“Yo no veo aquí más que miserias”: Enfermedad social y capitalismo “humanitario” en En las tierras del Potosí

Autores/as

  • Ana Lucía Tello University of California, Berkeley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/bsj.2022.214

Palabras clave:

Capitalismo, disciplina, enfermedad, higiene, humanitarismo, minería

Resumen

Este ensayo propone leer En las tierras del Potosí (1911), de Jaime Mendoza, como un diagnóstico de la ”enfermedad nacional”. En esta novela, el autor explora los múltiples obstáculos que la nación boliviana enfrenta en su camino hacia la modernidad. Por un lado, al retratar los problemas de salud de los obreros en las minas de estaño en Llallagua, la novela denuncia la explotación por parte de la compañía minera. Sin embargo, el impacto de las acciones de la compañía es mucho más profunda: produce la descomposición moral de todo el cuerpo social. De esta manera, la “barbarie” de los obreros es producida por el capitalismo, y por tanto no puede ser reducida a factores raciales o geográficos. No obstante, la solución que propone la novela, no es la erradicación del capitalismo, sino la implantación de un capitalismo impulsado por un “móvil humanitario”. Por otro lado, los cuerpos indisciplinados de las mujeres son señalados como otra causa del fracaso del proyecto modernizador. No cumplir adecuadamente con el rol materno pone en riesgo “el futuro saludable” de la nación. Así, son dos los grandes obstáculos que enfrenta el proyecto modernizador: un capitalismo que produce pobreza, enfermedad y muerte, por un lado, y las mujeres indígenas, por el otro. Mientras el primer obstáculo escapa al campo de acción del saber médico, el segundo puede ser superado a través de prácticas disciplinarias como la higiene. Empero, la confianza en la posibilidad de superar el segundo obstáculo es más que nada una maniobra compensatoria, pues mientras persista el primer obstáculo todo intento de convertir al indio en un sujeto moderno, limpio y disciplinado está condenado al fracaso.

Biografía del autor/a

Ana Lucía Tello, University of California, Berkeley

Doctorante en el Departamento de Español y Porgugués de la Universidad de California, Berkeley.

Descargas

Publicado

2022-12-02

Número

Bolivian Studies Journal Vol. 28, 2022

Sección

Artículos

Licencia

El acuerdo de derechos de autor es un aviso legal que no se puede modificar ni traducir.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.