Preserving indigenous names, the challenge in Bolivia in the face of globalization

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivia has set out to revalue indigenous names, especially those from the Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani languages where meaning abounds, a task that is at odds with the growing intention to resort to foreign references or fashionable characters.

Part of the dilemma lies in the fact that Bolivia, with more than 11 million inhabitants, has around half of its population identified as indigenous and has undergone cultural processes of self-affirmation in recent years at the same time that globalization, the media, and the internet have instituted alternative models.

This tension also reaches the names of newborns, among which Messi or Neymar can coexist alongside Amaru or Túpac, and in response to which initiatives such as the “Catalog of Names” have arisen, seeking the preservation of local identity.

FOR FASHION OR EUPHORIA

Many people “put names of players, depending on the time, movies, novels and when the child grows up those (personal) data do not like,” told Efe, the director of the Civic Registration Service of La Paz (Serecí), Jesus Gomez.

The official mentioned that he has heard of cases in which some parents have chosen names for their children, such as Ricky Martin or Lion King, Neymar or Messi. However, in the latter case the spelling varies to Mexi or Mezi, depending on how they understand it.

In Gómez’s opinion, this is a phenomenon that occurs “in a general way,” and that is not typical of rural areas but also occurs in urban areas, since the designations come in the heat of euphoria for specific hobbies.

Given this, some Serecí has disseminated catalogs with names in Aymara, Quechua, and Guaraní, three of the 36 cultures recognized in Bolivia, for parents to consider them without implying an obligation, said Gómez.

CATALOG OF NAMES

The Bolivian Electoral Body published in late 2018 the “Catalog of Names”, a guide that seeks to explain and harmonize the spelling and pronunciation of more than 3,000 indigenous names and whose dissemination was interrupted by the 2019 crisis and the pandemic, but again resumed.

The catalog highlights some names in Aymara such as Aruni (who has a word) or Mujsa (sweet) for women, Illapa (lightning power) or Inti (sun) for men, while in Quechua appear the feminine Antawara (sunset) or Waylla (green grass) and the masculine Raymi (party) or Sumaq (beautiful).

In Guarani, there is Arasai (who does not renounce his culture) or Mimbi (who has wisdom) for women and Arakae (he who endures) or Avaguasu (stout) for men.

In statements, the Guarani anthropologist Elías Caurey mentioned, for example, that in that culture, the name “is not something that was chosen at random” but “is closely linked to the essence” of the person and that in “other times” it was even something that had to be changed when “one did not make the merit” of wearing it honorably.

On the other hand, the Aymara sociologist Pablo Mamani considered that “a policy at government level” is needed to give value to native names in the face of what he considered “a racist turn” that stigmatizes specific names.

NAMES AS A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS

Mamani told Efe that sticking to foreign fashion is due to the need to project an image of modernity and thus “have the possibilities of disputing with the other spaces of power”. However, he clarified that this does not change the social condition, being an expression of a “heavy colonization”.

The expert recalled that the assignment of names had had several stages. In the 1960s or 1970s when native surnames such as Perqa, Mamani, or Colque were Spanishized to Paredes, Aguilar, or Plata, respectively, to gain acceptance.

Over time there was a process of self-affirmation, and in the last period, many politicians and leaders have opted to give their descendants “subversive names”. However “young couples” also prefer to use Asian or Anglo-Saxon appellatives due to the influence of social networks, he mentioned.

For Caurey, in the Guarani culture, there has been the phenomenon of “combining names” as a way to avoid facts of harassment or discrimination, presenting one to the “outside”, which can be Spanishized or English, and another in Guarani, which is used in the community.

“It is good that we globalize ourselves with our identity before they globalize us,” said this expert in the sense of taking advantage of the new possibility of identity given by digital platforms.

With information from EFE

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