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The Intergenerational Heartbreak of Bolivia’s Urbanization

By Ena Alvarado

Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s “Utama” looks at the human side of environmental crisis in the Bolivian highlands.

This article is adapted from AQ’s special report on Lula and Latin America Some places on Earth seem barely fit for human life. The opening scene of Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s debut feature, Utama, puts on display one such region: the Andean altiplano, which, despite its forbiddingly cold and arid terrain, was once home to the Inca Empire. Today, more than 2 million people in Latin America, mostly of Indigenous descent, live in the highlands. Through its patient observation of the region’s most vulnerable inhabitants, Loayza Grisi’s film stunningly captures the limits of human...

Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.

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