From Bolivar to Katari : indigenous representations in the legislative assembly of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, 2012

The purpose of this research is to discover the new symbols and new histories that are being constructed in the Plurinational State of Bolivia on 2012. The Legislature is the main stage where the research takes place and where the new actors interact on a yet unfamiliar zone. Equally important are the tensions that arise in the building of a new discourse that aims at breaking with homogenizing and exclusionary practices of the state. The unprecedented presence of indigenous people in the Legislature has ambivalent effects for the state and the indigenous communities. The thesis aims at uncovering these effects through the analysis of discourse, symbolic representations, and quotidian political practices.