...Loose-Leaf Notes on the Life and Work of Lydia Cabrera ...

... While coca leaf has been an integral part of Andean civilization since long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, it has been the target of attacks by Catholic priests, moralizing modernizers, and international drug warriors over centuries. In 1961, the United Nations Single Convention...

... places in the mineshafts. The tío is always found sitting wrapped in streamers and confetti, with horns on his head and a big, erect penis. Miners sit with him during rest periods and chew coca leaf together, smoke, and share a drink. Miners are also the “devils” who come out at Carnival to dance...

... previously unknown to them, as well as descriptions of “El Dorado,” the fact that slaves mined gold, and the uses of coca leaf among indigenous people. For the national period, material outlines land tenure among coffee planters, chronicles the banana workers’ strike of 1928, and lauds the acumen of local...

... In recent decades, cocaine traffcking and the U.S.-promoted War on Drugs in the Andes have stigmatized the coca leaf in public awareness. But in the hilly, subtropical Yungas region of La Paz, the cultivation of coca is an age-old activity with deep cultural roots. The ethnographic work...

... at the beginning of the seventeenth century, its output of silver and demand for goods nevertheless gave rise to intensive commerce in which alcohol (brandy and wine from the coast) and coca leaf (from the Yungas) were leading products. Our traveler took the Urcusuyo road bordering the western bank of Lake...

... and chew coca leaf together, smoke, and share a drink. Miners are also the “devils” who come out at Carnival to dance in the streets by the thousands, above all in the mining city of Oruro. The tío is an adaptation to mining culture of old Andean agricultural beliefs about the fertile forces...

... In the U.S. War on Drugs in the Andes, one of the stated aims was to eliminate the production of raw material for cocaine, although in Bolivia the traditional cultivation and consumption of coca leaf was so well established that it would be impossible to eradicate the crop completely. The 1988...

..., Sunday in the park or plaza is a chance to meet a suitor, stroll at leisure with women friends, or picnic with family. In recent decades, cocaine traffcking and the U.S.-promoted War on Drugs in the Andes have stigmatized the coca leaf in public awareness. But in the hilly, subtropical Yungas...

... of the seventeenth century, its output of silver and demand for goods nevertheless gave rise to intensive commerce in which alcohol (brandy and wine from the coast) and coca leaf (from the Yungas) were leading products. Our traveler took the Urcusuyo road bordering the western bank of Lake Titicaca (rather than...