“Indian” remark causes flap in Argentina

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‘How could this Indian be a diplomat?’

Celima Torrico, Bolivia’s justice minister, said she overheard an Argentine immigration official use this expression of incredulity when she presented her credentials upon arriving at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires. An appointee of President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous chief of state, Torrico is a Quechua Indian who favors indigenous-style dress.

The episode of alleged discriminatory behavior hit the Bolivian and Argentine press in recent days, prompting embarrassed Argentine officials to vow an inquiry. Torrico had traveled to Buenos Aires to participate in an event about the status of Bolivian immigrants, who often toil in sweat-shops and other low-wage jobs in Argentina.

Reports of bigotry against Latin America’s indigenous minority are an extremely sensitive matter. Bolivia has one of the Americas’ highest proportion of indigenous residents, and President Morales, an Aymara Indian, has championed indigenous rights and customs. In Argentina, as in the United States, Indian populations were decimated and European immigrants and their descendants became dominant.

Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell in Buenos Aires