Translation of the speech delivered by David Choquehuanca upon assuming the vice presidency of Bolivia.

LA PAZ / November 8 2020

With the permission of our gods, of our big brothers and of our Pachamama, of our ancestors, of our achachilas, with the permission of our Patujú, of our rainbow, of our sacred coca leaf.

With the permission of our peoples, with the permission of all those present and not present in this hemicycle.

Today I want to share our feelingthought for a few minutes.

It is our obligation to communicate with one another, our obligation to dialogue, it is a principle of the good life.

The people of the millenary cultures, of the culture of life, maintain our origins since the dawn of remote times.

We children have inherited a millenary culture which understands that everything is interrelated, that nothing is divided and that nothing is outside.

That’s why they tell us to all go together, that no one is left behind, that all have everything, and that no one lacks anything.

The well-being of all is one’s own well-being; helping, one can grow and be happy; to sacrifice for another’s benefit makes us feel strengthened; to unite and recognize ourselves in all is the way of yesterday, today, tomorrow and always from which we have never parted.

The ayni (work), the minke (cooperation), the tama (solidarity), the tumpa (reciprocity), our colka (forms of production) and other codes of the millenary cultures are the essence of our life, of our ayllu. Ayllu is not just an organization of society of human beings, ayllu is a system of organization of life of all the beings, of everything that exists, of all that flows in equilibrium in our planet or Mother Earth.

For centuries the civilizing canons of Abya Yala were damaged, resignified, and many exterminated, the original thought was systematically subjected to colonial thought.

But they didn’t succeed in snuffing us out, we are alive, we are from Tiwanaku, we are strong, we are like the stone, we are kalawawa, we are cholke, we are sinchi, we are Rumy, we are Jenecherú, fire that never goes out, we are Samaipati, we are Jaguar, we are Katari, we are Ainus, we are Maoris, we are Comanches, we are Mayas, we are Guaranís, we are Mapuches, Mojeños, we are Aymaras, we are Quechuas, we are Hopis, and we are all the peoples of the culture of life who awaken our Larama, still rebellious and wise.

Today Bolivia and the world are living a transition that repeats every 2,000 years. In the framework of the cycles of the times, we pass from no-time to time, giving start to a new dawn, a new Pachakuti in our history, a new sun and a new expression in the language of life where compassion for the other and the collective good replace egoistic individualism.

Where Bolivians see ourselves as all equals who are worth more united, we are in times of returning to being Jiwasa, not me, we.

Jiwasa is the death of egocentrism, Jiwasa is the death of anthropocentrism and the death of theolocentrism.

We are in a time to return to being Iyambae, a code that our Guaraní brothers have protected, and Iyambae is the same as a person that doesn’t have an owner, no one in this world needs to feel themselves owner of anyone or anything.

Since the year 2006 in Bolivia we began the difficult task of connecting our individual and collective roots, to return to being ourselves, return to our center, to the taypi, to the pacha, to the balance from which emerge the wisdom of the most important civilizations of our planet.

We are in the midst of a process of recuperation of our knowledge, of the codes of the culture of life, of the civilizing canons of a society that lived in intimate connection with the cosmos, with the world, with nature and with the individual and collective life of building our suma qamaña, of our allin kawsay, of our suma jakaña, which is the guarantor of individual and collective or community well-being.

We are in times of recuperating our identity, our cultural root, our saphi, we have cultural roots, we have philosophy, we have history, we have everything, we are people, and we have rights.

One of the unwavering canons of our civilization is the wisdom inherited from the Pacha, to guarantee balance in all time and space is to know how to administer all the complimentary forces, the cosmic, which come from the heavens with the terrestrial, which emerge from below the earth.

These two cosmic earthly forces interact creating what we call life as a totality both visible (Pachamama) and spiritual (Pachakama).

By understanding life in terms of energy we have the possibility to modify our history, matter and life as convergence of the force chacha-warmi, when we refer to the complimentarity of opposites.

The new time that we are beginning will be sustained by the energy of ayllu, the community, consensus, horizontality, complimentary equilibriums, and the common good.

Historically revolution is understood as a political act to change the social structure, and thereby transform the individual’s life; none of the revolutions have managed to modify the conservation of power, to maintain control over the people.

They didn’t manage to change the nature of power, but power has managed to distort the mind of the politicians, power can corrupt and it is difficult to modify the nature of power and its institutions, but it is a challenge that we assume from the wisdom of our peoples.

Our revolution is the revolution of ideas, it is the revolution of equilibriums, because we are convinced that to transform society, the Government, the bureaucracy, the laws and the political system, we must change as individuals.

We will promote opposing coincidences to seek solutions between the right and the left, between the rebellion of youth and the wisdom of the elders, between the limits of science and unwavering nature, between creative minorities and traditional majorities, between the sick and the healthy, between those who govern and those who are governed, between the cult of leadership and the gift of serving others.

Our truth is very simple, the condor takes flight only when its right wing is in perfect equilibrium with its left, the task of forming ourselves as balanced individuals was brutally interrupted centuries ago, we have not concluded it and the time of the era of ayllu, community, is already with us.

It requires that we be free and balanced individuals to construct harmonious relationships with others and with our surroundings, it is urgent that we be capable of sustaining the equilibriums for themselves and for the community.

We are in times of the siblings of the panaka pachakuti, siblings of change, where our fight was not only for ourselves, but also for them and not against them. We seek a mandate, we don’t seek conflict, we seek peace, we are not of the culture of war or domination, our struggle is against all forms of submission and against exclusive, patriarchal, colonial thought, come from wherever it may.

The idea of the encounter between spirit and matter, heaven and earth, of Pachamama and Pachakama allows us to think that – new woman and man – we can heal humanity, the planet, and the beautiful life that exists in her, returning beauty to our Mother Earth.

We will defend the sacred treasures of our culture from all interference, we will defend our peoples, our natural resources, our liberties and our rights.

We will return to our Qhapak Ñan, the way of noble integration, the way of truth, the way of brotherhood, the way of unity, the way of respect for our authorities, for our sisters, the way of respect for fire, the way of respect for rain, the way of respect for our mountains, the way of respect for our rivers, the way of respect for our Mother Earth, the way of respect for the sovereignty of our peoples.

Brothers and sisters, in conclusion, as Bolivians we must overcome division, hate, racism, discrimination between compatriots, no more persecution against freedom of expression, no more judicialization of politics.

No more abuse of power, power must exist to help, power must circulate, power, like the economy, must redistribute, must flow, like blood flows through our organism, no more impunity, justice brothers and sisters.

But justice must be truly independent, let us end intolerance and violation of human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

The new time means listening to the message of our peoples that comes from the bottom of their hearts, it means to heal wounds, to look on one another with respect, reclaim the fatherland, dream together, build brotherhood, harmony, integration, hope, to guarantee the peace and happiness of the new generations.

Only thus can we manage to live well and govern ourselves.