Bolivian Americans or Bolivia-Americans (Spanish: boliviano-americano, norteamericanos de origen boliviano or estadounidenses de origen boliviano) are Americans of at least partial Bolivian descent.
Bolivian Americans are usually those of Indigenous, Mestizo, or Spanish background but also occasionally having African, German, Croatian, Lebanese and/or Japanese heritage.
Bolivians compose the third smallest Latin American group in the United States, with a 2010 Census population of 99,210. The highest concentration resides in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, which accounts for 38% of the total Bolivian population in the United States (especially Fairfax County, Virginia).[2] Additional areas of concentration include the New York City borough of Queens, Miami-Dade County, and the cities of Los Angeles and Providence, Rhode Island. In relative terms, a large number of Bolivian-born medical doctors reside in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Small numbers of Bolivians have been immigrating into the United States since at least the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. In the first half of the twentieth century, some upper-class Bolivians came to the United States seeking to further their and their children's academic education or artistic training, including, for example, the father of Raquel Welch, an aeronautical engineering student at the University of Illinois in the 1930s, and the father of violin child prodigy Jaime Laredo, who moved to San Francisco in the 1940s.
Large-scale Bolivian immigration into the United States occurred in two significant phases. The first phase occurred during and subsequent to the 1952 National Revolution (between 1952 and the latter 1960s). Most of these immigrants consisted of middle- to upper-middle income occupational professionals or political dissidents, belonging mainly to Bolivia's European descendant community.[3] This group included many engineers, medical doctors, academics and business executives. In many cases, they had first come to the United States on college athletic scholarships (e.g. tennis) in the 1960s and thereafter, for medical residency training, or for post-graduate university education, including the first Fulbright Scholars from Bolivia in the mid-1950s—for men, civil engineer Walter Gonzalez Gonzalez at the University of Illinois;[4] for women, economist Blanca Sfeir Cavero at the University of Iowa.[5][6] Some of these professionals quickly organized themselves institutionally. For example, in New York City, the Bolivian American Chamber of Commerce[7] was formed; in Chicago, the Bolivian American Medical Society was incorporated;[8] and in Urbana, Illinois, the Bolivian Studies Journal was founded.[9] One of the members of the Board of Directors of the Bolivian American Chamber of Commerce is Marcelo Claure. One of the members of the Board of Directors of the Bolivian American Medical Society was Dr. Hugo Muriel, who served as the City of Chicago's Health Commissioner in the Mayor Jane Byrne administration. Another Board member, Jorge A. Cavero was honored by the American Medical Association Foundation in 2021 with its Medical Excellence/Pride in the Profession Award. Moreover, in the early 1990s, the Bolivian American Medical Society received the Order of the Condor of the Andes award from the then president of Bolivia Jaime Paz Zamora. Another Bolivian American medical doctor, Enrique Via-Reque is a founder and board member of Solidarity Bridge, an Illinois not-for-profit that organizes medical mission trips to Bolivia and Paraguay. One of the founding editors of the Bolivian Studies Journal, Nelly Sfeir Gonzalez, was awarded the Jose Toribio Medina Prize and served as president of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials.
The second notable phase of Bolivian immigration (between 1980 and 1988) was a result of Bolivia's fiscal policies in the 1970s which gave way to the hyperinflation throughout most of the 1980s. Most of these immigrants consisted of lower-income Mestizo (European/Amerindian mix) and Indigenous Bolivians obtaining work posts as service and manual laborers. Most of the Bolivian American population is of Quechua descent, with the majority of them hailing from the Valle Alto region of Cochabamba, from towns like Tarata, Arbieto, Cliza, Punata, and Tolata, with most of them living in the D.C. area.[10] They have also organized themselves into institutions. For example, in Chicago, the group Renacer Boliviano, the core of which hails from La Paz and Oruro, began as a caporales folk dance troupe, expanded into hosting Bolivian carnaval dinner dances in the winter and 6 de agosto barbecues in the summer, and finally has become a charitable organization that raises funds for charities in Bolivia[11] and in northern Virginia, the Arlington Bolivian Soccer League Inc is a 501(c)3 not for profit[12] that has provided funding for erecting in the Tarata town square an equestrian statue of war of independence hero Esteban Arze.
Another way that Bolivian immigrants to the United States maintain community is through annual reunions of graduates of Bolivian high schools, such as the American Institute ("Amerinst"),[13] which has schools in La Paz and Cochabamba, and Colegio La Salle ("La Salle"), which has schools in La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Santa Cruz, and Trinidad. Amerinst was founded by Methodist missionaries from New York and Illinois and La Salle was founded by Catholic Christian brothers from France and Spain. Notable alumni of Amerinst include President Hernan Siles Zuazo and Vice President Juan Lechin Oquendo as well as Bolivian Americans Jorge Berindoague, Michael Jusbasche, Nelly Sfeir Gonzalez, Daisy Urquiola Wende, and Peter F. McFarren. In addition, Chilean writer Isabel Allende is also an alumna of Amerinst. Notable alumni of Colegio La Salle include President Jorge Quiroga, neuroscientist Mohammed Mostajo-Radji, and Nobel laureate in literature Mario Vargas Llosa.
In terms of cultural impact, Bolivian Americans have expanded the menu of foods available to mainstream Americans. There are Bolivian restaurants in New York City, northern Virginia, San Francisco and Los Angeles, among other major metropolitan centers. The Bolivian empanada, called saltena has a growing following in the United States. Bolivian foods such as quinoa and cherimoya are sold in many grocery stores across the country. One of the first to grow cherimoya commercially in the United States was Samuel Grossberger, a Bolivian immigrant medical doctor from Cochabamba who settled in California in the 1960s. In terms of music, Bolivian flute and panpipe melodies are well known to those who appreciate world music. The Bolivian folk group Los Kjarkas performs to sold-out audiences in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami. Their song "Llorando se fue" became known as the lambada song and was a global number one hit. In terms of fashion, Bolivian Americans, in particular the designer Daisy Wende in the 1970s, popularized the poncho as part of a stylish woman's wardrobe (previously, it had been considered male clothing). In terms of fine art, two standouts are San Francisco-based painter Antonio Sotomayor and Massachusetts-based sculptor Pablo Eduardo. In addition, the Bolivian medical doctor and amateur painter Ruben German Plaza assembled and exhibited in the 1990s an extensive collection of prize-winning watercolors by Ohio artists (the "Plaza Collection"). Donna Huanca, born in Chicago, Illinois and resident of Berlin, Germany, is a painter, sculptor and performance artist who has shown her work internationally, including at Exhibition 211. Boston-based Lucia Balcazar is an illustrator, print maker and artist of paper flowers. Carolina Zumaran-Jones is a Maryland-based fine art photographer. Bolivian Americans have also left their mark on Hollywood. Jaime Mendoza-Nava composed musical soundtracks for a number of Hollywood films. Raquel Welch and Pato Hoffmann have had starring roles in Hollywood films and Carla Ortiz, Jose Luis Penaranda, Reynaldo Pacheco and Ryan Emilio Molina have had supporting roles. Doris Casap is an independent film producer. Rommel Villa is a director of short films. In journalism, Natalia Girard is a UNIVISION news anchor for the Chicago metropolitan area. Peter McFarren, the Bolivian-born son of Methodist missionaries from the United States, is a journalist, photographer and museum founder.
Many Bolivians who emigrated to the United States came as tourists. However, many remained of indefinite way in the country, setting with family and friends. This made it difficult to know the number of Bolivians living in the United States. Between 1984 and 1993, only 4,574 Bolivians got U.S. citizenship. In this period about 457 were naturalized each year.[14]
Bolivians have settled throughout the United States, mainly in Washington D.C., California and Maryland; there are also large groups of Bolivian immigrants in Texas, New York City, New Jersey, South Florida, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Chicago, home to a community of Bolivian medical doctors and their families, most of whom originally from Cochabamba. Included in this group are cardiologist Patricia Cavero, urologist Fernando Gonzalez, general surgeon Oscar Herbas and internist Alex Montero. The number of Bolivians in the U.S. in 2006 was estimated at 82,322. Most Bolivian immigrants are high school or college graduates; many work in companies, in government or in academia.[14] For example, Eduardo Gamarra is a professor of Latin American politics at Florida International University; Elizabeth Monasterios is professor of Latin American literature at the University of Pittsburgh; and Maria Tapias is a professor of anthropology at Grinnell College. In the STEM fields, standouts include mathematician Carol Schumacher, chemical engineer Markita del Carpio Landry, neuroscientist Mohammed Mostajo-Radji, and mathematician and quantitative neuroscientist Xavier Gonzalez, a Rhodes Scholar. Others who have STEM PhDs have made successful careers in private industry, including electrical engineer Augusto Gutierrez-Aitken (expertise in lasers and photosensors) and materials scientist Luis Fanor Vega. Noteworthy civil engineers are Walter Gonzalez Gonzalez (Illinois), Oscar Tapias (New York), Julian Barrientos (Wisconsin), Eduardo Castillo (Arizona), Ramiro Galindo (Texas) and Rene Quiroga (Maryland). A couple of entrepreneurs have become billionaires in the US, including Marcelo Claure and Michael Jusbasche. A Bolivian-born biotech entrepreneur is Rodrigo Navarro. Among the new generation of US-born entrepreneurs focusing on opportunities in data science are lawyer Pablo Ormachea and psychologist Juan Manuel Contreras. In the field of corporate law, John Paul Crespo is a partner at a major Houston law firm, Vania Montero-Witt is deputy general counsel of one of the largest US airlines, and Javier Gonzalez-Sfeir was an international lawyer and general counsel. A good number of Bolivian-Americans are musicians specializing in string instruments such as violin virtuoso Jaime Laredo, guitar maestro Javier Calderon, and charango wizard Eddy Navia (one of the founders of the iconic Bolivian folk group Savia Andina). Bolivian-born Fabiana Claure, prize winner at the 2002 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, and US-born Ana-Maria Vera[de], whose recording of Mozart and Hadyn concertos with the Rotterdam Philharmonic was awarded a Gold Record by Philips Records, are two outstanding Bolivian American concert pianists. Liz Calle is a lyrical and cross-over soprano. An up and coming orchestral conductor is Arkansas-based Nelio Zamorano. Of the Bolivian Americans born in the United States, many are medical doctors, engineers, lawyers and university professors. Some have served in the United States armed forces in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Major Emily Georgette Sfeir, US Army, was part of Task Force Argo that rescued Afghan interpreters and their families following the Taliban takeover in 2022. Bolivian Americans have also excelled in the teaching profession: AP Calculus teacher Jaime Escalante received the Presidential Medal of Excellence in Education from President Ronald Reagan in 1988, Javier Ergueta was named the 2018 Delaware History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Luis Morato received recognition for his teaching of Quechua by the Quechua Alliance, Emma Violand-Sanchez was the first Hispanic to win election to the Arlington, Virginia school board, and Graciela Lara de Peñaranda (a political self-exile who was a judge and prosecutor in Bolivia) was the head of the Spanish and French department at the Lado International Institute in Washington DC in the 1980s.[15] Bolivian Americans can be found as students in the finest universities in the country, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, M.I.T., and the United States Military Academy. Bolivian American college students have been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship,[16] the Marshall Scholarship[17] and the Rhodes Scholarship[18] Many Bolivian American women, both those born in Bolivia as well as those born in the United States, have had noteworthy success in NCAA women's tennis. Included in this group are Bolivian-born Ana Maria Diez de Medina (Highpoint Univ), Monica Hoz de Vila (Oregon), and Daniela Trigo (Rice); among the US-born are Denise Azcui (Western Michigan), Natasha Gonzalez (Harvard), Caroline Pozo (Northwestern), and Alexandra Inchausti (West Point). [19][20] Furthermore, Gualberto Escudero at Pepperdine University and Ramiro Azcui at Indiana University have served as long-time head coaches of NCAA Division I varsity women's tennis programs.
Areas
A Bolivian restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia
The largest populations of Bolivians are situated in the following areas (Source: Census 2010):
Ana-Maria Diez de Medina – Bolivian national tennis champion in five divisions, NAIA All-American Honorable Mention, Carolina Conference Player of the Year[21]
Pablo Eduardo - Bolivian-born, resident of Massachusetts, sculptor of public tributes to Mayor Kevin White, Cesar Chavez, Charles Darwin, St. Thomas Morre.
Steve Gay - pro soccer player and college coach, All-American, member 1972 United States Olympic team
Walter Gonzalez Gonzalez – civil and structural engineer, first Bolivian Fulbright scholar to the United States, former president of the Society of Bolivian Engineers
Rodrigo Hasbun – professor of Latin American literature, short story writer, novelist
Pato Hoffmann – movie and TV actor, advocate for American Indians
Markita del Carpio Landry – chemical engineer, university professor, researcher on nano materials for brain imaging and agriculture (Bolivian mother, French-Canadian father)
Graciela Lara de Peñaranda - Bolivian women's voting rights activist, family court judge, prosecuting attorney, president of the National Federation of Bolivian Women Lawyers, captain Bolivian army, political exile, naturalized US citizen, language teacher, real estate executive[22]
Carol Schumacher - Bolivian-born American mathematician and university professor. Daughter of LeGrand Smith, former superintendent of The American Institute ("Amerinst") in La Paz.
Carlos Scott – retired Bolivian-American soccer midfielder
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB), internationally known as LAB Bolivian Airlines, was the flag carrier and principal airline of Bolivia from 1925 until it ceased operations in 2010. It was the second oldest airline in South America after Avianca, and among the oldest airlines in the world. It operated scheduled domestic and international services to destinations in the Americas together with a transatlantic route to Madrid in Spain. It was headquartered in Cochabamba, having its main domestic hub at the city's Jorge Wilstermann International Airport, and international hubs at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz and El Alto International Airport in La Paz.
Cochabamba is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and the fourth largest city in Bolivia, with a population of 630,587 according to the 2012 Bolivian census. Its name is from a compound of the Quechua words qucha "lake" and pampa, "open plain." Residents of the city and the surrounding areas are commonly referred to as cochalas or, more formally, cochabambinos.
The 1997 Copa America was the 38th edition of the Copa America. It was held in Bolivia from 11 to 29 June. It was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body.
Colombian Americans, are Americans who have Colombian ancestry. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of full or partial Colombian descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United States from Colombia. Colombian Americans are the largest South American Hispanic group in the United States.
Chilean Americans are Americans who have full or partial origin from Chile.
Mauricio González Sfeir is a petroleum company executive and president of the Bolivian professional football team La Paz F.C. Mr. Gonzalez served as president of YPFB and Secretary of Energy of Bolivia in the mid-1990s, contributing to the success of the Bolivia-Brazil natural gas pipeline. He is a co-author of the Baker Institute's "Americas Project."
A Nicaraguan American is an American of Nicaraguan descent. They are also referred to as "nica" or "nicoya".
Ecuadorian Americans are Americans of full or partial Ecuadorian ancestry. Ecuadorian Americans are the 9th largest Latin American group in the United States.
Guatemalan Americans are Americans of full or partial Guatemalan descent. The Guatemalan American population at the 2010 Census was 1,044,209. Guatemalans are the sixth largest Hispanic group in the United States and the second largest Central American population after Salvadorans. Half of the Guatemalan population is situated in two parts of the country, the Northeast and Southern California.
Costa Rican Americans are Americans of at least partial Costa Rican descent.
Panamanian Americans are Americans of Panamanian descent.
Paraguayan Americans are Americans of Paraguayan descent.
Bolivians are people identified with the country of Bolivia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Bolivians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Bolivian.
The history of the Jews in Bolivia goes back to the colonial period of Bolivia in the 16th century. In the 19th century, Jewish merchants came to Bolivia, most of them taking local women as wives and founding families that merged into the mainstream Catholic society. This was often the case in the eastern regions of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando, where these merchants came either from Brazil or Argentina.
Raul Marcelo Claure Bedoya is a Bolivian-American technology entrepreneur, businessman, and investor. He is the founder and CEO of Claure Group, the Executive Chairman of Bicycle Capital, and Group Vice Chairman for Shein.
American Cooperative School of La Paz or ACS Calvert (ACS), is an American international school in La Paz, Bolivia, serving kindergarten through grade 12.
Sfeir is a Maronite Christian clan surname from Lebanon, which appears with the highest density in the mountainous Keserwan District. As a result of the Lebanese diaspora, the name has flourished in North and South America, Western Europe, Australia, the Arabian peninsula, and west Africa.
Fernando Bravo James was a Bolivian politician and militant of POR, a Trotskyist organization. He was an economist, senior lecturer at the Universidad Técnica de Oruro (UTO) and at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), trade union leader and educator. He was a tireless fighter for the cause of the proletariat and the youth.
Nelly Sfeir de Gonzalez was an American librarian and bibliographer at the University of Illinois. She was a two-time winner of the Jose Toribio Medina International Prize for Latin American bibliographies, a president of Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, and a founder of the Bolivian Studies Journal. In her country of birth, Bolivia, she was a university student leader, women's suffragist and licensed lawyer.
Walter González González was a Bolivian civil and structural engineer. He was the first Fulbright Scholar from Bolivia. He was president of the Society of Bolivian Engineers, a Dean of the school of civil engineering at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, Bolivia, and Chief of the Alto Beni Development Project.
↑ "Natasha Gonzalez Awarded ITA Northeast's Arthur Ashe Award". gocrimson.com. Harvard University Women's Tennis. May 18, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2023. Gonzalez, the 2019-20 team co-captain, has also been named to the Spring 2020 Academic All-Ivy team
Eigo, Tim. "Bolivian Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp.319–329.
Paz-Soldan, Edmundo. “Obsessive Signs of Identity: Bolivians in the United States.” In The Other Latinos, ed. José Luis Falconi and José Antonio Mazzoti. (Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard, 2008).
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