Since coming to La Paz around four weeks ago, I have become used to the stark contrasts that are encapsulated everywhere within this city. In the minibuses, which make up the main component of the city’s public transportation system, it is far from unusual to see indigenous Amaryan women in full traditional garb sitting next to executive directors in expensive business suits. I am no longer surprised when I see local artisans or vendors selling their homemade products in front of upscale restaurants or boutiques. All of this is now a “new normal” that has mostly lost its shock value.
Despite the fact that the culture clash no longer grabs my attention in daily life like it once did, I still marvel at how it coexists in the country’s national identity. Walking along one of the main downtown streets “El Prado” one is treated to the sight of the statue of Christopher Columbus, the explorer and colonizer for the Spanish Crown, a mere couple of hundred meters away from that of Símon Bolivar, the independence fighter and famed liberator of South America. To me, the very presence of a Columbus statue is questionable given the fact that his voyages led to the first lasting European contact with the “New World”, inciting a period of conquest, exploitation, and colonization that lasted for several centuries and whose harmful effects linger to the present day. He is also seen as a major player in the transatlantic slave trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of native populations on the island of Hispaniola. A statue honoring this man, in a country that suffered significantly under foreign exploitation and colonization, seems absurd. Even more so given that the native inhabitants constitute a majority in Bolivia. This sentiment becomes even more staggering when one considers that the homage to Símon Bolivar, whose military campaign finally enabled Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to become sovereign states and free themselves of Spanish rule, is located on the same street.
Both of these statues enjoy the same effect of social recognition through their presence in a very popular and busy public space, and yet their effect on Bolivian history could hardly be more divergent. This is only one of the many juxtapositions that one encounters while visiting La Paz, but for me this is definitely one of the most striking.
So the idea of juxtaposition and contradiction is important here and you do a good job of teasing out the way in which it is inescapable here. To take your argument further, you could think of the divergent and often competing ideologies around each hero-figure, and what is at stake in which one, for the lack of a better term, "wins."
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