Santa Cruz Flair and Hand Spun Wool

The other day in my crocheting class, our chatter turned for a moment to the political situation in Bolivia, sparked by the sounds of firecrackers getting closer and closer. “The Masistas are gathering, they have a cabildo tonight (town meeting)…they must be figuring out what to destroy next.” I’m usually very quiet during these times, but today for some odd reason (maybe my anger at how much the news manipulates the story according to its political leaning), I decided to offer my opinion, “but why would the masistas wreck their own market,” I said, “it’s got to be the cruzenistas…I think they want the military to come in so they have an excuse to have an armed conflict.” My friend (who’s from a small town near the boarder of Brasil) looked at me and said, “look at me…do you think I want a war???” (identifying herself among the cruzenistas….) another woman (who came to Santa Cruz from the Beni, a department just north of santa cruz) spoke “the highlanders should be thankful for what Santa Cruz has given them…a place to live and earn a living….” The teacher piped up, “well, I don’t think it’s that simple, for example I’m from Sucre but I’ve lived in Santa Cruz ten years…I don’t consider myself colla or camba (highlander or lowlander), and there are people from Santa Cruz living in Sucre. I think we’re all just a mix but the media tries to divide us more than we are in real life.” A woman responded, “yes, but when we go to other places, we don’t act like this….” Meanwhile, everyone was working away at their crocheting project, this week a hair tie made with a glitzy synthetic string imported from Brasil, except for me…I’d forgotten to bring elastic, so I took advantage of the fact that there’s a woman who knows how to spin wool…I bought some in Cochabamba last year, but when I tried to knit with it, it was lacking one more process to be knittable. This woman (a highlander) was the only one who hasn’t spoken by now….and as the yarn slips so smoothly between her fingers I asked her, “did you grow up with sheep?” And she answered in a very quiet voice, “yes, my mother had sheep.” As the conversation drifted on to the big Miss pageant coming up, I realized the tension of the country and how its imbedded in each person and the fear of the other…of who will throw the first stone…
Towards the end of the meeting, my friend from valle grande (western santa cruz) commented, “wow, Lindsey, you learned the trick!” I said, “yeah, it’s really easy, do you want to try it??” She looked at me smiling and told me no…that she wouldn’t want to mess it up.
I know that tonight Santa Cruz is full of these interactions…highlanders and lowlanders together..full of opportunity to be open to the other, or to continue with the rage provoked by images on the news (showing the same clip from three days ago).
A note for those who haven´t read much about Bolivia in the last few weeks, there is a good bit of conflict going on which I am trying to wrap my head around and am not quite confident enough to write about. If you´d like to read more on it though, here are two places I like to go:
www.democracyctr.org
www.ain-bolivia.org