Why I'm doing this

I should mention why I, an American citizen born and raised, who's only visited Bolivia twice, has family in the country and would care enough about the political and cultural situation over there.

My dad moved to the US in the mid 70's. I'm sure all of you know about what happened then. If not, read the Wikipedia on that point in history. My family down there has been entrenched in politics for years, and one of my relatives is even Victor Paz-Estenssoro (link is to Wikipedia, even though they never put that hyphen in when they should), four-time president of Bolivia and co-founder of the MNR party. My family thought themselves to be safe until one of my dad's brothers got shot and killed. At first, my dad tried the UK and South Africa, but finally settled on the US. He really did settle, though; he never liked the US, even after living here for years, and never became a US citizen because they would have forced him to give up his Bolivian citizenship.

My dad was very "Europeanized". He stood by the assumption that there is no Incan blood in the Bolivian upper classes, something that I would have hoped would be beyond discussion at this point. Because of that, I got very little exposure to the native culture, with him even getting annoyed when my mom would want to wear a Llama-wool shawl out in public. If it weren't for the fact that my mom loved the music and one of my uncle's collected Incan art, I probably wouldn't have had any exposure at all.

So that's basically my background. I intend on spending more time in the country, hopefully when this whole Morales business blows over a bit. Until then, I have my true love, the web, to tell me all about it.

I'm sorry...

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. Real life has not only decided to interrupt, it hit me on the head with a long, metal pipe.

It seems my family in Bolivia is having some trouble because of Evo Morales. I love the president, I do, and I love the changes he's bringing to the country, but it's also hurting the middle and upper classes. What he doesn't seem to realize is that there are more than poor people in his country. Sure they need help, and the country needs a pr boost as well, but he's alienating a good portion of his country.

One of my cousins, his stepfather is in the oil business and worked with foreign oil companies until Morales ran them out. Now, without a job, the whole family's livelihood is being threatened. Apparently they're trying to move to the US, but no such luck.

Another cousin of mine, a doctor no less, is trying to move to Canada. They're visa applications were all accepted -- except that she had another kid while they were being processed. Now the country won't accept their applications anymore.

It's all so insane and I hope it's worked out for the better.