"There is a mountain range, there in Bolivia, the Altiplano, where the Revolution could spread to the rest of South America."

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

El Alto...Presente! - Day 2

12/03/09

Only my second day in Bolivia and I was in line to see the greatest political manifestation of my life.

It is almost impossible to tell when there are that many people, but there must have been close to, if not more than one million people at the event. It was the closing event of Evo and Alvaro's electoral campaign in Ceja in El Alto. El Alto is probably the strongest bastion of support for the MAS in all of Bolivia, and symbolically is one of the highest spots in the country. In La Paz alone there are one million people, in El Alto there are around 750,000, then to be included are supporters who came in from all over the country, and hundreds or thousands of international observers, journalists, and supporters. It was such a sprawling area with massive clusters of people everywhere; the phenomenon that is the Bolivian Revolution. Together they could have knocked down a mountain or dug a hole through the center of the earth.

Literally everyone was there; organizations, neighbourhood councils, unions, federations, students, campesinos, miners, and social movements of all sorts. It is difficult to even know where to begin, thinking back on what we were surrounded with and considering the magnitude of it. I have never even fathomed a mobilization one million people in the same space at the same time, so writing about it and describing it can not do justice to actually seeing it and living it. I do not wish to be short-sighted in comparing this situation to the country where I reside, but in Canada for a rally or a protest, a gathering of 5,000 people would be considered massive, so to witness a seven digit convergence is something that is literally life-changing. As a solidarity activist for Latin America, I have an unshakable belief in this colossal continental movement, in its capacity for real change and to be the light, the example, and the solution for humanity, but always observing the situation from afar can sometimes cause you to unintentionally and unconsciously begin to take the dynamic for granted, or to lose touch with it. If there were ever any doubts about these movements, and this Revolution, and by extension humanity's potential, one million people will quickly erase those doubts in one very sobering and vivid flash of certainty.

So we arrived in Ceja, in El Alto where the event was taking place, already a lot of buzz, a lot of people, and with the Evo copter circling above. The giant Che statue made by the people from thousands of metallic objects gracing the background, emblematic to the militancy of the community of El Alto. The main ceremonies still a couple of hours away, but the turnout has already reached its peak. So we made our way around the mass, an interesting task at this point for the five of us to stick together amidst the sea of people, Raul, Christiasn and I had met up with two Bolivian friends Lilian and Janette, and challenging for us to manage to take pictures meanwhile, especially Christian with his elaborate video equipment. But, we were received extremely well, and as supporting revolutionary journalists we were given almost the royal treatment as many people were attention seeking and the majority definitely not camera shy. We were fortunate to be able to get lots of amazing shots. Although we stopped a little bit here and there, we moved through the crowd fairly quickly. People were big on displays of solidarity and handshakes, and seemed very happy to receive supporters from where not a lot of supporters come from, embracing their people and supporting the Revolution. For me these were very touching and crystallizing moments.

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