‘Bolivia es una sola montaña.’ Notes on the Discourses and Representations of Nation Deployed by MAS Government During 2009

Abstract

Towards the middle of the 1930s, the narrative of ‘país de contactos’ consolidated in Bolivia as formal geopolitical doctrine, which relied on the ideas of the nineteenth-century thinkers of territory. Among them was Jaime Mendoza Gonzáles, who claimed that the Andes constituted ‘the basis substrate’ of the Bolivian nationality. The main objective of this paper is to deepen the understanding and clarify elements contained in this discursive device as well as analyze its persistence and impact on the rhetoric of MAS government. Specifically, this work will observe in which way the notions that served as the basis of the narrative of ‘país de contactos’ pressed on the historical memory projected by MAS government during the inauguration of ‘Bicentenario de los Pueblos’ in 2009, giving rise to an idea of Bolivia which would seem to stumble toward the official intention of spreading and integrating the nation as a plurinational one.