The Time of the Underdog: Rage and Race in Latin America
Evo Morales' victory in Bolivia is a sign of transformation in Latin America
The time of the underdog: rage and race in Latin America
Ivan Briscoe
19 - 12 - 2005
Latin America’s dominant political story in 2005 has been the rise of the left. But, argues Ivan Briscoe in the wake of Evo Morales’s victory in Bolivia, this political dynamic is driven and framed by an even larger one: the ascent of the underdog.
" To judge from the childhoods of Latin America’s most powerful men, the streets of the continent, much as the Spaniards dreamed, could still be paved with gold. Brazil’s Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, as he himself admitted, did not eat a solid meal until the age of 7. Peru’s Alejandro Toledo famously worked as a shoeshine boy. And Bolivia’s Evo Morales – whose decisive victory in the 18 December elections opens his route to join the exclusive presidential club – was born with the help of a witch-doctor, tended llamas on the long walk from high-altitude Oruro to semi-tropical Cochabamba, and chewed the orange peel thrown by passengers out of bus windows. "
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