Una "fiera de piedra" Tiwanaku, fallido símbolo de la nación Boliviana

Abstract

The first U. S. excavation in Tiwanaku during the 1930s, delves into the symbolic legacy revealed to Bolivians by a gigantic god-stele, discovered in a highly charged political period: the Chaco War (1932-1935) between Bolivia and Paraguay. Based on documents held in private archives, this article shows the importance the archaeological discovery had in the formulation of the "Great Bolivian Archaeology Project" that aimed to transport the god-stele to La Paz. The idea was to root Bolivia in the Tiwanaku culture with a nationalistic purpose, project that failed beacuse it was rejected by La Paz inhabitants who tried to stop the transferal, destroy the sculpture and prevent any further initiatives to transform the city with precolumbian vestiges. The discourse of civic and cultural institutions helps to trace the rift between educated elites: those who desired to preserve such vestiges and those who considered that it was legitimate to destroy them.