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Plurinational State of Bolivia
Excerpt from a 2010 law adopted by the nation of Bolivia
Overivew
In the context of other poems that imagine “the land” as a source for national idenity, as a literary “figure” which can be addressed via apostrophe, this text centers earth's living systems as a living being (including human persons and all other life forms) – “a dynamic living system comprising an indivisible community. . . .” The authority or justification for this includes its basis in traditional world-views.
- “Mother Earth is considered sacred, from the worldviews of nations and peasant indigenous peoples” (Article 3)
Form
Not a traditional poetic form, this text is included in the A Map of the Americas mini-gallery subtitled “America as a Women.” This except is not presented as a poem but as a text expressing, in legal language, a vision that might be more usually associated with poetry, myth, spirituality or religion.
The form, so to speak, is that of a legal document, divided into articles and subsections that provide definitions and aim to govern behavior or provide standing to “Mother Earth”.
Context
According to the Guardian, “The law, which is part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system following a change of constitution in 2009, has been heavily influenced by a resurgent indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity known as the Pachamama at the centre of all life.”
The law emerged from a socio-political movement that culminated in the election of President Evo Morales (2006-2019), who centered his own humble economic beginnings and Aymara ethnic background.
Source
Historical links to the actual legal text in Spanish are broken.
References
- Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_Rights_of_Mother_Earth
- “Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth,” The Guardian April, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights
- “Bolivia Law of the Rights of Mother Earth” https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/law-of-the-rights-of-mother-earth/
- “Evo Morales,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales]
