Actitud hacia la minería

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4. Neither rural nor urban: Migration of Aymara farmers in a desakota region

4.1 Introduction

This chapter explores the deagrarianisation, urbanisation and livelihood transformation processes in the Altiplano Norte. Three different levels of analysis are taken into consideration:

1) macro, with a structural analysis of the “propelling forces” (Rigg 2006) generating the phenomenon of rural-urban migration (4.2); 2) micro, with a focus on decision-making, based on an evaluation of costs and opportunities in farmers’ families (4.3); 3) meso, with a description of migrants’ networks between places of origin and places of destination in a desakota space (4.4). These three layers are merged into a comprehensive picture to show how migration plays a crucial role in the distribution of resources and in the reconfiguration of categories, values and priorities in the countryside, as well as in the city. The features of the rural-urban continuum La Paz-El Alto, spreading out to Altiplano indigenous communities, are analysed in detail, with a particular focus on the cholo-mestizo lifestyle, now rooted in the North-Eastern neighbourhoods of La Paz and in the city of El Alto, where rural migrants settle (4.5).

In the next pages I present and analyse the relevant data I collected in La Paz and El Alto and in the rural communities Cachilaya, Coromata and Okola. I also engage with a series of academic sources to produce a dialogue between literature and evidence from the field. During my fieldwork, in order to learn about indigenous farmers’ migration, lifestyle and aspirations, I used participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews and focus groups. I interacted with farmers, residentes and NGOs’ staff on public transport from the city to rural communities and in the three indigenous villages. I observed and spoke with people in La Paz and El Alto, particularly in urban markets and during cholo-mestizo festivals. I gathered scientific publications, newspaper articles and secondary material through archival research in NGOs (i.e. PROINPA, PROFIN) and public offices (i.e. INE, the municipalities’ offices).

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4.2 The transformation of rural livelihoods: outlining the main trends in the Altiplano Norte

4.2.1 Urbanisation

In the Altiplano Norte migration is a deeply rooted phenomenon (2.4.2). During colonial times movement in this region was towards the main urban area - La Paz - from the ayllus surrounding it, and involved people attracted by employment opportunities in commerce and domestic service. The migration in-flow was traditionally marked by a clear occupational differentiation based on ethnicity and a strong female presence. The repeated waves of migration, according to Albó (1977), led to the establishment of an “urban Aymara culture”

(p.31) in La Paz. According to Criales Burgos’ analysis, since its foundation, this city was characterised by two souls - an indigenous one, and a Spanish/mestizo one - coexisting on the basis of interaction and, at the same time, opposition. In this context migrants’ networks were important, with rural people settling in the city thanks to the connections and support of urban relatives migrated there before them (Criales Burgos 1994). As Glave (1987) argues, the presence of Aymara people in La Paz was qualitatively and quantitatively crucial in the development of a specific profile for this city, which can still be observed in the present.

Urbanisation is a distinctive phenomenon of contemporary Bolivia. Today the main urban centres of the country are growing in size and population, as the data of the latest national census, carried out in 2012, clearly show. El Alto, in particular, has recently experienced a significant population increase that will continue, according to estimates, in the next decades.

Between 2001 and 2012 the number of its inhabitants has gone from 649,958 to 848,840 with a growth rate of 2.45% per year. The population of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba has also grown substantially. Santa Cruz, in particular, has become the most populous city in Bolivia, followed by El Alto. On the contrary, La Paz, according to the census, has experienced a demographic drop between 2001 and 2012, going from 793,293 inhabitants to 764,617 (Candela 2013; INE 2014). This occurrence is particularly significant in the framework of the transformation process that Bolivia is experiencing. In Spring 2013, when figures about it were published, Bolivians received them with surprise. Many of the people I spoke with in both urban and rural areas would question the census’ fairness and reliability (Fieldnotes 4/10-06-2013), providing different explanations for its unexpected and seemingly unrealistic results.

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- La Paz had reached its maximum expansion limit and could not receive any more

people. As a city with an already high population density, buildings in the centre have expanded vertically for decades to accommodate a larger number of inhabitants. The literature confirms that due to its physical shape and geographic location in a small and steep basin, La Paz cannot expand more than what it has already done towards the South-West (Arbona & Kohl 2004), where elites have moved “to enjoy a better climate and lower altitude” (Potter & Lloyd-Evans 1998).

- El Alto - geographically contiguous to La Paz and situated on the Eastern flatland bordering the hoyada (the “hole”, as paceños call their city) - had become the place where incoming Aymara migrants settled.

- The realisation of the census was flawed, as Candela (2013) also argues. I expand on this in 4.4 and 4.5.

Map 4.1: Map of the two neighbouring cities La Paz and El Alto

Blog “Imágenes de Bolivia” 2015.

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Picture 4.1: El Alto, expanding into the Altiplano (towards the left); on the right, the beginning

of the hoyada - La Paz

Blog “Imágenes de Bolivia” 2015.

Beyond the heated debate about the accuracy of the official data, two facts emerged from these figures:

1. The remarkable population growth in the major cities of Bolivia. The main urban centres are the favourite destinations of internal migration. Although international migration has become a widespread phenomenon, with people from the Northern Highlands leaving mainly for Argentina and Brazil (INE 2013), La Paz and El Alto remain the main magnets for the migrants of this area, followed by Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. Data have also revealed that Bolivia has become a predominantly urban country, as most citizens live in centres with more than 2000 inhabitants (Bolivia: Decreto Supremo No 1672, 31 de julio de 2013; Candela 2013; Heins 2011).

2. The impressive development of El Alto, due to both migration from rural areas and natural increase. In recent times El Alto, which gained autonomy from La Paz in 1988, has received a huge inflow of Aymara people from the surrounding rural areas of the Northern Altiplano. This rapid, yet unordered, urbanisation has indeed caused the emergence of issues such as poverty, congestion, pollution and the growth of the informal sector. According to Arbona and Kohl, the informal sector, since the 1970s, has shifted from resource extraction and manufacturing to commerce and services (Arbona & Kohl 2004). The teeming of people (workers, commuters, vendors) and of means of transport of every kind is what struck me the most when I first visited El Alto,

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(Fieldnotes 21/28-08-2012; 4.4). El Alto’s expansion potential is virtually unlimited, as the city has already grown significantly and can extend itself further to include neighbouring rural areas and indigenous communities. In section 4.4 I discuss the growth of El Alto and the development of a desakota region in more detail.

4.2.2 Deagrarianisation and transformation of rural livelihoods

Deagrarianisation and the diversification and progressive urbanisation of rural livelihoods can both be observed in the Altiplano Norte. A series of events, which correspond, to a great extent, to those composing Rigg’s rural transformation picture (Rigg 2006), are occurring in the Titicaca region. I present the information I gathered in Coromata, Cachilaya and Okola, according to the eight “points of transformation” defining the “broad direction of change”

identified by Rigg (p.183).