Rafael Quispe

Rafael Quispe (born 24 October 1969) is a Bolivian indigenous activist and politician who served as general executive director of the Indigenous Development Fund from 2019 to 2020, in addition to a number of other political posts.

The message you give to people is better accepted with humor.

Quotes

• We thought that [Evo Morales] represented hope, we identified with him. He won, we gave him all the power. But the process has given us nothing. It has been all discourse, no application. He speaks of Mother Earth, and he is the foremost violator of Mother Earth.
  • Bill Weinberg (2 September 2010) "Beyond Extraction: An Interview With Rafael Quispe", NACLA Report on the Americas.
• I don't want to be president because to be president is to be a prisoner of the transnationals, of the llunkus, to be a prisoner of a colonial state ...
  • "Quispe: No creo que lleguemos al poder este 2014" in ERBOL (4 November 2013).
• My mother was a very wise woman; she had the fundamental principles of respect for life, respect for our nature, for the worldview; she was a great believer in nature, in the wacas, in the illas; she guided me in the life of our peoples.
  • "Quispe: No creo que lleguemos al poder este 2014" in ERBOL (4 November 2013).
• [Our party] must [have] a renewal of leadership; new people in politics in this country ... professionals, middle class, and Indians; the Indians cannot be on the sidelines.
  • "Concejales y gente del ex-MSM serán parte del nuevo partido de Quispe" in El Alteño (13 November 2017).
• If you have to go to jail for denouncing corruption, I'm going to go.
  • "Diputado Rafael Quispe es aprehendido por la Policía" in Correo del Sur (16 May 2018).
• ... those of us who comply with the Constitution ... fear nothing; [I] fear only God... and my wife.
  • "'Miedo, solo a Dios... y a mi esposa', la respuesta viral del diputado Rafael Quispe" in El Deber (11 December 2018.)
• The message you give to people is better accepted with humor.
  • "Rafael Quispe: Hago marketing político y la gente me conoce mejor" in Urgente.bo (25 February 2019).
• I do striking things, but I do them so that the people understand ... in a didactic way what is happening in the country.
  • María Carballo (29 March 2019) "Rafael Quispe, el lado humorístico y polémico de la política", Página Siete.
• ...  [he who] does not speak his native language is not indigenous; he is a false indigenous ...
  • Gina Baldivieso (1 December 2019) "Un aimara boliviano afirma que Evo Morales mantuvo estancados a los indígenas", EFE.
• I am a believer in Pachamama, but I also believe in God. They both merge. Leaving the house, we pray to God, but at the moment when you pass a large mountain—which for us are the wak'as, the sacred places—we pray to Pachamama.
  • Gina Baldivieso (1 December 2019) "Un aimara boliviano afirma que Evo Morales mantuvo estancados a los indígenas", EFE.
• If for helping my brothers, for handing out surgical masks, for guiding, they have to remove me, let them remove me.
  • "Destituyen a Rafael Quispe como director del Fondo Indígena y anuncian a Germán Huanca como sucesor" in La Patria (9 May 2020).
• I am the pitita that unites the k'aras with the Indians, East and West. We have to be one. The goal is one, the welfare of the other. Enough left and right ...
  • Roxana Pomier (13 May 2020) "El influencer Tata Quispe: 'Soy la pitita que une a k'aras e indios'", Página Siete.
• I trust in God; I drink, mate, and use protection. God knows why we have come to Earth, and He knows when we are going to leave. There are many people I know who have taken care of themselves, but they left. There are people who don't take care of themselves, get sick, and recover.
  • Daniela Romero (7 February 2021) "Tata Quispe: 'Yo llego a la clase media y a los indios, es mi fortaleza'", Página Siete.
• I want there to exist—respecting cultures—a single society. That both the k'ara and the Indian recognize each other as equals; enough of confrontation, enough of remembering the 500 years ... There must be forgiveness between us ... As long as we live in confrontation, it will be a second-class Bolivia, underdeveloped, and that is why my first pillar is to live among equals; it is the first thing.
  • Daniela Romero (7 February 2021) "Tata Quispe: 'Yo llego a la clase media y a los indios, es mi fortaleza'", Página Siete.