Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BOOKS
There are few books published exclusively about Bolivia, and even fewer Bolivian
writers ever make it into English. That said, the works listed here offer a good range
of background material on Bolivian history, culture, society and the natural world. If
you read Spanish, Bolivian novelists to look out for include Alcides Arguedas, Oscar
Cerruto, Renato Prada Oropeza and Juan Recacochea. Titles marked are especially
recommended. In most of the following reviews, publishers in the UK and US are listed
(where they differ) in the form “UK publisher/US publisher”; “o/p” signifies out of
print.
HISTORY AND SOCIETY
Jon Lee Anderson
Che Guevara: a Revolutionary Life
(Bantam/Grove Press). Absorbing
and exhaustively researched account of Latin America's most famous guerrilla, by the journ-
alist whose investigations led to the discovery of Che's secret grave in Vallegrande.
Domitila Barrios de Chungara
Let Me Speak
(o/p). Harrowing autobiographical testimony
of one of the miners' wives who took part in the hunger strikes that brought an end to the
Banzer regime.
Brian S. Bauer and Charles Stanish
Ritual and Pilgrimage in the Ancient Andes: The Is-
lands of the Sun and the Moon
(University of Texas Press). Richly detailed description of the
archeology of Lago Titicaca's two sacred islands and their roles as major pilgrimage centres
in the Inca and pre-Inca worlds.
John Crabtree
Patterns of Protest: Politics and Social Movements in Bolivia
(LatinAmerica
Bureau). A concise description of the tumultuous political movements that helped to bring
Evo Morales to power.
James Dunkerley
Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia 1952-82
(Verso/
Schocken Books). Dense but readable academic account of the 1952 National Revolution,
and of the bitter cycles of dictatorship, repression and popular resistance that followed.
Eduardo Galeano
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the PiIlage of a
Continent
(Latin America Bureau). A stunning history of the continent by the esteemed
Uruguayan author, which offers, in particular, an excellent insight into the colonial exploita-
tion of the Potosí mines.
Pete Good
Bolivia: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
(Plural Editores). Readable account of
Bolivian history that is particularly good on the rise of Evo Morales and the impact of glob-
alization.
