Myles Away From Home

There is a new movie out in theatres in Bolivia. It is called Evo Pueblo, and is the life story of the current President of the country, Evo Morales. I find it very interesting that there is a movie out and that he is still currently in power! Most movies about people come out after the person has at least left office, if not died. However, this is Bolivia and they do things differently here.

I went to see the movie last week. It was interesting because I really didn’t know a lot about Evo’s life. Evo Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, and for a country with about 50% indigenous population, that is a big thing. That I did know. The movie gives a brief overview of his life before his election. There aren’t a lot of details, but you do get a gist of where he came from. Apparently he went to see the movie on opening night and said that it approximates his life to about 70-80%.

It starts out in a small village in the altiplano where Evo grew up in poverty. He and his father tend to the llamas, and have to go to Cochabamba to try to make some money at one point. All of Evo’s friends are slowly leaving the village to go to the city, because there is no opportunity for them in the village. When Evo is a teenager, he too leaves the village for the city of Oruro, where he works first as a brick-maker and then as a bread-maker, all the while trying to go to school at night.

Evo then leaves Oruro to go to the Chapari, which is the region where coca is grown. He starts working as coca-grower, and meets some people who are trying to organize a union for the coca growers. And this is where his political career begins. He becomes one of the main union organizers. The goal of the union is to fight the government on the issue of coca eradication. Coca was (and still is) the main product grown in that region of the country, and the US government is continually pressuring the Bolivians to eradicate it. However, it was the only source of income for these people and although there were alternative development projects in the region (trying to change crops to other things like bananas), none of them worked. The military in the area was very aggressive at the time, and many people were beaten or killed.

After that time, you don’t really see the part of the story that leads Evo to be President. But, as we all know, he does. All in all it was an interesting movie, and I did learn something about the President of Bolivia.