ABSTRACT
Latin America’s history begins well before 1492. It is deeply marked by the devastation of Indigenous communities and the transatlantic slave trade. Colonialism left an indelible mark on the culture of the region. The “rape of a continent” is not just a metaphor; it too left a mark. Latin Americans are proudly “la raza,” but much mythology surrounds mestizaje. Nonetheless, there are democratic threads in the practices of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, their resistance to domination, and the legacies left by leaders of its independence movement. An examination of “plurinationalism” in Bolivia allows us to see how the legacy of the past impacts the present.
