Proyecto-Milenka V. Poma

THE AYLLU MODEL OF WARISATA

The foundation of Warisata was the Ayllu model, a form of community organization based on participation, cooperation, and reciprocity. The school recognized that the community possessed knowledge, values, and institutions that could decisively contribute to education.

The Escuela-Ayllu (Ayllu School) developed an innovative educational model that integrated academic teaching with productive work, culture, and community life. Its proposal was not limited to teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. It sought to form individuals capable of thinking, creating, working, and contributing to the well-being of their environment.

Students participated in carpentry, blacksmithing, weaving, construction, and other workshops. They also farmed the land, cared for animals, and learned skills related to agriculture and production. In this way, they understood that work was not a punishment, but a dignified activity that allowed them to develop skills, generate resources, and improve living conditions.

The Ayllu Model is based on five universal values or principles plus one: liberation, communal organization, communal production, the revaluation of cultural identity, solidarity and reciprocity, and the community as their foundation. These represent the body and the five dismembered limbs of Tupak Katari, which were scattered across various provinces, symbolizing the pierced and divided Ayllu. Uniting these aspects means restructuring the Ayllu and fulfilling what Tupak Katari said: “I will return and I will be millions.”

This systematization opens up many expectations in history, pedagogy, literature, and philosophy, without even touching upon other sciences such as sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and many others. Historically, the Warisata Escuela-Ayllu is the most important milestone in the Republic.

Pedagogically, it is the only Indigenous experience of its kind in national life. Literarily, the community members, in their eagerness to read and write, wrote an epic. Philosophically, this model offers us endless possibilities to achieve many goals, such as a Cultural Revolution of the Indigenous Nations, laws, and municipal proposals, all the way to the long-awaited Constituent Assembly, as it responds to our unique way of being and thinking.

Liberation.- The yearning to learn to read and write as a way of reclaiming Indigenous rights and defending communal lands made them realize they could not be educated to be pongos (servants/serfs). Thus, education generated a social movement under a Sacred Cause or liberating fire. Building schools was an inescapable duty carried out under a communal oath, achieving human development with unprecedented enthusiasm and acting as factors of self-determination for Indigenous peoples. Education as hope and future was a new form of Indigenous rebellion that landowners and members of the ruling middle class were unwilling to tolerate.

Communal Organization.- The self-government and organization of the School and Ayllu core—or of the other 16 cores—was exercised by the Council, Parlamento Amauta (Amauta Parliament), Cabildo, or Capitanía, with firm, honest, and disciplined leadership, achieving success in each of its wise decisions. These were institutions reminiscent of the ancestral Ulaqa, valid for both the eastern lowlands and the western highlands. A communal assembly elects representatives by consensus, forming an Administrative Council, from which Commissions emerge to practically exercise the mandate, both being coordinated by a Director. Their service is carried out for prestige and in retribution to the Community, the latter serving as the foundation of the School.

Communal Production.- The productive educational strategy of the Classroom, Workshop, Planting Field, Ayni, and Ma Ch´amaki ("A single effort") developed industries, cooperatives, fairs, and agricultural enterprises aimed at self-sufficiency, improving living conditions and quality of life. One wonders what they lacked, for their pantries were always full; in the workshops and fields, everything was produced—not only utilitarian goods (as the Palace of Education was built entirely from materials from the surrounding region and by the hands of community members), but also artistic ones, giving rise to Neo-Indian art.

Revaluation of Cultural Identity.- A very strong component of cultural identity emanated from this educational center, which revalued everything our culture meant, exalting and protecting moral, ethical, aesthetic, religious, ecological, linguistic, and heritage values, among others. Its very structure was based on the foundations of the Ayllu and the Marka, a heritage from several centuries ago, demonstrating that such knowledge was current and productive.

Solidarity and Reciprocity.- Consensus, collaboration, and communal commitment in school activities without ethnic-economic social differences—under ancestral tutelary institutions such as Ayni, Mink´a, Utawawa, Tayka, Marka, and others—is the expression of complex economic-ethical exchange and retributive relationships: from and toward the community member, the community, the land, and ideals. This achieved prosperity and geopolitical expansion from the countryside to the city (nuclear system), the nation, and Latin America.

The Community.- It is the foundation of the fundamental values or principles of the Ayllu Model; it can also represent society, the city, or the Municipality.

HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF THE WARISATA AYLLU SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION

The historical origin of the first Church of Warisata, where it was also used as a classroom for the process of learning the first letters of literacy for Indigenous children instructed by the Amawta (wise teacher) Avelino Siñani, who sought liberation from the exploitation and humiliation of the patrones (landowners) through education; therefore, the first church of Warisata became in those times a clandestine school for the liberation of the Indigenous people.

ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN WARISATA

Warisata was a primitive community and commune not intervened by hacienda owners; only the vicuñas, called wari, roamed the hills. Before the founding of the first Indigenous school, the first native inhabitants were the families: Rojas, Quispe, Choque, Silvestre, Ramos, and Siñani, who were not subjected to the labor of the landlords. In those times, the image of a Saint in the shape of a Cross miraculously appeared on a stone. At times, that stone would disappear and reappear in the homes of the native residents. Consequently, the inhabitants of the community built the church through their own efforts using local materials such as stones and adobes measuring one meter and fifty centimeters. The stones were gathered from the river, and the adobes were made with a mixture of straw and mule manure. The roof was made of totora reeds and paja brava (wild Andean grass), and then they plastered it with the same mud material. They placed the stone that appeared as a Saint with the figure of a cross inside the church, giving it its proper place. Furthermore, they invited priests to celebrate Mass for the prosperity of good agricultural production.

At the same time, they celebrated baptisms and weddings. To reach the church, the priests traveled by mule or horse for Mass, and during those years, there was good production and harvest.

They had greater faith in the natural Saint that appeared in the middle of the church. After celebrating Mass, they began to celebrate with native music played on sikus (panpipes), remembering every year the festivity of May 2nd called Señor de la Cruz (Lord of the Cross), and Native Authorities such as Hilacatas took turns worshipping the Saint. During that festivity, the church was packed, turning into an annual regional fair. Vendors traveled from the Sorata valley bringing corn (choclos), cherimoyas, aricomas (yacon), beans, humintas, valley bread, and other products, as well as from the Yungas region, where bartering was practiced with products from the Altiplano region such as potatoes, oca, fava beans, and others. Later, the church roof was replaced with corrugated metal sheets (calamina), which remain today. The festivity for the Saint was held for four days on May 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, where people arrived from all communities due to their faith in the Lord of the Cross, who held the power to grant the wishes of those who visited asking "to have something in their life." The Authorities and the pasante (festival sponsor) organized for the following year by assigning a new pasante who would take on the festivity for the Saint with traditional native dances.

Subsequently, the church served as a clandestine school for the Indigenous leader and teacher Avelino Siñani Cosme, where he taught how to write the first letters and read in Aymara and Spanish. To write, they used flat stones and colors, as in those times learning to read and write was strictly prohibited. During those eras, the Morenada dance accompanied by the pífano (fife) instrument emerged to commemorate the Feast of the Holy Cross (Santa Cruz), in which all native community members and agregados (settlers) of Warisata participated with a massive presence of people and authorities.

Over time, those dates were declared a local festival of the Warisata community featuring folkloric dances of the Morenada with its respective representative as pasante. Only men danced, while women were in charge of looking after the costumes. Later on, some women danced in circles holding hands, and the compadres (co-parents/close friends) of the pasante offered gifts consisting of arches built by themselves adorned with medium-sized sodas, breads, roosters, and live hanging rabbits; some spiritual relatives also gifted handmade ponchos and caps (chullos) adorned with paper money.

After the founding of the first Indigenous Ayllu school of Warisata, the church continued operating as an elementary school until the construction of the AYLLU School was completed. At the same time, when a native community member passed away, they were taken to the church—which served as a cemetery—to say goodbye and pray, and were then buried around the church, since at that time the community of Warisata did not have a cemetery and some buried their dead in designated spaces on their own land.

Some time after the Agrarian Reform, the church was even more revered to provide services holding Masses for baptisms and weddings, and to bring about good agricultural yields for the year. To worship during the festivity of the Holy Cross, the local festival of the town of Warisata expanded with five pasantes and the Morenada dance troupe accompanied by its own Pagador de Oruro brass band, competing among the communities of K'uchu Warisata, Muramaya, Llajama, and Cariza. For the May 1st Mass, all students of the Ayllu school walked together to attend the Mass celebrated by the priest each year.

Due to political ideology and its influence on Bolivian education, Warisata suffered looting in 1963. The festivity of the Cross diminished because of the sadness left by the destruction across the towns surrounding Warisata, caused by politicians of the Barrientos regime (Barrientistas) and the MNR. Little by little, Warisata recovered and grew stronger through its educational work, supporting the liberation of oppressed peoples using education as an instrument of freedom from the Spanish yoke and the landlords who ruled the country.

In 1980, the cemetery of the town of Warisata was built. Subsequently, all customs were recovered to remember the Saint with Masses, reviving the local festival with great strength featuring Morenada and Diablada dance troupes. By then, participants danced in costumes for four days with an incentive from the pasante who offered an affectionate meal (cariño de plato) consisting of roast suckling pig (lechonada) and its respective delicacies, which included oranges, boiled corn on the cob, and bread for each participant. They now danced in the main square of Warisata, going to the Church only for the Mass held every May 1st.

In the year 2000, a priest named Matías arrived from abroad, built a new church in the town of Warisata on Elizardo Pérez Square for the May 2nd festivity, and moved the Saint from the first church to the current church built in town. Since that year, people stopped going to the first church, which has remained abandoned to this day.

Bibliography

MOSTAJO, Carlos. La Tayka: teoría y práctica de la Escuela Ayllu [La Tayka: Theory and Practice of the Ayllu School], La Paz, 3rd Ed., C.U.M.
VELASCO, A. La Escuela Indigenal de Warisata: Primer Congreso Indígena Interamericano [The Indigenous School of Warisata: First Inter-American Indigenous Congress], Mexico, 1940.

THE AYLLU SCHOOL OF WARISATA: A LIBERATION PROJECT FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF BOLIVIA

The Ayllu School of "Warisata" represented a true liberation project for the indigenous peoples of Bolivia. Its origins date back to the colonial era and the republican period of the first half of the 20th century, when, based on the visionary ideas of teacher Elizardo Pérez and the Amautas—Avelino Siñani and others—the first Indigenous School was built by the local native inhabitants themselves, using materials from the region, for the education of the girls and boys of the Warisata area. It later expanded to more than 16 nuclearized schools founded in the Altiplano, the valleys, and the eastern lowlands, serving communities that during the colonial and republican eras had been excluded from the right to read and write.

The Ayllu School of Warisata truly constituted a liberation project for the indigenous peoples of Bolivia because, based on what was accomplished from its founding in 1931 until its partial destruction in 1940, education in Bolivia changed substantially. This was especially true regarding the approach to indigenous education and the application of a school methodology that combined classroom work, productive workshops, crop fields, communal labor, and more. Moreover, the Warisata experience was not merely limited to the pedagogical field, but transcended into other areas such as philosophy, art, literature, and beyond.

"Warisata Ayllu-School is the most important milestone in the republican life of the country, as it is the only indigenous experience of its kind in national life. Literarily, the community members, in their eagerness to read and write, had written an epic. Philosophically, this model offers us endless possibilities to achieve many goals, such as a Cultural Revolution of the Original Nations, laws, and municipal proposals, all the way to the long-awaited Constituent Assembly, as it responds to our unique way of being and thinking." (CBDE: 2007, p. 25)

As stated in the previous quote, Warisata constitutes, today, a very rich source for understanding the reality of indigenous education in Bolivia. What was achieved during the ten years of peak activity at the Indigenous School of Warisata has not easily been repeated and perhaps will never be emulated anywhere else in the world.

The region of "Warisata," geographically located in the heart of the Altiplano in the Omasuyos Province of the La Paz Department in the current Plurinational State of Bolivia, was in pre-Columbian times part of the Umasuyus Nation of the Aymara Culture. For thousands of years, they inhabited these regions, domesticating animals and practicing agriculture under the principles of complementarity, solidarity, ayni, and mink’a. They were the owners of the lands inherited from their ancestors, which they cared for zealously, implementing crop rotation and fertilizing them with natural animal manure for their conservation, showing a deep respect reflected in their ceremonies or waxt’as.

The year 1492 was a fateful year for the native peoples and nations of the Americas, because from that moment on, Europeans initiated a pattern of exploitation, subjugation, and inhumane murders against the owners of these lands, denying them all kinds of rights, and even stripping them of their deities, their ceremonial places, and what was most sacred: their lands, etc.

The so-called independence of the nations was merely beneficial for the children of the Spaniards, who were known as criollos, and some privileged mestizos. Exploitation continued, now with different actors, and ultimately the native inhabitant of these lands was reduced to a mere pongo, mitayo, or serf under the encomienda system, because they no longer possessed the very reason for their existence: the land.

From the colonial era through part of the republican era, native women and men of the Americas were denied the right to education; consequently, they were easy prey for domination and exploitation. Thus, the indigenous population's lack of literacy constituted a problem for the Bolivian State. Therefore, in 1931, the Minister of Education, Bailón Mercado, entrusted Elizardo Pérez with founding a school for indigenous people. Pérez traveled to several rural areas looking for an appropriate place to carry out his assignment. In this endeavor, he arrived in the town of Warisata, and after explaining to the residents his purpose of building a school to teach reading and writing, the community members were pleased with the idea. Finally, as a sign of agreement and acceptance by both parties, Elizardo Pérez and Avelino Siñani—an amauta who had long been dedicated to teaching girls and boys clandestinely—embraced each other.

"Upon arriving in Warisata, we did not want to destroy anything, because that was not our mission. On the contrary. We respected everything we had found: religion, art, politics, customs, secular institutions, etc. We began to study the environment and its people, inquiring about their vices and virtues, and the meaning of their festivals, which they celebrated with seriousness and moderation, in their vernacular, mythological, and hedonistic aspects. We sponsored the first Carnival and danced ourselves as well. On Ash Wednesday, we paid due homage to Pachamama (Mother Earth), whose fertile bosom promised an abundant harvest in retribution for the tribute we had offered her when planting potatoes, oca, quinoa, fava beans, etc. The 'ch’alla' (offering) was carried out according to traditional ritual... A solemn moment of sudden and spontaneous silence, while we all remained on our knees! The most representative member of the community led the ceremony. On this occasion, it fell to Mariano Ramos, venerable 'jilakata'." (Pérez, 1992, p. 109)

The inhabitants of the Warisata region, even before Elizardo Pérez's visit, had already understood with crystal clarity the importance that education held for them. A clear example of that attitude was the work carried out by the amauta Avelino Siñani, who had long been clandestinely dedicated to the task of literacy in a local temple, using animal hides as blackboards and sharpened, burnt firewood as chalk.

From the start of the first buildings, on the plots donated by the communities of Warisata, the residents undertook the work with great enthusiasm, and every groundbreaking or completion of a project was always accompanied by solemn ceremonies as a sign of gratitude to the deities that protected them.

"Then I was able to appreciate the full greatness of their individual and social virtues. I realized that the country had done nothing other than underestimate and demean them by every means, without managing, however, to destroy their traditions and their vernacular culture, rooted since long before the founding of the Inka Empire." (Pérez, 1992, p. 100)

The construction of both the Ayllu School and the Mexico Pavilion, although it received some funding from the State, relied exclusively on local labor and materials from the region. The adobe bricks were made by the community members themselves, the eucalyptus beams were brought from the valley region of Sorata, and the roof tiles were manufactured with local clay in the productive workshops. And most surprisingly, the main facade of the Mexico Pavilion is built of stone, as are the central atrium and the monuments adorning the entrance, such as the male and female pumas and the feathered serpent, etc. These stones were quarried from a site located about three kilometers east of the Ayllu School.

AYLLU SCHOOL OF WARISATA: AN EDUCATIONAL MODEL THAT TRANSCENDED BORDERS

The success of the Ayllu School sparked interest across different regions of Bolivia. Its experience inspired the creation of other educational hubs (núcleos educativos) that sought to adapt its principles to the characteristics and needs of each community.

By 1940, the nuclear system had grown to include 16 educational hubs throughout the country. The Warisata hub coordinated numerous nearby schools and contributed to the training of rural teachers. The establishment of a Teachers' College (Normal) for indigenous educators made it possible to prepare teachers committed to this new pedagogical vision.

Warisata's influence also reached the international sphere. Its principles were presented at the First Inter-American Indigenist Congress, held in Mexico in 1940, contributing to the debate on education and the rights of indigenous peoples across Latin America.

The experience demonstrated that a proposal born in an Altiplano community could offer valuable ideas for other peoples and countries. Warisata thus became a benchmark for community-based, productive, and intercultural education.

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