I spoke with Nohely Guzmán Narváez, a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at UCLA. A graduate of the LLILAS Master's program in 2021, she won the Best Thesis Award for “‘Esta carretera nos atraviesa’: Indigenous girls’ body-territory mapping in the emergence of Chinese capital in the Bolivian Amazon.” Nohely is from La Paz and is also the co-founder of Jasy Renyhê, an Indigenous, Peasant, and Urban Women Researchers Collective based in La Paz.
Her research is supported by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy as well as by the Society of Woman Geographers (SWG). Nohely is the recipient of the Gender, Place and Culture "New and Emerging Scholars 2023" award, along with the American Association of Geographers Cultural and Political Ecology (COPE) "Scholar-Activist Award" and the Feminist Geographies Specialty Group Best Research Proposal Award of this year. Currently, Nohely is a Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellow, and is conducting field research in Beni, Bolivia.
CH: Please Introduce yourself, and your work:
“I am from La Paz, I work with indigenous communities, in particular women and girls in the Amazon, in Beni.
Initially what drew me to the Amazon was the construction of a highway through the Territorio Indigena Multi-Etnico (TIM) and its neighbor, the Territorio Indigena Moxeño-Ignaciano (TIMI). This highway was being built by a Chinese company, and I wanted to explore how it was impacting and transforming the ways in which these territory's communities were relating to their land and transforming their everyday lives as a consequence.
In this process, I've engaged in creative and artistic methodologies that actually led me to stage an art gallery exhibit in La Paz, Bolivia. This exhibit responded to the communities 'girls' desire to showcase their work, specifically, their embodied maps that tell their own stories with the construction of the highway.
Recently I have changed my focus a little. I am now following a somewhat different and complementary process. For my dissertation, I will be writing about indigenous autonomy.
The territory I work with has just gotten its official recognition as an autonomous territory,
and I'll look into how this territory negotiates the meaning of living autonomously with the state, and also with the five peoples that inhabit it.
Nohely Guzmán Narváez with historical leader Esteban Tamo
CH: Is it hard to get recognition as an indigenous community in Bolivia?
NOHELY: "For them, it has been really hard.
They fought for it for 12 years and finally just this weekend they elected their first indigenous president. Their first indigenous government.
For most, this is like the beginning of a whole new era. My dissertation will be precisely on that, focusing on how the indigenous communities make their decisions, what do they prioritize, and how the meaning of living autonomously changes over time.
What does it mean to be indigenous for them? What does it mean to be autonomous for them?
I would not want to speak for anybody here, but many of my collaborators have reminded me of this territory’s history, of all the violence, pain, and humiliation they have faced against, for instance, ganaderos (cattle ranchers and hacendados).
Many, with tears in their eyes, see this as the end of a long history of subordination, as the historical reclaiming of what ancestrally belongs to them,..
and also as the promise of a better future for new generations. "
On her organization Jasy Renyhê:
NOHELY: " I am the co-founder of a waveless feminist organization based in La Paz, Bolivia.
It's a space where indigenous women, artists, art therapists, photographers, researchers, and activists meet to imagine new feminisms and new planetary futures with the Amazon at the center.
For example, we have two art therapists on our team. They have been working on therapeutic approaches to healing with indigenous women.
This work and the lessons we learned in the Amazon is now expanding to cities like El Alto as well.
I find these new spaces really exciting and inspiring.
Being a member of Jasy Renyhê has allowed me to do different kinds of things. Lately, and given that I’m in school here in LA and cannot be in person in the territory, I’ve spent a good portion of my time applying for community grants. These grants are oriented at supporting communities’ needs. What I do is I meet with leaders or authorities, I listen to what they need, what they want to do, and how they imagine the solutions or project would play out on the ground.
I do the work of translating those everyday needs and experiences into a language that's understandable to donors, non-profits, and decision-makers.
Once I've made sure I understand the communities' needs, I write the project proposals, discuss the details with the community authorities and if they approve the proposal, I submit them.
If I'm lucky and I get the funding, the entirety of it goes to the communities.
Recently, we were granted funding to conduct a project that centers women’s knowledge on their forest, their practices to manage it, and their relationship with traditional medicine.
This project will be conducted by the women of the Natividad de El Retiro community.
This component is an important aspect that influences my research, and that I think is pretty central, as it shapes my relationship with the communities. We have learned to communicate in unique ways, and have built a strong relationship, with a lot of trust. This has also helped me learn from them in different ways as I accompany the process every step of the way. "
Jasy Renyhê, an Indigenous, Peasant, and Urban Women Researchers Collective:
Website: https://jasyrenyhe.com/
Nohely Guzmán Narváez with Indigenous Authorities
All images and copyright are reserved for Nohely Guzmán Narváez Ⓒ
