Subaltern Rhetoric: Double Vision and Discourse for Change in Evo Morales’ Inauguration Address

• In Event: Global Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of Globalization

Abstract

Evo Morales’ electoral victory provided a discourse for change within Bolivian politics. This essay examines the subaltern rhetoric in his 2006 inauguration address. Using a theoretical perspective that combines standpoint epistemology with the Aymara theory of “Both Eyes” and the theories of de-colonial thinking and subversive complicity, it exposes Morales’ discourse as a double vision that enables the indigenous population to emerge from the periphery and into the focus of Bolivian politics and social change.

Author

• Tiara Naputi, University of Texas, Austin