Introduction

This chapter looks at a number of indigenous educators, and the rise and fall of Warisata-the innovative Aymara ayllu (indigenous community) school and its relationship with vecinos (townspeople) in the nearby Altiplano town of Achacachi. In a critical revision of conventional works, which date the National Revolution from 1952-1964, it argues that the revolution began in 1943, was overthrown in 1946, and resumed in 1952. The chapter seeks to redress this oversight through a reconstruction of the fateful events surrounding the Bolivian overthrow. The varieties of indigenous resistance to the colonato are discussed. Regional aspects of land tenure under the colonato are discussed, as well as the obstacles to implementation of colono and comunario land claims. The chapter considers the particularities of the agrarian reform process in the highlands, the attempts by the MNR to quell an indigenous revolutionary awakening, the Indian leaders' resistance to creole-mestizo hegemony, and the role of factionalism among the creole-mestizo elites and the indigenous peoples.