| For close to four centuries the identity of
Andean people has been under siege. Beginning with the Spanish conquests
of the early 1500s and continuing through the twentieth century’s development
initiatives and drug war, a western influence has attempted to recast the
Andean consciousness in a manner that would enhance a self-serving western
socio-economic agenda. This website explores how these four hundred years
of western intrusion have constructed a coca-dependent Andean consciousness. |
|
First, it looks at how the arrival of the Spanish
heightened coca’s cultural position in the Andean identity. Second, it
examines the post WWII development period and its inadvertent construction
of coca as an economic necessity. Finally, it considers the United
States current war on drugs, concluding that the resistance exhibited by
the Andean peasants to this initiative, at least in part, results from
the historical construction of coca as a symbol of Andean cultural and
economic survival. |
