Crossing Lives

This project focuses on Andean countries, stuck between the past and the future. As in all my latest projects, I chose the diptych format to highlight the Andean social and cultural dualism – an historic stratification of society: indigenous vs. colonist, the rich vs. the poor, the indigenous people vs. the invaders, national borders vs. tribal territories. Native traditions and habits have been eradicated in local cultures by western culture and influence. During the last centuries, both  have lived side by side, in a permanent clash of different identities, ethnicities and cultures. In some cases, differences have melted together into a new cultural tradition.

In regards to the Bolivian situation, since Evo Morales became president for the first time in 2005, Bolivia has changed in many ways. Pluralism and different ethnicities have been recognized, the poverty rate has decreased as well as illiteracy, the economy has grown by an annual average of 4.6 percent. On the other hand, Morales’s open policy towards western investors, plus the adoption of authoritarian policies, has taken him away from the native electorate. Since President Evo Morales was replaced by coupist Jeanine Añez in 2019, the rights of indigenous people have been denied, unemployment has increased and social and racial tensions have become complicated in an already difficult political crisis.

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