English translation of the Spanish audio below:

While Europe enjoys the longest day of the year, Bolivia observes the Southern Hemisphere winter solstice with Intiwatana, an ancient ceremony to mark the arrival of the Andean New Year.

This year, for the second year running, shamans and indigenous farmers have joined forces with archaeologists to celebrate the most important festival in the Andean calendar at the Inca ruins of Qollcas of Cotopachi, on the outskirts of the city of Cochabamba.

David Pereira, the Director of the Museum of Archaeology at the University of San Simon, explains why this site has been chosen.

“Qollca is the Inca word for a maize storage deposit, or silo. The archaeological site at Cotopatchi is the biggest example in the world, with the remains of around 3,000 circular silos.”

“The ritual celebrates the initiation of a new agricultural year, not just in the sense of the cultivation of crops, but also in the sense of fertility; the start of a new cycle of life.”

At dawn across the country, shamans and worshippers honour Pachamama (Earth Mother) and Inti (Sun), two of the principal deities of the Andean world, in order to ensure health and productivity in the year ahead, as Carlos Prado, an Andean ritualist, comments,

“The ritual always starts with the first rays of sun. It’s a homage to the divinity of the sun, to show our gratitude for the past year… we’ve eaten, we’re still alive… and to wish for a better new year. But for this we have to pay, with the table.”

David Pereira: “The ritual tables consist of a paper base, on top of which is a preparation of different herbs, different symbolic elements… houses, money, elements representing health etc… accompanied by cotton, wool, and a strongly aromatic herb called kh’oa. Coca leaves are also added, and in many cases so is a llama fetus.

Carlos Prado: “The coca leaf has a fundamental place. The ritual table shouldn’t be without it.”

Female voice: “The people who want to make a wish can do this through the coca leaf. You may wish for health, or work, for example. Do this through the coca leaves and put them on the table so your wishes and good intentions can become reality in this New Year.”

The ritual ‘table’ is put on the fire and left to burn, and the ritualist can predict the fortune the new year will bring by reading the ashes.

Carlos Prado: “If the ashes are white, we always say that’s a good sign… it means it will be a good year, without major problems. If there happens to be a dark patch, a black part that hasn’t burnt, and a white part, that suggests there will be problems.”

As the ritualist chants to Pachamama and the table burns, worshippers stretch out their hands to receive the first light of the ‘reborn’ sun, and reflect on their personal hopes for the new year.

La Kh’oa es un ritual Aymara ofrecido a la Pachamama (La Madre Tierra), realizado al amanecer o anochecer para pedir suerte y prosperida para la familia. Las hojas de coca son una parte esencial del ritual.

Esta es la primera parte de una serie de reportajes audio-visuales sobre la importancia de la coca en la sociedad boliviana. Esta planta se considera sagrada en la cultura Andina, pero está demonizada en el Occidente por contener el ingrediente activo utilizado para conseguir la cocaína.

The Kh’oa is an Aymara ritual offering to the Pachamama (Earth Mother), performed at sunset or sunrise to ask for luck and prosperity for the family. Coca leaves are an essential part of the ritual.

This is the first part of a series of multimedia reports looking at the importance of coca in Bolivian society. This plant is considered sacred in Andean culture, and demonised in the West as the source of the chief active ingredient in the drug cocaine.

The audio is in Spanish. See below for an English translation.

Audio Only (Spanish):

Sólo Audio (Español):

referendumblokscript-mp3

Santa Cruz, the largest and wealthiest department in Bolivia, voted yesterday in a controversial referendum to ratify the statutes that will be the basis for governing the department as an autonomous region.

Bolivia’s leftist central government says that the poll, called by the Prefect of Santa Cruz, a fierce opponent of President Evo Morales, is unconstitutional and divisive.

On the eve of the referendum, communities loyal to the President blockaded main routes into the capital of Santa Cruz, refusing to let the Departmental Electoral Commission access the towns in the North and West of the province.

Despite confusion about the legality of the referendum, Cruzeños turned out in their thousands to vote in polling stations across the department.

Voting was largely peaceful throughout the day in most of the region. However, in the impoverished outlying suburbs of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the departmental capital, two deaths were reported after skirmishes broke out between members of the Union Juvenil Cruzeñista, a group loyal to the Prefect, and local residents, largely poor immigrants from the Bolivian highlands who oppose the Autonomous Statutes.

Last night, as tensions simmered in the suburbs, there was an atmosphere of celebration in the main square of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. However, controversy remains. The Prefect of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, has claimed an overwhelming victory, with 85% voting in favour of the Statutes, while President Morales has dismissed this as not taking into account an estimated 40% abstention rate.

What is clear is that the people of Santa Cruz have expressed their desire greater autonomy. Whether the Autonomous Statutes ratified in today’s referendum will yield meaningful change, or, as critics fear, will simply exchange a centralist national government for an equally centralist departmental authority, remain to be seen.