It’s February, and it’s time for Alasita. Welcome to the toy-town of Bolivian beliefs, and a uniquely An- dean New Year festivity. Alasita, the annual miniature models fair in La Paz, is a joyous and lively celebration that both encapsulates Bolivians’ diverse past and, many believe, holds the key to their future. The word ’Alasita’ derives from the Aymara language, meaning ’buy me‘, and, as Patrick Dowling investigates on p10, the fair is characterised by commerce in miniatures of all kinds. But it doesn’t end there. Eating well is an equally important festival feature, which Helena Cavell indulges in on p18. Nevertheless (and not unlike Christmas), beyond the consumption of all things material and culinary there is a deeper spiritual tradition at work. The festival’s origins are in part symbolised through the Santa Claus–like figure of the Ekeko, an Andean god whose significance is explored by Matthew Grace on p8.

But is it really just Andean belief? Controversy surrounds the interpretation of contemporary Bolivian customs that are the result of Andean and Catholic syncretism. Alasita and the Ekeko legend would not be complete without reference to the role that the Spanish invaders played in shaping these traditions. The extent to which the belief systems have become amalgamated is illustrated by Patrick Dowling’s investigation into the Bolivian Virgin Mary on p6. Some post-colonial cultural theorists are worried by that fact that many modern practices, which today are simply accepted as Bolivian, are in fact the result of a legacy of suppression that has quashed the original Andean customs. Camilla Swift takes a look at one these practices, that of the Bolivian Kallawayas, or traditional healers (p4), who only recently have been able to live a fragile revival.

Nonetheless, it seems simplistic to reduce modern Bolivian culture to ’pure‘ or original beliefs versus bas-tardised customs. Bolivia today is a country that has developed away from the inferiority complex of the colonised: Alasita and the Ekeko are not Spanish traditions. In Spain, New Year’s resolutions are made whilst eating 12 grapes at each clock stroke of midnight. In Bolivia, the purchasing of miniature models at Alasita Fair gives material reality to people’s hopes for the year to come. Alasita is not about squabbling over entangled origins, but about new resolve and faith in the future.