Cochabamba is Bolivia’s second largest city and unquestionably the country’s fastest growing one. I always considered it the most Bolivian city. It is also in the heart of Bolivia. Since the eighteenth century Cochabamba has always played an important role in the affairs of Upper Peru and Bolivia. The municipal archive of Cochabamba is full of the most interesting and amazing documents.
This small booklet of big pages is a concise history of Cochabamba from 1730 through the War of Independence. It rehashes standard sources. The author has failed to inform himself of some of the recent revisionist essays. For example, he continues to preach that Casimiro Olañeta influenced Marshal Sucre’s decree calling for a national assembly to decide the future of Upper Peru. Humberto Vázquez-Machicado showed many times that this was not so. He apparently never consulted a single document, of which there are so many easily available. Nevertheless his account of the revolt of Alejo Calatayud of 1730 merits some praise for its clarity of presentation, although it is marred by a too patriotic attitude instead of an impartial evaluation.
