Review of New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia By Bret Gustafson

Abstract

Bret Gustafson has produced an encyclopedic, and at times epical, account of the bilingual education project in Bolivia as it transpired and evolved in the Guarani setting over the last few decades. Strategically situated as outside advisor, as collaborator in materials production, and as ethnographer of the project, Gustafson enjoyed access to the multiple realms of action that defined the progress of EIB, educación intercultural bilingüe, “bilingual intercultural education,” as it played out in Guarani communities, in the corridors of bureaucratic intrigue, in the programs of NGOs, and in the campaigns of political actors. There are many valuable lessons that emerge from this protracted engagement with every facet of the project. One of these is that the quest to modify educational policy and practice to encompass indigenous languages and worldviews quickly expands into cultural and political zones far removed from the purely educational; a second is that there are no easy answers, few villains or heroes, and instead of these palliatives, a great many figures and moments defined by the qualities of ambivalence and ambiguity. In a way, Gustafson’s book can be read as a caution against seeking simple solutions to complex social problems. But it would not be accurate to say that Gustafson counsels against taking up this good fight, for even if happy resolutions are not forthcoming, it is still the case that projects in bilingual intercultural education can achieve some amelioration of colonial structures of power distribution, and perhaps most significantly, can enable indigenous peoples to push ahead in a political project in which educational concerns constitute only one fragment in a larger agenda.