Land Ahoy!!

AS MENTIONED in a previous article, Bolivia's claim to its former coast is viewed, rather cruelly considering the passion most Bolivians' have for the return of it, as a joke.

The 'Day of the Sea' was last week, and as usual there was the parade of army, air force, police etc etc and even Bolivia's own navy sailors (snigger snigger) marching down La Paz's cobbled streets towards Plaza Avaroa, named after Colonel Eduardo Avaroa. He was the man in charge of Bolivia's defence of the sea after the Chilean invasion.

There is a great myth/legend/truth/whatEVER of Colonel Eduardo Avaroa which is held close to nearly all Bolivian hearts. He is seen by the majority of Bolivians as the brave, courageous national hero who stood up to those thieving Chileans'. The story goes that in the final exchanges of a war Bolivia was desperately loosing, during a final stand on a strategic Bridge whilst injured and hopelessly outnumbered, he uttered these few words in reply to a Chilean demand to surrender. He said....;

"¿Rendirme? ¡Qué se rinda su abuela, carajo!"

and for those of you not too accustomed to Spanish....;

"Surrender? Your grandmother should surrender, you fuck...!".

Not quite 'Et Tu Brute' of even 'Kiss me Hardy', but still rather poignant i think.

The parade is a huge affair with main roads closed off (causing traffic mayhem in all other parts of the city) and people lining the streets waiting for the precession to pass by. Waves and waves of people march past Plaza Avaroa and disappear off side streets, all marching to the beat of countless well tuned marching bands.

The climax of all this sees Avaroa's ashes taken to 'his' plaza along with a flag which is said to have been the last Bolivian flag hanging in the area taken by the Chilean army. It was taken back to Bolivia by a general's Daughter who took it from a fire station. That’s what they say anyway.

The ashes and the flag are then put in front of the current President who drones on about getting back the sea yada yada yada yaaaawn. This time was no different and good old Evo Morales even mentioned that when he was last in Chile some people were saying how they wished Chile would give the lands back to Bolivia. Yup. Course they did.

There is a certain strangeness in wanting something back which you had lost in a war 128 years ago, and without a sea surely the Bolivian navy has little or no use?

The Bolivian navy was reformed back in 1963 in an attempt to make the Bolivian people aware of their maritime history, and also supposedly as an attempt to shame Chile into making amends (i'm not sure how that works either). Thesedays they usually spend their time with perhaps an occasional patrol of Lake Titicaca, chasing the occasional drug smuggler and delivering fuel to remote communities, which isnt an overly heavy workload.

Raúl Viscarra, Commander of the navy's Amazonian section, said that the navy is there 'to show the entire world that Bolivia has a navy, and that one day we must return to the sea.'

The Bolivian Vice-President Alvaro García (i will do a future blog on him. His nickname if you could call it that is 'the gay', but his reputation is a total contradiction of that) said that the navy on Lake Titicaca serves as a living witness to Bolivia's mutilated soul. So there’s a reason to go to work if any!

But now in rather unfortunate circumstances the Bolivian navy has at last found a more pratical use for itself. The devastating floods that have hit Bolivia in the past few months have left some of the Eastern parts of Bolivia heavily under water. The navy used its river boats to rescue countless families from the rising tides - blamed on the El Nino phenomenon by meteorologists’, and blamed on George Bush by Evo.

Like presidents before him, Evo gives press conferences in front of an antique map of Bolivia with its coast still intact (does Blair have Victorian maps behind him when he speaks?). Sailors in shiny white suits guard him at many public events. School materials listing Bolivia's nine states never fail to mention the tenth that got away, nearly always including the flag and state seal for El Litoral - The Coast.

The Sea Question is one that will not be answered soon. Bolivia's commitment to its unlikely return might be a bit crazy, but the fact that the topic brings out so much passion, so much togetherness in a country which is so dividid can certainly not be a bad thing. Bolivia will never forget.