La Paz, Bolivia

“ The middle class is not native. It is composed of Spanish, German, Italian, and French merchants. Mr. James Bryce in his book, South America: Observations and Impressions, said in speaking of La Paz Bolivia: "It has probably a larger aboriginal population than any other city in the New World, although the percentage of Indians may be somewhat greater in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay." There are no Indians, and there is but little mixed blood in Asuncion. The early settlers originally married with the natives but the taint of miscegenation has long run out. ”

“ So that, although I crossed Bolivia from one end to the other in its longest part, I was unable to do any further work. I tried to get down to the coast as quickly as possible in order to return home.
La Paz was a beautiful city, extremely neat, with bright red-tiled roofs and white buildings. It was situated in a deep hollow surrounded by a great barrier of mountains. So deep and sudden was the hollow that within a few metres of its upper edge one would never suppose a town to be at hand. Bolivia is a go-ahead country in which English people are greatly interested. ”

“ The city of La Paz is the largest in Bolivia, and has the most trade, owing to its position between the provinces of Yungas and Arica. But the foreign manufactures imported by this country, do not all pass through La Paz. The roads from Arica and Cobija lead direct to the southern department, and the trains of mules and jackasses cross floating totora bridges on the Desaguedero, such as we saw the llamas pass near the Lake of Titicaca. ”

“ Quite an important city is La Paz, and a large number of wealthy mine-owners reside there, drawing their incomes from rich tin mines in the neighbourhood. There are also numerous stores from which the wants of the distant population that reside in the rubber country are supplied. The larger proportion of the inhabitants are Indians, and I cannot help remarking that the Bolivian Indians, men and women, are about the ugliest type of human creatures I have yet seen. Besides, they are very illiterate, and it is estimated that, of the total population of Bolivia, only about 30 per cent. ”

“ The old Spanish-colonial element in them regards with disfavour the larger but more Indian La Paz. Sucre is made the legal capital, but neither it nor any other city has both the size and the central position that would qualify to act as a unifying force. There is hardly any immigration, and little natural increase of population, so the vacant spaces do not fill up, even where they are habitable. Anything, therefore, that will help both to increase the material prosperity of Bolivia and to draw its people together will be a political benefit. ”

“ There are no populous towns other than the provincial capitals above enumerated. Four of these capitals-~Sucré or Chuquisaca, La Paz, Cochabamba and Oruro-have served as the national capital, and Sucré was chosen, but after the revolution of 1898 the capital was at La Paz, which is the commercial metropolis and is more accessible than Sucre. ”

“ I brought up at last in the “Tambo Quirquincha,” facing the Plaza Alonzo de Mendoza, an inn favored almost entirely by natives arriving on horseback.
The constitution of Bolivia asserts that Sucre is the real capital, but permits congress to choose its place of meeting, and “because of the constant danger from our two chief enemies” (Peru and Chile) “at the northern end of the Republic, the Government really resides in La Paz.” How much the choice is governed by the fact that there is no railroad, but only a mule trail, to the “real capital,” is a matter of conjecture. ”

“ Bolivia has a little more than two millions of inhabitants, about one fourth of them whites. There are several varieties of the native and mixed races, from the civilized Indians of La Paz and other cities to the wild tribes of the upper waters of the Amazon. ”

“ This last is called the Maya-tata by the Bolivians.
It is a beautiful stream, overhung by hill and forest, and rises fully two hundred miles southward and west from a thousand little rivulets that drain the marvellous mountains of Karavaya.
The Beni joins this river about ten or twelve miles above the banks of the Madeira. It lies farther to the south and the east, and may be said to rise in the La Paz district itself, where it is called the Rio de la Paz. ”

“ When we arrive, José always goes at once to pay his respects to the lady of the house, and through him a general sketch of our duties and characters are obtained. He is so polite, and of such an obliging disposition, that he seems to attract attention wherever he goes. He is fond of travelling, and, for so old a person, bears his part well, sleeps sound, and enjoys good health.
La Paz, the commercial metropolis of Bolivia, has a population of 42,849. It is the capital of the department, which has a population of 90,662 creoles, and 295,442 Aymara Indians. ”

“ Its capital city, La Paz, has a population of 70,000, but the vast interior is almost uninhabited. In the number of inhabitants to the square mile, Bolivia ranks the lowest of all the nations of the earth.
Perhaps no country of the world has been, and is, so rich in precious metals as Bolivia. "The mines of Potosi alone have furnished the world over $1,500,000,000 worth of silver since the Spaniards first took possession of them." [Footnote: "Protestant Missions in South America."]
Bolivia can lay claim to the most wonderful body of water in the world—Lake Titicaca. ”

“ A considerable area of the Republic extends to the lowlands of the Amazon Valley (and to the Plate) , including those delightful sub-valleys and hill-slopes which Nature, by reason of climate and vegetation, has rendered of the most pleasant. As [268] for the people, we find here the same Spanish American civilization, among the cultured class that is, with the traits and gifts common to their race. As for the Indian—that is their social problem.
La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, to which we may have ascended by rail from the coast, is approached almost unawares. ”

“ Here was exactly the type of immigrant Bolivia sadly needs, a man prepared to spend his life in the country, capable of sustained toil, and likely to leave strong children behind him. Yet already the politicians of La Paz had given three large syndicates title, almost for nothing, to all the fertile portions of this immense territory, and these held it shut against settlers who did not accept their terms, which, as I heard them outlined to Konanz, virtually made them vassals to the companies. ”

“ Arequipa, second city of Peru, in its desert oasis, backed by Misti Volcano
“Suddenly the bleak pampa falls away at one’s feet, and La Paz in its hole in the ground, 1,200 feet below, spreads out at the foot of Illimani and its sister peaks”
Third (to be marked Baedeker-fashion with two stars) comes the most picturesque figure in Bolivia, if not in South America,—la chola de La Paz. Her mate may blossom out in all the atrocities or “European” attire, but la chola clings tenaciously and wisely to the costume of her ancestors. ”

“ The mineral wealth of Bolivia lies principally in the western districts, which are consequently the most populous and settled, containing the chief centres of trade at La Paz, Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, and Oruro. The eastern provinces of Beni and Santa Cruz cannot as yet point to more than their possibilities, which are vividly suggested in the description of a traveller from the United States, who declared that “the few scattered inhabitants gaze upon a wealth sufficient to pay the national debts of the world.”
The population of the country is something just under three millions. ”

“ The chief wealth of the department appears to be in agriculture, for Cochabamba may certainly claim to be the agricultural capital of Bolivia, La Paz, Potosí, and Oruro being the chief mineral centres, whilst the true capital of the republic, Sucre, is the political and educational centre. Cochabamba is the storehouse for the crops of wheat, maize, barley, and potatoes that are grown on the plains on which the city is built. ”

“ On the news of the victory a universal rising of the patriots took place, and before Sucre had reached Oruro and Puno, in February 1825, La Paz was already in their possession, and the royalist garrisons of several towns had gone over to their side. The Spanish general Olañeta, with a diminished army of 2000 men, was confined to the province of Potosi, where he held out till March 1825, when he was mortally wounded in an action with some of his own revolted troops. ”

“ Its completion from Uyuni to Tupiza near the Argentine border is expected by 1916, and when the link has been made, there will be a complete railway connection across the Continent from the River Plate to the Pacific at192 Arica. Bolivia has hitherto suffered greatly from the want of communications, so when La Paz has been brought within twenty-four hours of the one ocean at Arica and within seventy-two or eighty hours of the other at Buenos Aires, a great impetus ought to be given to her export trade. This lofty and desert part of Bolivia finds its only source of wealth in minerals. ”

“ It is constantly quarrelling with La Paz as to which shall furnish the country its president, a truce being usually patched up by alternating the honor. The population of Bolivia is made up of just such heterogeneous groups, among which there exists a profound aversion. The rivalry is particularly tenacious between the Collas, those, chiefly of the Aymará race, inhabiting the Collao, or northern portion of the country bordering on Titicaca, and the south of the republic, containing a large proportion of Quichua blood and partaking of many of the characteristics of that timid, dreamy race. ”

“ The climate of Bolivia is so modified by the configuration of the country that more than a general statement is not possible. Lying within the torrid zone, the altitudes are to be taken into consideration as modifying influences. Fully 80 per cent of the population lives at altitudes above 10,000 feet, and not less than 60 per cent may be said to exist above 12,000 feet. That is the height above sea-level of [p. 342] La Paz, which is the largest city, and of the central plateau. ”

“ The home markets are supplied, by native industry, with cigars and cigarettes, soap, candles, hats, gloves, starch, cheese and pottery. Sugar is still made in the old way, and there is a small production of wine and silk in certain districts. No country is better supplied with water power, and electric lighting and electric power plants have been established at La Paz.
Commerce.—The foreign trade of Bolivia is comparatively unimportant, but the statistical returns are incomplete and unsatisfactory ”

“ There is a military school with 60 cadets, and an arsenal at La Paz.
Education.—Although Bolivia has a free and compulsory school system, education and the provision for education have made little progress. Only a small percentage of the people can read and write. Although Spanish is the language of the dominant minority, Quichua, Aymará and Guarani are the languages of the natives, who form a majority of the population. A considerable percentage of the Indians do not understand Spanish at all, and they even resist every effort to force it upon them. ”

“ It is separated from the Titicaca basin by the Andes, and from the Amazon basin by the range of mountains and hills at the foot of which the Beni flows. Its bottom is above the bottom of the Amazon basin, and should be treated of independent of that watershed. With the exception of a small portion, which lies in the territory of Brazil, it belongs exclusively to Bolivia.
La Paz is a most busy inland city. The blacksmith’s hammer is heard. The large mercantile houses are well supplied with goods.
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The plaza is free from market people, for there is a regular market-house. ”

“ The result of having such a large part of the population untouched by Spanish language or custom is to make the streets much more picturesque. The brilliant colors completely threw into the shade my impression of Potosí. Never have I seen such gay ponchos and such kaleidoscopic effects as in the La Paz market-place and the streets and squares near it.
The reason is not far to seek. In no other city of the Andes are the aborigines so powerful as here. La Paz owes its political supremacy, and its present possession of the President and Congress, to the fighting qualities of the Aymarás. ”

“ It may have been an hour past meridian when the keel grated softly on the strand. We had chosen a little jutting sandy point, where the wind made a cat's paw of us, and came fawning and eddying around in the coolest manner imaginable. Days are ever the same in La Paz—there had not been a sprinkle of rain for a century, so we had naught to fear but the clear bright glare of the sun, which poured down light and heat on the arid mountains and glassy sheet of water, from which, like a polished mirror of silver, it was reflected back again. ”

“ The white population, estimated at 200,000, most of whom, however, have some Indian blood, is virtually confined to a few towns, only one of which, La Paz, has more than 25,000 people. Santa Cruz (de la Sierra) , far out in the eastern lowlands, and Chuquisaca, now called Sucre, Cochabamba, and Potosi, with its wonderful mountain of silver, have some families of Spanish blood. Oruro and Uyuni in the desert are mining towns with the mixed population that gathers in such places. ”