Bolivia's majority Indian population was always excluded, politically oppressed and culturally alienated. Our national wealth, our raw materials, was plundered. Indios were once treated like animals here. In the 1930s and 40s, they were sprayed with DDT to kill the vermin on their skin and in their hair whenever they came into the city.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the historical oppression and mistreatment of Indigenous people in Bolivia.
Evo Morales reflects on the deep-rooted injustices faced by Bolivia's Indigenous population, emphasizing their political exclusion, cultural alienation, and the dehumanizing treatment they received. He draws attention to a disturbing historical context where national resources were exploited, and Indigenous individuals were subjected to acts of cruelty, illustrating systemic oppression that continues to resonate in contemporary society.
In practice
During a discussion on social justice and human rights, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing historical injustices.
It's easy for people in an air-conditioned room to continue with the policies of destruction of Mother Earth. We need instead to put ourselves in the shoes of families in Bolivia and worldwide that lack water and food and suffer misery and hunger.
The peoples of the Andes believe in the concept of 'living well' instead of wanting to 'live better' by consuming more, regardless of the cost to our neighbors and our environment.
Many possessions, if they do not make a man better, are at least expected to make his children happier; and this pathetic hope is behind many exertions.
When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.
The thing about talking about human rights is that when one bears in mind the sharp end of it, one does not want to worry too much about semantics.
Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.
I’m not sentimental about anything. Life flows by, and you flow with it or you don’t. Move on and move out.
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
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