The Spectacular City: Violence and Performance in Urban Bolivia

Introduction

1. Discuss the Spanish conception of policía. What did it mean in the context of Spanish colonialism? What does it signify in the context of the modern Latin American city? Does the older meaning of policía have any connection to the contemporary institution of the police?
2. Discuss the various meanings of the "marginality" concept. How did this concept figure in earlier sociological conceptions of urban life? How does it relate to contemporary ideas about criminality in the modern Latin American city?
3. "While the spectacle is obviously an attempt to make certain things dramatically visible, it is also, by extension, an attempt to render other things invisible" (p. 16). Discuss this observation. What is being revealed in the spectacle? What is being concealed?
4. What is meant by the varied definitions of "public," as discussed in chapter 1? How does "publicity" figure into spectacular performance? Why is spectacle a useful tool for migrant groups in particular?
5. What does it mean to call vigilante lynching a kind of "pragmatics of inclusion"?

Chapter 1

1. What are the different kinds of observation to be found in the marginal barrio? How does anthropological investigation factor into this?
2. Define desconfianza. What are its sources in the marginal barrio?
3. What are the possible suspicions that people in the marginal barrio might have concerning the ethnographer, or of ethnographic practice more generally? What possible benefits might they see in it?
4. Why has Villa Pagador been attractive to researchers? What sorts of researchers might one find at work there? How do local people regard them?
5. What possible criticisms have been offered of urban participant-observation? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
6. What does it mean to be a "mal-pagadoreño"?

Chapter 2

1. Discuss the role of the Cancha in the urbanization of Cochabamba. Why has the market been so significant in the city's development?
2. Why has disease been such an important metaphor in the history of urban growth in Cochabamba? Discuss the relationship between ideas about race and disease in the Latin American city.
3. What were the goals of the Plano Regulador in Cochabamba? Why did it fail to achieve these goals?
4. What factors motivated migration to Cochabamba and other Bolivian cities?
5. What were the goals of the Talleres Zonales/Casas Comunales project in Cochabamba? Why did they succeed when earlier regulatory plans failed? How did the transition from the Taller Zonal to the Casa Comunal represent an important shift in the goals of the project?
6. Discuss land "regularization" and the making of citizens in Cochabamba. Why was this such an important goal of the municipal government?

Chapter 3

1. What is meant by a "spectacular genealogy" for Villa Pagador?
2. Discuss the different conceptions of "community," in anthropology and for people in Villa Pagador.
3. What were some techniques used by residents of Villa Pagador to represent themselves in strategic ways to the municipal authorities? What was the importance of "reputation dissemination" in the formation and growth of the barrio?
4. Discuss the role of the "traditional" leaders in the formation and development of Villa Pagador. How would you evaluate their leadership, and their relationships with other barrio residents?
5. What is the symbolic significance of Oruro in the history of Villa Pagador?
6. Discuss the changing nature of community and collective solidarity in Villa Pagador, from its founding to the later years of its history. How did the growth of the barrio affect the sense of community among the populace? Its public identity as a unified and organized collectivity?
7. What was the role of the Casa Comunal in breaking the loteadores' hold over the community? Discuss the impact of the Casa Comunal on the political or social consciousness of barrio residents.
8. Discuss the significance of the plano aprobado to barrio residents. Does acceptance of municipal "citizenship" mean that barrio residents are completely subordinated to municipal authority? Why or why not?

Chapter 4

1. Discuss the idea of folklore as it exists in Latin America. What contradictions does the idea of folklore contain?
2. Why is Cochabamba considered to be a less "authentic" place than the Bolivian altiplano?
3. What elements of altiplano festivals have been incorporated in the fiesta de San Miguel in Villa Pagador?
4. Discuss the role of the padrino in organizing and paying for the fiesta de San Miguel. How does the ayni system function to pay for the party? How does these differ from their roles in the rural fiesta?
5. Discuss the various motivations that impel a man to become a fiesta sponsor in Villa Pagador.
6. What is the significance of community in the San Miguel fiesta?
7. In what ways is the Villa Pagador fiesta explicitly a reproduction of the Oruro carnaval?
8. Why is the fiesta de San Miguel an important vehicle of publicity for barrio residents? Can the fiesta be an instrument for political inclusion in Villa Pagador?

Chapter 5

1. Why is the "privatization of justice" an ironic response to the lack of law enforcement in Bolivia?
2. How does the discourse of Villa Pagador as a "dangerous place" echo descriptions of marginal barrios from an earlier period of Cochabamba's history?
3. How do racialized views of indigenous Andeans come into play when outsiders interpret lynchings?
4. Why did the lynching in Villa Pagador pose a threat to barrio reputation? How did local leaders manage this threat?
5. How do women's views of the lynching differ from those of men? Why?
6. How have recent media reports of lynchings interpreted lynching violence? To what do they attribute it?
7. What does the emergence of the symbolic lynching say about this kind of violence as a vehicle for public communication?

Conclusion

1. Compare the lynching in Villa Pagador with the death penalty in the United States? What do they have in common? How do they compare as instruments for the exaction of "justice"?
2. What is the "pedagogical" function of spectacular violence?
3. Discuss the interpretive conflict that exists in Villa Pagador surrounding the lynching. What are its various sources?
4. What is the significance of citizenship as a rhetorical tool for marginal peoples' political activity?

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