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Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Postmulticultural Bolivia

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Nancy Grey Postero's Now We Are Citizens is a tremendous contribution to Latin American and indigenous studies. Situating the political struggles of Santa Cruz's Guarani Indians within a larger historical and political context of indigenous-state relations in Bolivia, the author renders comprehensible the largely ineffective multicultural reforms of the 1990s.

Just as earlier efforts by the Bolivian state to answer the "Indian Question" failed to address the needs of the nation's large and diverse indigenous population, the neoliberal reforms of the 1990s only benefited a small percentage of indigenous subjects who possessed the economic, political, and technical tools to fain a footing in Bolivian civil society. Most indigenous subjects, however, felt that they had been "left out" of the country's democratizing processes. This resulted in a series of movements beginning in the early 21st century in which indigenous Bolivians, allied with other popular sectors, began demanding the citizenship rights that these reforms were supposed to have guaranteed them. As Postero illustrates, this new, "postmulticulturalist" moment in Bolivian history may serve as an exemplary political model for other native groups in the Americas, for in Bolivia it led to the 2005 election of indigenous leader Evo Morales as president.

Skillfully written and wonderfully engaging, Now We Are Citizens promises to be an important source for both the academic specialist as well as anyone interested in making sense of Bolivia's complex political and cultural history.