Domitila Barrios de Chungara (1937–2012)

"My people are struggling to reach socialism"
By sally tarbox on 21 Dec. 2017
Format: Paperback
This narrative of Bolivian social activist Domitila de Chungara can't be called great literature - but it is an extremely informative and horrifying work, focusing on the plight of Bolivia's poor in the 60s and 70s.
Brought up in the tin mining region of Potosi, the people were oppressed by the mine owners and the government, in league with the US. Low wages, constant attempts from above to stamp out an increasingly unionized workforce through threats, fomenting discord - and also through torture and massacres - this makes for grim reading. As a wife and mother of seven, the author's activities resulted in opposition from her husband, threats against her children and prison and beatings.
She shows an astonishing resolution, from when she first took up the socialist cause (and for which she was disfellowshipped from the Jehovah's Witnesses.)
Chungara's interviews were written down by Brazilian journalist and social anthropologist Moema Viezzer.… (altro)