Albro Llunkerio

Indigenous Politics In Bolivia's Evo Era: Clientelism, Llunkero, And The Problem of Stigma
Author(s): Robert Albro

Source: Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic
Development, Vol. 36, No. 3, Power, Indigeneity, Economic Development and Politics in
Contemporary Bolivia (FALL, 2007), pp. 281-320
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Indigenous Politics
In Bolivia's Evo Era:
Clientelism, Llunkerio,
And The Problem of Stigma
Robert Albro
School of International Service
American University
ABSTRACT: This article offers an analysis of the cultural

construction of patronage-clientage relations in Quillacollo,
Bolivia, since the return of democracy and in a political climate of
new social and indigenous movements dedicated to breaking with
the vertical politics of the past, which equated indigenous political
participation with clientage. I consider local accounts of the
practices of notoriously bad clients called Hunk' us, a stigmatizing
insult referring to self-serving, even corrupt, political conduct.
This argument pursues the implications of stigma, as it operates
in Quillacollo' s political theater. I consider how the stigmatization
of dangerous clients is part of a cultural politics that connects
expressions of social hierarchy to assertions of unitary indigenous
identity, which promotes a patrolling of the borders of indigenous
political projects by activists. The exclusivity of cultural belonging
this promotes undermines the kinds of indigenous-popular
coalition building crucial to the success of the political movement
of Bolivia's current indigenous president, Evo Morales.
281
ISSN 0894-6019, 2007 The Institute, Inc.
282
"The inferior man is a human anima

mentality is possessed of the conden
that constitute the 'soul of the spe
imitation impedes him in adaptin
in which he lives. His personality
contemporary level, as he lives ben
dominant cultures, and in many ca
Jose Ingenieros, EL HOMB
"In every man there is the possibility

exact, of his becoming once ag
Octavio Paz, THE LABYRINTH OF SOLITUDE
In a recent public forum concerned with Bolivia's surpris-

ing withdrawal from the World Bank-sanctioned international
process for the arbitration of investment disputes, Pablo Soln
(a well-known non-indigenous economist, social movement
activist, and current charge d'affaires for trade with Bolivia's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs) offered a now standard remark
about the country's president, Evo Morales: "Bolivia," he
prefaced his comments, "is at a key moment. For the first time
in its republican history, we have a president that comes from
the indigenous sector, who is the majority."1 Solon's remark
(framing a discussion of Bolivia's efforts to get out from un-
der the agenda of global financial institutions in terms of the
country's indigenous turn) is a typical formulation expressed
by the current Morales and MAS (Movement Toward Social-
ism) administration. In fact, among both supporters and de-
tractors, the Morales presidency has been widely understood
as a watershed event and historical crossroads for Bolivia, and
perhaps for Latin America and the Global South.
This crossroads is most often represented by the Morales
administration's turn away from a strictly neoliberal policy,
Albro: INDIGENOUS POLITICS IN BOLIVIA
rejection of the "politics as usual"

ing, restoration of national sove
pressures of economic globalizat
the political needs, recognition,
indigenous and popular majori
called, has been regularly fete
domestically, for his indigenou
literally epitomize and politically
of Bolivia's long-suffering indig
Albo 2006; Albro 2006a; Canessa
the goal of indigenous participat
very nature of political represen
it was before, including the way
perform their duties, and are he
indigenous constituencies.
Since the Revolution of 1952, the
participation of primarily indig
had been as a rural power base
national leaders (see Dandier 19
2000). They were valuable mostly
facture popular voting blocs. In
"runas on trucks,"2 as my coun
them,3 were routinely transport
vote en masse as a way to main
ernments in power. Indigenous l
and as valuable clients to nationa
portant, their participation was
of a vertical national system o
power brokers or policy archit
occasional beneficiaries of state
state largesse.
Local politicos with whom I wo
of the 1990s, and who also mad
indigenous descent, often voiced
the vertical politics of the past."
284
post-1952 patronage politics with t

identity in a fashion consistent w
autonomy so basic to the efforts o
ments from the 1970s through th
Ticona 2000). The rejection of eli
patronage has complemented the g
linked cornerstones of indigenous
for a long time.4
Breaking with vertical politics is
the Evo era on the national level, a
ity which is now dominated by M
the MAS, however, has been achiev
construction of new indigenous-po
as alternatives to the status quo of
have argued elsewhere (Albro 2005
tive coalition-building, the MAS h
of indigenous inclusiveness, and h
ties more central to national gover
coalitions also has had the effect o
of indigenous identity harder to lo
enous activists. This creates a potenti
where indigenous identity begin
project of autonomy becomes hard
Here I consider how people discu
in Quillacollo. I examine in detail t
fundamental dimension of politica
provincial capital. I am particularly
attached to regular accusations of
who people understand to be a pro
gerous client. As I develop here, llu
and stigmatized for their transgre
to be indigenous clients who em
sensibilities of non-indigenous pat
amounts to the accusation of break
identity as a well-defined categori
Albro: INDIGENOUS POLITICS IN BOLIVIA 285
derwriting the goal of political autonom

heart of indigenous activism in Bolivia
hemisphere.
As I suggest here, the problem of stigma is largely gener-
ated by the unitary assumption of indigenous identity that
underwrites the accusation of llunk'u, an assumption leaving
little room for recognition of the coalitional relationships so
important to the MAS' s political project. This analysis, then,
pursues how an explicitly cultural politics of indigenous em-
powerment remains in tension (and even at odds) with the
coalition-driven sources of indigenous political power in con-
temporary Bolivia. To this end, I examine entrenched symbol
talk about gender in Bolivia, as applied to stigmatized popular
masculinity in the mode of llunk'u, as a type of cultural account
of clientelistic political relationships, which I understand to be
a deeply problematic legacy of indigenous politics inherited
by Evo and the MAS.
Of the Patron and Personality
Quillacollo, as a provincial capital, is a town where only a

few decades earlier people would have interacted primarily in
the terms of such then prevailing distinctions as between the ur-
ban gente decente (town dwelling mestizos) and rural campesinos
(small scale farmers), expressed through well-defined roles and
expectations of patronage and clientage. If moral valuations of
the supposed relationships between these terms continue both
to circulate and inform local discourse, the ongoing dissolu-
tion of traditional boundaries between city and country, indio
and mestizo, the popular or the elite, Spanish and Quechua,
has also dislocated any presumption of a transparent ease of
interpersonal reference in such terms.
Nevertheless, verbalized judgments and criticisms of others
often seem to rely on the presumption of a traditional classifica-
286
tory hierarchy. This includes a pub

given to the possession and project
"personality" (personalidad), largely
recognizable formacin (upbringing
tinct from the corrupt sensibilities o
yet formally comparable appeals to
the cult of well-defined personality
macin in various status-defining s
elite social life and composing th
relations, including those of family
church, and political party, statuse
ingly displaced as constituting so
the years following the 1952 Revol
Personality is also often used in
continuity of such collective identi
culture, thought to be under severe
stantial in-migration. This "region
with signature features of local qho
larlized as a folkloric object. It is re
conversation, and journalism as a pa
is, a kind of birthright of sons from
rimony" (patrimonio), as something "
[padres]" (Zelada 2001), is a part of
commensurability of cultural tradi
an important and essential wellspr
ultimately enshrined in the patria (
mony is also projected as a persona
How do people talk about havin
complaint by a town mayor comm
The problem as well is that [his riva

sort of manipulation. I dare say that
defined personality... His derring do,
him come out with certain views which aren't the fruit of
knowledge.
This is an indirect way of asser

of the subject. And here we find
other local politician reflecting
suspiciously associated with polt
This is an example of the fragility

There is no formacin, no transp
are devices to gain notoriety... B
effectiveness and don't gain cre
affinity, either through tradition, or
their ideology.
As they are excoriated, this fra

fined personality serve as an imp
The "audacity" of llunk'u artists
from that which typically prov
tradition, family, or political i
what sociologists like to call ascr
the reasoning, is defined by the
defined identity.
The trilogy of values mentio
rehearses those of the erstwhile
pre-1952 elite, where at least h
tions could be publicly indulge
clear that those lacking formaci
public self) are also imagined to
to fall victim to moral uncertain
personality are singled out as pract
also victims of manipulation. Llu
of positively ascribed status, bu
activities of llunkerio.
The notion o formacin, as synonymous with such terms as
preparacin, certainly carries assumptions of status. Difficult to
translate into English, formacin might be employed to refer to
a "proper" upbringing as a child in a well-known local fam-
ily counting itself as part of a provincial elite (a meaning that
288
would have been much more like

it is also routinely used to refer t
tion, such as a degree (and the righ
the same time, formacin is the t
explain their working mastery of
time served in a political career wi
tion. It might even be used to de
adeptness for public speaking. In
be a basic reference to one's sense o
known detractors (e. g., "Yo tengo m
a claim of dignity (with due respec
a claim of unswerving loyalty to o
elite or popular), with personality t
lo que soy I"). In my experience the
conjunction with personality as a
personality.
Men with personality are able to use their ancestral claim
to reject the machinations of clientage. A past regional caci-
que criticized such an attempted subordination, saying: "No
one controls me. I have my convictions, and I will not betray
the soul of my father " (Rivas 2000: 59). A recent town mayor
similarly complained about his detractors: "Sometimes they
disparage me. But I have my roots/7 When asked to consider
whether he has changed through life at all, a local politician
readily acknowledged such changes (primarily in terms of
the external trappings of social mobility). Yet he hastened to
add:
But deep inside, that is, in the depth of my personality,

there exists the attitude that I shouldn't separate myself
from what I was before. Because this would be to reject
my origin, to reject my family, and to reject as well what
amounted to my education in the first years of life.
Male dignity, then, is expressed in claims of fateful, usually

genealogical, continuity with one's social origin, as a personal
patrimony. In Quillacollo's realpo

prior career meaningfully fram
own, as a potential member of th
families" (see Albro 2001a). Depth
with the idea of formacin, and
to the "interiority" of the moder
also commensurate with the clai
essentialist mode, and the goal o
Even when criticized, the equati
with personality is treated as an
as an inevitably established prec
to the social folly of the macho c
What a sad and stupid opinion w

It seems that a child can only b
traveling a road of blows and br
forming a strong and powerful p
2001).
An ambivalent or unknown origin is not part of this con-

struct of the personal present through a decisive past. Any
behind-the-scenes maneuvering might receive a similarly
gendered censure. When former clients secretly tried to defect
and to found a new party nucleus, the then-head of the local
party is reported by his wife to have grabbed a pistol, and
stormed out to confront them with the words, 'Til teach them
to be macho!" As a symbolic currency, then, personality tries
to commonsensically establish the source of its own authority,
as a precedent that is elaborated in the relation of father to son
or patron to client, that is, in the elision of social origin with
the cultural trappings of patronage.
In Quillacollo in this sense the word "respect" marks off
the claims of genuine culture (if imagined to originate from
traditional town-dwelling gente decente) from a variety of cor-
rupt contemporary versions, including perceived newer neolib-
eral cultural sensibilities to pursue self-interested agendas. In
290
ways similar to de la Cadena' s ana

"respect" is a critical indicator of m
culturally conceived cleavage divid
(2000: 219). In just this way in Qui
asserts a publicly legitimate moral
personality, while the llunk'u sugg
behind-the-scenes) and illegitima
corruption.
This cultural paternalism, with it
patrimonial continuity, serves as pre
by would-be patrons about untrust
"Fragility of personality," as is oft
of the universe of the infamous ch
ban Indian), who more easily embr
perceived faithlessness is often in
than masculine. As such, popular m
dismissed as lloqhallas (Quechua: st
not be taken seriously, and do not
are supposed to have dishonorab
often through some llunk'u-'ike p
therefore, shiftless clients and disr
"Nowadays sons throw dirt on [sac
A subtext of the frequent laments
more apt to disavow adherence t
patronage relations.
Personality seeks the authority of
ers "lack personality," while goo
word" (pedir la palabra) and make su
la palabra) often. Authoritative wo
ently representative. The successfu
direct equation of words with the i
of the symbolic capital of personal
speak de frente (man to man), whil
de las cortinas (behind the scenes).
male language use is apparent in
"No one talks to so-and-so de frente. Th

wear the pants!" Similarly, a friend extolle
ing "simply one time" in public meeti
important to define whatever. If one talk
this is chaku talk [Quechua: a lack of con
one believes him. In this way he loses hi
Personality, in this case, is a transparenc
of meaning with words. If such a close co
and meanings is indicative, then the idiom
ogy of patronage celebrates the referential
where the symbol of "personality" is itse
lexicon of patronage.
Personality, it must be noted, does no
here to the public signs of the unique in
Greenblatt's (1980) notion of "self -fash
not inform the projection of "personalit
term is itself a deeply engendered cultur
public expression of patronal values, of
the region's "paternal absolutism" (Lars
expression of traditional expectations of
way the semiotic complement to the un
dictability and the transgression typical
There are, nevertheless, formal affini
between the modern subject and a domin
of masculinity in Quillacollo. Personality
unitary gender code marking out what
than what they actually do), and work
for a publicly valuable gender myth.
demonstrations of agency as a sign of m
as suggested in a eulogy for Bolivian ex-
Estenssoro, aptly titled "The Role of Per
The eulogy discusses Bolivia's greatest po
"the silhouette projected from the depths '
scene" (Velasco Romero 2001). Such a com
would never trade in his own self-respe
292
justice, even if he is also "everywhe

pckovic 2001). Among other things, m
act to bring the potential for llunker
it cannot be the other way around.
marks out a male territory for the
and role to the imagined gender or
"self as the ground of human exist
As with the modern subject, in Qu
resented by the institution of patro
as the source of its own authority.
"Personality" is strategically in
cultural essence, and marked by
manhood, expressed as "symbols t
(Wagner 1986). These are a contrast
popular clients of traditional p
lacking in this very essence, and
unclear, and potentially dangerou
As an interpretive practice, persona
cipher that promotes an illusion of
worldview over time. Such a practi
of the unified subject of modernity
ground of experience and as "th
(Keane, 2002: 75). Such a self-evid
symbolic labeling is, also, as Roy
(1986: x), "apt to constrain the m
within the naming of meaning
hierarchy, unitary identity, and cu
expressions of patronage, as part o
projects, promote a disempowe
clientelistic politics. This poses a
the MAS, with its plural popular an
to effectively culturally frame its p
Of the Pinche and the Llunk'u
The Quechua term "llunk'u" regularly finds its way into

the code switching of mostly Spanish-speaking people in and
around Quillacollo to characterize shiftless clients. Lara's re-
gionalist dictionary (1971: 161) primarily defines the llunk'u
as a figurative adjectival expression for adulador (sycophant).
In its verb form, llunk'uy, is used synonymously with rebaar
or with arrebaar, that is, "to glean, to gather, or to scrape to-
gether/7 Lara also notes a synonym for llunk'u, the adjective,
which is llajwaj, meaning lamedor, or licker, one who "laps and
licks/7 Though in its verb form, llajway also means "to lick,77 or
"to taste,77 or "to enjoy a mouthful77 (Lara 1971: 153). And as a
noun, llajwa is of course the ubiquitous spicy sauce of ground
aj, a staple at the table for self-respecting Bolivians.
A comprehensive Quechua dictionary by Angel Herbas
Sandoval (1998) makes the connection between "llunk'u" and
"licking77 more explicit. The adjective is given to mean lisonjero,
or "parasitical, flatterer, and wheedler.77 And a second mean-
ing is also listed as lamedura, or "the act and effect of licking.77
Sandoval lists a further form of the verb, llunk'ukiyay, defined
both as "to flatter,77 "to wheedle,77 but also with the Spanish
halagar, that is, "to cajole,77 or "to coax77 (1998: 242). He also
lists a synonym, the verb qhanaymay, defined as "cajoling in
obtaining some end77 (1998: 393). A noun form, qhanayma, is a
"demonstration of cario with gestures.77 This adds a slightly
different emphasis. A qhanaymachi is a person "with some in-
terested proposition, [who] offers praise [alabar] to another.77 Of
course, alabados are the sacramental hymns recited by children
during All Saint's Day, as they go from family altar to family
altar praising the dead to be rewarded with sweets.
In my experience in Quillacollo, llunk'us are always some-
one else, always men (though women also participate in
politics), and already in a clientelistic relationship. The term
llunkerio most typically refers to varieties of dishonorable, usu-
294
ally political, shenanigans of some

Quillacollo insisted to me, the many
age the dignity of men/7 In this w
euphemisms) is among the key w
nomenclature of masculinity in th
rapidly expanding peripheral boo
A cynical, but also playful, disco
ruption of politicians remains a
in Quillacollo, of those deeply in
disengaged from politics. In thi
editorial in the Bolivian newspap
suggested the need for a new ki
"human servitude" called "el lluv
Such a fanciful llunk'ometro would measure the enthusiasm
with which Bolivian politicos two-facedly suck up to power-
ful patrons. In the quite self-consciously Machiavellian arena
of provincial politics, where as the saying goes, things are
often decided "between roosters at midnight," the llunk'u is
understood to be a notorious figure, j anus-faced, treacherous,
traitorous, and self-serving. The llunk'u is presented as among
the least redeemable of figures in public Bolivian life, a familiar
fate for popular men.
Among men, then, who counts as a llunk'u? First, llunk'us
are practitioners of so-called poltica criolla. This is creole or
mixed politics, referring as well to the racial, cultural, and moral
miscegenation originating with the Conquest, at best a local
brand of realpolitik, and at worst loudly condemned as morally
suspect or corrupt behavior. In the words of one local political
type describing a close associate, a llunk'u "is superlatively
clever [es sumamente vivz]' [He] is always on the lookout for
people of weight [gente de peso], as a sycophant [adulador] who
often acts indirectly [soslaya]." This makes one thing clear: A
llunk'u-like stance describes the attitude of a client, with regard
to a patron. This suggests that such disrespectful and disdained
male identities are also typically already inscribed within a
social dyad of patrn-pinche (loo

frequent synonym for llunk'u is la
need only think of English equiva
"boot licker" to get the idea. But
also makes clear the competitive p
and so, the potential instability of
Llunkerio, as a classifiable sort of
situations. A prototypical situation
Two erstwhile insiders in a local p
chuted into another party. Such c
exasperated former fellow militan
party leader, to call them "llunk'u
double-edged, that is, two-faced
betrayal is the political informer,
whoremonger), or in Quechua, p
as someone who simultaneously
people, or contrary groups" (Xavie
tion). The alcahuete (or any llunk'u
tive moral conviction for the caus
egoismo or yoismo. Llunk'us employ
political analyst Fernando Mayorg
the strategies of recent neopopular
The llunk'u, then, lacks ideologica
political winds, which in Bolivian
pasa. Anyone who selfishly plays
one face publicly while nursing se
llunk'u. If a llunk'u is structurally
client aggressively primed to com
Such self-misrepresentation poin
gist F. G. Bailey (1991) has aptly
deceit" in politics, which can take
outright lie, or a less public dissim
virtue masking self-interest are an
picions of llunkerio. Such is the c
local distinction people make betw
296
dres" and "compadres de inters'' (A

If the former traditionally instit
mutual respect, the latter is done for
in order to "grease the wheel" with
ties de inters, one is told, are devo
attachment," and such a compadre
tables and "screw you" (joderte). On
(the hyper-individualist cholos the
spiritual depth defined through id
strategies of respect and self-interest
when people talk about ritual kinsh
Another llunkerio is the highly e
lacollo, allegorical equation betwe
adultery, best illustrated with the
mantic entanglement). Politics, of c
in the terms of the aventura, and p
licly called to dance the cueca, a tr
An instance of graft might also be
woman's pollera "to taste the dish
of aventuras often figure literally in
the surefire political tactic of getti
any potential patron) laid. Even if o
quires "sacrificing" (not my word c
or negra (not one's wife), to the cau
But this allegory also points to
ties. It is commonplace that in pub
descent will proclaim the virtues of
and traditionalist chola cochabambi
should never switch from pollera to W
even insist on their own "humble o
ing, "I am of the pollera/' In fact p
of women de pollera are de rigeur
politician in Quillacollo (Albro 2000
men routinely seek private liaisons
sified as cambas, or rubias, often in c
brothels, or to round off a viernes

out) (see Paulson, this issue). In pu
be disparaged as khuchi warmis (
such relationships with white p
consummated, talking about the
is typically folkloric fantasy. As ad
exploited political allegory expre
ambivalence, and is a familiar se
of llunkerio. Peoples7 political ex
as regularly moving within an
indigenous modes of cultural ex
prevailing fact of politics in Qui
the way indigenous identity has
the cultural politics of Bolivia's
The Identity Problem
I recall the response of a man,

who when confronted by a ragge
response: "Ama sua, ama Hulla, am
famous Inca maxim of "never ste
had pointedly added, "never flatt
cal agrarian union leader told me
the union, including his rivalry
was not a "true campesino" (a wa
identity in rural Cochabamba)
trying to cash in on his leadersh
"las bases." It was well known th
not earn a living from working in
a chichera (a watering hole, a pr
manipulations). So he was unfit f
leader because he was unrepres
a point the dirigente made by is
the loaded question, "How do y
298
then, might also be anyone unlike

to want something for nothing, or
his "daily bread" with his own swe
The following is a field note glos
with the man who shot down the p
trade. The note begins:
He feels a part of the populacho [po

example, in contrast to a typical pol
described how "when we eat with a ca
papa wayku [a type of potato], otherw
Polticos, in contrast, "live by lies." But
your own works, then "one forgets h
neighbors."
As I was told on many occasions,

or "in our culture people who don
no value." The familiar conviction
often voiced in Quillacollo, echoe
Agrarian Reform: "La tierra es para
for those who work it]. If Hunk' u
"in the campo we live from what
these cross both class and political
this same manner, the toiling "Boli
trabajador) traditionally has been
political pamphlets circulated by
spirit we have this remarkable pro
published in a book compiled by
El pas machista:
Here is an aspect of modern life: th

in the street, in the office, in the highe
in the government, wherever he want
does he do?
He works!
For who?
For his woman, for his children, for his home!
And the woman talks still of slavery! (

53).
Male value is exhibited through a transparency of the direct

correspondence in kind between physical labor and the fruits
of labor (like Marx's "use values'7). This is what Nancy Fraser
(1989: 124) has called the "masculine subtext of the worker
role." But for our purposes, and in marked contrast to llunkerio,
work (as a social practice of transparent correspondences)
further defines a stance of public clarity of male self-defini-
tion, as farmer, as worker, and apparently even as a successful
industrialist. Such clarity of self-definition publicly reinscribes
traditional understandings of the relationship between patron
and client respectively, as it insists upon visible evidence for
the recognized roles of each.
Linking works to words as proofs of personal transparency
is a primary diacritic for the dismissal of llunkerio. While "see-
ing is believing [las obras entran por los ojos]/' political patrons
"make promises they don't keep [promesan pero no cumplen]."
llunk'u politicians are often condemned for a lack of commit-
ment to their own words, a failure felt to be epitomized by the
figure of the cholo. Consider this note about a peasant leader
shaking his head over the characteristic doings of a longtime
cholo rival:
Campesinos speak a "true Quechua/7 Cholos talk more

and say less, so to speak. They are linguistically slippery.
Illustrating this point, he laughingly claims that for every
one word he speaks, [his rival] would speak ten. His rival's
son... is worse still, averaging fifteen words to every one
of his own. "The cholo is a braggart/' he added.
Self-serving rhetoric and words not particularly bound to

their objects, such as tall tales by local authorities about prom-
ised works or goods never to materialize, are considered stock
in trade of the llunkerio of cholos. As I was dismissively told,
300
'Their attitudes are tremendous! Th

where there are no rivers!" The Hu
guage as his own end, "simply to shoo
para pistolear or disparar]/' And this
fully speaking de frente (face-to-face
speaking and politics in his memoir
man from Quillacollo approvingly r
ts no quita lo valiente" (Rivas 2000:
cannot replace real character. And w
valientes (men with character), cho
is that if ornamental language migh
is no substitute for the valor or value of self-worth.
These interconnected ideas inform a pervasive attitude
about cholo speech as uttering mostly "pendejadas" (loosely,
"tricky stories" or "silly stories"). One example is a complaint
appearing in LOS TIEMPOS, the regional newspaper, about the
indigenous leader, "Mallku" (Aymara: Condor), described by
the author as a "cholo vivo" and as a "cholo pendejo" (that is, a
"tricky" or "stupid cholo"). The outraged commentator begins
with a criticism of Mallku' s confrontational form of public
speaking, which the author dismisses as pendejadas:
The pendejada is a meeting of deceits carried to the

extreme, that is trickery [picarda]. The pendejada is an at-
titude contrary to that of the gentleman [caballero]. And if
honor defines the gentleman, what defines the pendejo?
Dishonor. Dishonor animates the pendejada. And dishonor
signifies a broken promise. Not honoring the given word.
And the given word is the essence of the social pact among
free men (Surez vila 2002: 1).
This ringing condemnation asserts the desirability of

transparency between a respected public masculinity (such
as "gentlemanliness") and "the given word." Speaking their
pendejadas, these cholos are accused of trickiness, of cooking
up corruption behind the scenes. As a feature of poltica criolla,
the picarda of cholos is emphasized her

political types to distance themselves fro
morally suspect underbelly of popular
that is felt to be somehow misrepresenta
the source of a disconnect attributed to cholos between words
and their referents. It also suggests the difficulties for men of
popular descent of signifying a unitary identity using referen-
tial symbols of the dominant gender ideology of patronage.
The linguistic expression of this moral suspicion of cholos
as llunk'us is a denial of their public access to propositional
signs of language. Their words are suspicious because of a felt
lack of correspondence to their apparent objects or referents.6
In this sense, cholos only play language-games, where the
evident linguistic object is hidden, displaced, or nonexistent.
In comparable fashion, in his discussion of "sincerity" as a
fundamental dimension of the language ideology of Protes-
tant conversion, Webb Keane emphasizes how the "modern
subject" seeks out the authority of words as a form of "public
accountability" (2002: 75). This is in conspicuous contrast to
Bolivian cholos, whose tricky use of language makes them
unreliable moderns.
These cases of public dissimulation, such as the uneasy co-
existence of cultural strategies (between the stances of "respect"
and "self-interest") for ritual compadres or the allegorical am-
bivalence of the aventura, could be multiplied here: the scourge
of illegal land speculation, accusations of embezzlement, or
even the double entendre of joking (such as with the rhyming
couplets sung during Todos Santos), and the like. Such cases
make it clear that llunk'us adopt self-conscious and multiple
stances of cultural interpretation: from respectful to disrespect-
ful, from public to intimate, or from straight up to ironic. As
critics of llunkerio also make apparent, their transgressions of
the boundaries of any straightforward cultural identity are
viewed with suspicion. Cholos (popular men) are not transpar-
ently self-evident. Their works, their words, and their inten-
302
tions fly in the face of the glassy

many respects. From the point of
(as provincial elites), popular me
symbolized, they are immoral.
To explore the meanings of llunk
production of political subjects acr
(or from within the patrn-pinch
textualization of patron-client rela
the stigmatized underside of publi
client to the morally upright pat
the patron's point of view, the ma
"backstage" (Goffman, 1959: 112) (a
own purview) involving parenthet
political networks to manipulate e
lunk'us as aggressive, tricky, and
the semantics of llunkerio fill out
the stigmatized cholo. At the same
of clientage behavior (of "licking,"
"cajoling," "coaxing," and "praisi
sages, where clients move betwee
cultural domains.
Gender, Hierarchy and the Nation
While in Bolivia women are participating in politics in

ever larger numbers, patronage is nonetheless perceived to
be a heavily male-gendered activity in Quillacollo. We cannot
treat vertical relationships of patronage or clientage as simply
politically expedient, however, without also recognizing that
they articulate pervasive and symbolic expressions of hierar-
chy, as cultural capital. In Bolivia, patron-client ties are part of
interrelated constructions of race, gender, class, culture, and
especially national identity. Symbolic hierarchy is one basic
part of the cultural articulation of clientage. And as caught up
in prevailing notions of gender a

hard to dislodge. In Bolivia, elite
have been historically invested w
and indigenous conceptions of
Rivera 1993; Dillon and Abercr
distinctions compose a hierarch
identity, where a male-coded "
with the political class and from
by a more locally and culturally
from below (e. g., Harris 2000),
male. As de la Cadena (2000) has
women are routinely taken to b
For Bolivia, Paulson and Calla
with which policymakers have
gender and ethnicity in the b
(2000: 119). The authors point to
insertion of ethnicity into gend
Andes: a preconceived commitm
tarity" as purportedly basic to
specific symbolic aspects of Ande
the reversal of polarities for mal
nation building. In contrast to th
they note how constructions of
are often used to stand in as the
the "Andean nation" as culturally
obscure their relationship to othe
discussion, see Paulson 2006).
A good illustration of this is
woman who wears the signatur
now as a positive symbol of reg
In the provincial capital of Quill
argot includes the town's female
Urkupia, as a symbol of fecund
of "national integration." At the
is regularly invoked by politicia
304
and writers as a "symbol of the va

culture,6 and as such, widely depict
folkloric dances, and literature (se
same time, indigenous intellectua
of the pollera as a symbol of resis
embrace Western culture" (Stephen
the chola is used to patrol the hiera
the uniquely Andean.
The chola is promoted in Bolivia
and indigenous intellectuals to an
accounts of Bolivian nationhood.
chola as an important new polit
recent support in the widely publ
pollera as front line "water warrio
pelting riot police with rocks.7 I
the new prominence of female coc
pollera- wearing MAS deputies, chola
and cholas appointed to occupy n
administration. These are each in
used for asserting distinctiveness,
cal inequality. For the Evo era, how
hierarchy has been foregrounded (
of grassroots social movements) as
indigenous political project. Yet, hie
distinctiveness to indigenous client
of the current political climate, as
Chola of Chavez" (graffiti visible th
Santa Cruz critically referencing t
relationship to Venezuela's Hugo
The chola' s male counterpart, the c
public profile. The creole nation tak
male patria, while the multicultura
tive symbol of the female chola. Her
is publicly depicted in uniformly n
onymous with popular masculinity
adequately indigenous nor acce

stigmatized figure that also thre
indigenous symbolic constructio
Most important for present conc
most artful and regular practitio
Unlike the often strategically e
the cholo is an ill-defined villain
Ingenieros's El hombre mediocre
article, the "mediocrity" of the c
lack of positive identification as
cholo is a near universal slur used
mendacious, and boundary-trans
indigenous descent. Such a pub
masculinity, it turns out, is wi
gender in Latin America, where
Most famously, this gallery has
(Hobsbawm 1959), "rogues" (Da
(Paredes 1958), machos (Guttman
1961), drug dealers (Bourgois 1
and in the Andes, cholos: neithe
bumpkins, urban migrants, untr
terested, and probably corrupt.
Recent research on gender in th
reinforcing sociopolitical, intelle
of the symbolic construction of
symbolic constructions by linkin
duction of social inequality and
Gill 1994; Seligmann 2004; Step
Weismantel 2001). An importan
the critical reappraisal of an ear
scholarship on gender, which, in t
139), asserted the fact of a "pecu
tem." As such, the cultural const
to distinguish Andean from non
However, this newer generation
306
placed the symbolic construction o

der system in its own context of pr
used in diverse efforts of Andean
liberal use of indigenous cultural c
descriptive of the present MAS adm
But if symbolic representatio
routinely deconstructed by scholar
popular men have rarely been give
ticularly in the context of successiv
of national identity, cholos are at
female counterparts, while also refl
of patrn and patria, if in stigmatize
words, the stigma attached to chol
tion: neither adequately indigenous
consistently, cholo-like sensibilities
arrangements criticized in the term
The problem of the llunk'u points
assumptions that inform the unitar
of elite but also of traditional indi
Bolivia. These assumptions, with
cultural identity, do not describe th
MAS particularly well.
For popular men, stigma is reinforc
uncritical history of the constructi
or types, like the cholo in Bolivia.
the Andes, I argue, this typecasti
and parcel of the pervasive symbol
this section. The pairing of "gende
forces" (Silverblatt 1987: 29), or th
Andean cultural differences, has
scholarship, policymaking and poli
takes for granted the unitary symb
In the public life of the nation, gend
and unitary cultural categories. H
190) has convincingly shown for th
masculinity is distortedly repres

male traits/7 In Bolivia, there is,
talk about such people and the t
which they are a part without su
from elite and indigenous persp
Current scholarship and policy
well served to recall available cri
These point out how the assum
inherent in symbols can give th
for-gr anted quality" (Kertzer 19
they acquire an "ineffable, if no
1366) character, largely cut off f
and contexts of production. Ev
utilize this sort of generic symboli
of indigenous identity as a defin
ernment (Albro 2006a; Postero 2
symbol talk among elites, policy
and intellectuals, easily become
ized (Paulson and Calla, 2000: 12
limiting code that poorly descri
tions and misconstrues the ident
build them.
In the Era of Evo
The status quo of clientelistic politics in Bolivia had been

undergoing a slow but steady transformation, since the "return
of democracy" in 1982, and as novel political figures of popular
descent surged to the forefront of national politics. New po-
litical options like CONDEPA (Conscience of the Fatherland)
and the UCS (Civic Solidarity Union) helped speed along the
erosion of traditional political party affiliation (see Archondo
1991; Mayorga 2002). But the shape of the national political
arena has changed even more dramatically since 2000 with the
308
combustive appearance of issue-d

social movement coalitions, which e
successful direct action protests ov
cision-making regarding such pub
and gas (inter alia, Albro 2005a; Dan
Gustafson 2002; Gutirrez et al. 20
Postero 2005), which culminated w
of Evo Morales in the 2005 preside
In this new context of the elevati
to power in Bolivia, social moveme
their break with the pervasive p
discourse that embraces a less vertical and more horizontal
politics of participation. This is described as a collective "social
space of encounter among equals" (Garcia Linera 2004: 72), a
form of participation understood to have taken its cue from a
more indigenous-derived face-to-face politics of assembly (see
Albro 2006b; Lazar 2006). The organization of the MAS (where
national representatives refer to themselves as "spokespeople,"
emphasize responsiveness to the grassroots, and avoid the mer-
est suggestion of membership in Bolivia's traditional political
class) is a principal illustration of these redrawn political rela-
tionships and boundaries (Albro 2005b). But, we can ask, how
easy is it for a head of state to break with vertical politics?
As suggested by the significant number of indigenous
representatives in Evo7 s cabinet and in the national legislature,
empowerment as Evo' s MAS party has pursued it, means at
once reversing the historical role of the indigenous masses as
docile clients of the state while at the same time embracing
political representation through state office, but not in the tra-
ditional mode of the patron. With regard to the administration's
efforts to nationalize Bolivia's hydrocarbons industry, as Evo,
as Soln, and other MAS representatives have repeatedly in-
toned: "We want partners not bosses." In its repudiation of a
subservient clientelism, this statement represents a rejection
of the status quo of indigenous clientage as it is built into the
international economic system

political establishment.
While the first year and a half
not been marred by the large
his immediate predecessors, we
what challenges a MAS-style pr
to confront over the long term
popularity represents new (even
indigenous political agenda for th
the first national indigenous lead
litical post in the Bolivian govern
Victor Hugo Crdenas served a
first Snchez de Lozada adminis
member of a surprising partne
MNR and the indianist MRTK
participate formally in the gove
cally costly for Crdenas.
If at the time celebrated by the i
the media, Crdenas was also oft
political rivals. Once a star, he is
present currents of indigenous p
having exhibited a "servile and f
1995: 195) while part of the gover
edly accused of being a llunk'u
the problem, "When we were llu
got virtually nothing!" At least
attention to the expectation of p
suspicion, a lack of trust, and se
movements. Crdenas was evalu
displayed an unacceptably clien
perceived to have been co-opte
government and its neoliberal pr
of having abandoned indigenous i
Cardenas' s downfall demonstrate
310
of indigenous and social movemen

government.
In fact, Crdenas was a political
problem at the heart of indigenous
and in Latin America, which prom
the Evo era as well: How to balan
political autonomy with the decision
apparatus? Past (and some present
ects in Bolivia were blunt in rejecting
than an illegitimate post-colonial
indigenous peoples, who were prior
state, as independent nations at lea
to the state itself (see Albo 2002; H
If indigenous currents in Bolivia ar
the past both to engage with the s
MAS to use the state as an instrume
the cultural politics that have inf
projects in Bolivia for decades cont
tial, and receive substantial interna
politics of Cardenas' critics assume
and a definition of indigenous belon
cultural distinctiveness, the bounda
highlighted, patrolled and defended
short, they are potentially significa
coalition-building and engagement
More broadly, patronage and clien
many indigenous activists, since th
ing relationships among people dif
cated in the political arena. But in the
upon breaking with the vertical polit
organized social movements, reject
indigenous empowerment, and with
ist identity politics of self-determi
like the president himself face a daun
political language to describe their
location. Otherwise, Evo runs the risk o

casualty, caught betwixt and between tw
control of the state and indigenous self-
tonomy. On the one hand, posters throu
a hopeful message of the state's patrona
Evo delivers/7 On the other, and in h
in small towns throughout the country
crowds, "I am like you." But can he be bo
and indigenous spokesperson?
Llunk'u-like patronage-clientage relatio
tant political fact distributed across the
indigenous-popular coaltions so importan
MAS-like coalitional political movemen
redraw the political landscape in Bolivia,
to come to terms with the implications o
ma represented by the widespread critici
llunkerio: its rejection of patronage, asser
reinscription of exclusionary cultural po
strictly control and insist upon sharp d
should be considered "indigenous," and
stances. That is, llunk'us are stigmatized
confound any clear distinction between
indigenous cultural locations. In the m
the oft-noted corrupt behavior of the llun
corruption of indigenous identity. But s
hasten to emphasize, productively crucia
MAS. If the Morales presidency is going
the indigenous cultural politics that co
many of its practices and goals will hav
The Prison-House of Culture?
"Personality" is currency in the cultural borderland of Quil-

lacollo as a cultural device insistent upon essentially defined
312
masculine traits of respect, work, up

formally of a piece with the practi
beling that underwrites unitary cu
elite and indigenous. And from the
the llunk'u is a tangle of contradic
and a corrupt bastard of uncertain
described as aggressively playing a
reciprocating or working for his d
as flattery or persuasion, to achie
are described as untrustworthy, a
their objects. In these ways he is a
himself, and of disregarding the vir
depth of formacin. He is descri
person shot through with a dang
The llunk'u is above all "vivo" (clev
untrustworthy client.
These negative associations hav
anything else in the political act
than potential corruption. This is
patron's modernist view. In a fam
(Mexico's patron of letters) had so
the pachuco, the similarly transgre
migration to the U. S. Paz saw the
two cultures, two nations, and r
North American options. Paz's por
"His whole being is sheer negative
dictions, an enigma. Even his very
a word of uncertain derivation,
everything" (1961: 14). Paz's narrat
erasure of cultural identity works
zation of highly socially mobile Hu
to describe the supposedly morally
which they operate.
Paz' s bird's eye view is an acco
defined by their lack of a unified se
Quillacollo, within the dyadic aren

llunkerio is a cultural idiom and p
"third republic/' a complexly ur
Barragn 1992). Political analysts h
such political experience in Latin
as ephemeral populist class coali
particularly true in nations like Bo
of urban elites and rural Indians
These extremes take conceptual
academic and policy debates. Such
locate the patrn-pinche dyad of llu
ily within the assumed historical c
between, on the one hand, the e
its political penetration from abo
relations) and more localized An
projects.
But this makes several basic errors. First, the tacit commit-
ment to separate domains of "top down" and "bottom up"
cultural commitments overrepresents the extremes of social
life at the expense of the third republic or of the typically urban
middle, where indigenous-popular coalitions, and "category-
transgressing peoples" (Abercrombie 1996: 62) are the rule.
Second, this is done in the familiar terms of contrasting elite
to Indian, modern to Andean, and national to local, in ways
allowing that these two might yet be at least conceptually two
autonomous cultural provinces of meaning and experience,
which makes little sense. Third, due consideration is rarely
given to stigmatization; itself a gesture in negative relief of
the tensions between claims of unitary cultural subjects and
political experience that is otherwise.
The Bolivia of Evo Morales is a country passing through
a transformation that promises to create many more political
opportunities for its popular and indigenous majority. At the
same time, the language of the political project of Evo and the
MAS derives its relevance from social and indigenous move-
314
ment activism, which legitimates t

maintenance of strong working re
constituencies. The success of the M
in part to indigenous support. It is
urban and informal economy, to a
middle-class rejection of the neolib
that made their lives more difficult. If the MAS has success-
fully expanded participation in an indigenous political project,
it remains to be seen if Evo and the MAS can maintain broad
support among largely urban and indigenous-descended social
sectors that have worked closely with indigenous representa-
tives in the successful popular protest coalitions that made
possible Evo7 s unprecedented rise to the presidency.
In Quillacollo and elsewhere these close everyday working
relationships are informed by expectations of patronage and
clientage. And yet, in an era of indigenous political empower-
ment, these relationships are also suspect and framed, llunk'u-
like, in ways that promote exclusive and collective cultural
commitments (consistent with historical projects of indigenous
autonomy) which can easily undermine the viability of indig-
enous-popular coalition-building in the future. Analysts of
Bolivia's changing indigeneity have sought to clarify how best
to talk about indigenous engagement with new urbanities (see
Guss 2006), with a new kind of state and "post-multicultural
citizenship" (see Postero 2007b), and with disparate cultural
frameworks constructing a new "indigenous cosmopolitanism"
(see Goodale 2006). But we also need to pay attention to ways
that intimate cooperative engagement with non-indigenous
political experience has moved more to the center of indig-
enous projects in Bolivia as, itself, a part of what it means to
be indigenous (in political terms) in the first place.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The field research for this article was primarily conducted in 2

of archival and participant-observation fieldwork between 199
with return visits in 2001 and 2003. This research was funded
versity of Chicago's Latin American Studies Center, the Tinker
the Fulbright and the National Science Foundations, as well a
research grant from Wheaton College (MA). An earlier ver
argument was presented at the inaugural meeting of the Bol
Association (March 16, 2002). I thank Josefa Salmn for her o
efforts and Susan Paulson, Andrew Canessa, Guillermo Delga
Albo, Marcia Stephenson, and Pamela Calla for their useful c
earlier drafts and in different conversations. Any confusions
tions or inaccuracies are my own.
NOTES
1 Quote from Pablo Soln as part of a discussion on foreign i

ment in Bolivia, sponsored by the Center for Economic and P
Research. Washington, D.C. May 31, 2007.
2 The term runa literally means "people," "person" or "human
in Quechua. Among mostly Spanish-speaking politicians, the
historically has been used generically to refer to both Quechu
Aymar a indigenous clients.
3 I conducted participant-observation in Quillacollo, Bolivia,
1993 to 1995, examining populist grassroots political response
structural adjustment measures in that country, and have retu
several times since, in 2001 and 2003.
4 The scholarship of patronage relationships has also tended t
them as collisions and negotiations between the distinct "inter
or "social positions" of patrons and clients, respectively, eac
which are understood to represent membership in distinct
competing social statuses or groups (cf. Cohen and Comar
1976), such as indigenous and elite.
5 Qhochala is the word used to refer to people from the reg
Cochabamba.
6 This distinction about cholo discourse recalls similar distinctions
such as Wittgenstein's (1981) discussion of the differences between
Augustine's classic propositional theory of language acquisition
and his own notion of "language-games."
316
7 " Water warriors" is a reference to par

2000 in Cochabamba, an ultimately suc
reverse the attempted privatization of
2005b).
8 Such cultural politics, for example, have been written into the Draft
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, under consider-
ation for ratification in the United Nations since 1993, and which
Morales and the MAS have publicly affirmed.
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Indigenous Politics In Bolivia's Evo Era: Clientelism, Llunkero, And The Problem of Stigma

Author(s): Robert Albro

ABSTRACT: This article offers an analysis of the cultural

"The inferior man is a human anima

Jose Ingenieros, EL HOMB

"In every man there is the possibility

Octavio Paz, THE LABYRINTH OF SOLITUDE

In a recent public forum concerned with Bolivia's surpris-

rejection of the "politics as usual"

post-1952 patronage politics with t

derwriting the goal of political autonom

Of the Patron and Personality

Quillacollo, as a provincial capital, is a town where only a

tory hierarchy. This includes a pub

The problem as well is that [his riva

This is an indirect way of asser

This is an example of the fragility

As they are excoriated, this fra

would have been much more like

But deep inside, that is, in the depth of my personality,

Male dignity, then, is expressed in claims of fateful, usually

patrimony. In Quillacollo's realpo

What a sad and stupid opinion w

An ambivalent or unknown origin is not part of this con-

ways similar to de la Cadena' s ana

"No one talks to so-and-so de frente. Th

justice, even if he is also "everywhe

Of the Pinche and the Llunk'u

The Quechua term "llunk'u" regularly finds its way into

ally political, shenanigans of some

social dyad of patrn-pinche (loo

dres" and "compadres de inters'' (A

brothels, or to round off a viernes

The Identity Problem

I recall the response of a man,

then, might also be anyone unlike

He feels a part of the populacho [po

As I was told on many occasions,

Here is an aspect of modern life: th

And the woman talks still of slavery! (

Male value is exhibited through a transparency of the direct

Campesinos speak a "true Quechua/7 Cholos talk more

Self-serving rhetoric and words not particularly bound to

'Their attitudes are tremendous! Th

The pendejada is a meeting of deceits carried to the

This ringing condemnation asserts the desirability of

the picarda of cholos is emphasized her

tions fly in the face of the glassy

Gender, Hierarchy and the Nation

While in Bolivia women are participating in politics in

in prevailing notions of gender a

and writers as a "symbol of the va

adequately indigenous nor acce

placed the symbolic construction o

masculinity is distortedly repres

In the Era of Evo

The status quo of clientelistic politics in Bolivia had been

combustive appearance of issue-d

international economic system

of indigenous and social movemen

location. Otherwise, Evo runs the risk o

The Prison-House of Culture?

"Personality" is currency in the cultural borderland of Quil-