described how her mother ‘liked dolls, but it was the traditional dress, the typical clothing, the people from different regions, different countries, different cultures that really grabbed her attention.’ For Elsa, these dolls served an almost anthropological purpose because they were representations of how people dressed. The collection upstairs, which is spread over two relatively small rooms, is filled with dolls that represent every corner of the globe. The first room explores the vast history and tradition of Bolivian dress, in particular what’s worn for different dances and celebrations. These were Elsa’s favourites because, as Roxana described, she ‘really loved the clothing of the Bolivian dolls.’ Elsa even took a course and learnt how to make the doll costumes herself. The dolls have beautiful and intricate outfits which are worn for dances such as the diablada, a dance between the Archangel Michael and Lucifer that represents the triumph of good over evil. More everyday Bolivian dress is also represented, such as what’s traditionally worn by cholitas – a full skirt, colourful shawl and high bowler hat. The collection gives visitors insight into the vast and rich history of Bolivian clothing, something they’d be hard-pushed to find in such detail in one place anywhere else in La Paz.
The collection gives visitors insight into the vast and rich history of Bolivian clothing.
The collection then moves on to other American countries. Traditional and colourful clothing from Argentina to Mexico is represented in great detail and precision. It’s quite beautiful to see both the similarities and the differences between the dolls’ clothing on display. After the Americas the collection heads to Europe, with everything from Spanish flamenco dancers to Scottish kilt wearers. Then finally on to Asia and Oceania. The whole collection demonstrates how much a nation’s identity is tied up in its clothing, and visitors will easily recognise which country each doll represents even before reading the description.
Elsa’s passion for dolls was described by Roxana as something inherent within her, which materialised when her godmother gifted her one small porcelain doll and two other dolls which were, as Roxana described, ‘very indigenous in the most artisanal way.’ For Elsa, it was more than a love of playing with dolls; Roxana described how ‘in her child’s mind, more than 80 years ago, Elsa saw the differences [in the dolls], she saw the ethnic part, she saw their essence.’ This childhood fascination lead Elsa on a lifelong investigation into Bolivian folklore and ethnology. She wrote a book on the subject called Presencia de nuestro pueblo, in which she explored the history of traditional Bolivian dress and its importance as a form of identity.
Being a researcher of Bolivian folklore and ethnology was just one string on Elsa’s bow. After becoming one of the first women to attend university in Bolivia, she graduated as a dental surgeon and went on to work treating employees at one of the biggest mining companies in La Paz at the time. Her father was not enthused about her twice-monthly visits to the mines, but that never deterred her; she travelled there with her mother or sister as a chaperone, and Roxana explained how she soon started earning more than her father. This experience, along with her university education and the many female-equality movements in other countries at the time, led Elsa to become a strong advocate for female equality. Roxana remembered how her mother would say, ‘Women are equal to men; they can and they should [be treated the same].’
Elsa founded many organisations to promote female equality and also wrote two books about women: the Diccionario biográfico de la mujer boliviana, the first book of its kind, in which she highlighted and celebrated different Bolivian woman who had excelled in life, and La mujer y su época, which explored the important role of women during different historical eras. Elsa was, as Roxana described, ‘a pioneer’, and it was her commanding and imposing nature that allowed her to achieve so much. Elsa had ‘a very strong mind and always said what she thought, she always spoke directly,’ Roxana said, but everyone remembered her with ‘a lot of affection and admiration.’ Roxana also recalled how Elsa was a strict mother who always wanted the best schooling for her children, because having a good education was so important to her. Roxana explained that it was ‘one of the most important examples that [she had] taken from her.’
Roxana Salazar has continued to run the museum and uphold her mother’s, and now her family’s, legacy.
The passion that Elsa had for dolls was something that Roxana never used to share. It was only when she rediscovered her childhood dolls and felt ‘such a strong emotion’ that she began to understand her mother’s love of dolls. Since Elsa’s passing in 2013, Roxana has continued to run the museum and uphold her mother’s, and now her family’s, legacy.
In November there will be the third instalment of the ‘100 Years of Dolls’ exhibition, focusing on famous brands and wedding dolls. The museum is open Tuesday and Thursday from four until seven.
