All right, so I get why Krister likes Cochabamba so much.
Really, when it comes down to it, it's kind of a cool city--big city, but with a pretty small-town feel. Nice place. Lots of bootleg DVDs for sale. Pretty good fast food. Reasonable architecture.
I don't think those are the things on his list, but I'm okay with Cochabamba. For those of you who don't know, it's on the edge of the Bolivian highlands, and supposedly has the best climate in the world. Climate's not so good for skiing, but actually, it's pretty comfortable. And it's a prosperous city, but not so far away from the Bolivian working-class reality that you can forget about it.
And Santa Cruz is also a beautiful city which, despite being the biggest city in the country, doesn't feel much bigger than some of the small towns I've been in, except it's got better food and trendier people. It's supposed to be hot as Hades in the summertime, but it's pretty comfortable at the moment.
But that's my primary objection to Sta. Cruz. This town is too cool for me. Figuratively. Also, a little too fascist.
The prosperity you see around Sta. Cruz somehow seems more obscene when you know that so many people around the country are hungry and suffering. Not that it's a crime to be prosperous (or a sin, for that matter), but the kind of extravagance that's on display here tees me off in Boulder. Here, it's even worse.
And the political tension about Evo Morales is palpable--even more so than in La Paz. I can just imagine what it would have been like a couple of months ago!
But maybe I'll feel better about the place once I'm over this cold I've got.
1 comment:
Mmm. Santa Cruz is sometimes fondly, sometimes exasperatedly called "el pueblo". For better or for worse it still *feels* like a town. A town with decidedly strong political and us vs. them views. It also has a larger middle class than most of Bolivia. And yes, often I wonder how I could have come so far away (to Boulder) and yet still have so much of the same.
Cocha, on the other hand, *is* more real. The people there are proud of their role in the war of independence and that has carried on to other issues, the most famous recent example that of the water wars. When I go there I also feel that despite individual citizens' backgrounds there is a collective identity that runs larger than the tiny upper and middle classes. Not so in Santa Cruz.
Let me know if you need #s.
-Denise-
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