AN INSIDE LOOK AT GLOBALIZATION.

Byline: ANA MARIA TRUJILLO

S.F.-born author spent years studying outsiders' impact on Bolivian women

By Ana Maria Trujillo

The New Mexican 

Santa Fe native Melissa Draper is returning home to give a lecture on the subject that's been keeping her busy since she graduated from Dartmouth College.

Draper, a 1995 graduate of Santa Fe High School, and co-author Jim Schultz will talk about their book, Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization, tonight at St. John's College.

Draper was working as the associate director of the sister-city program for New York City, which was run by the Office of the Mayor's Commission for the United Nations, when she became interested in living abroad.

"I thought, 'I really want to see the perspective from the other side and see how the United States is perceived,' " Draper said. "I met a couple of Bolivians at the U.N., and that got me into researching specifically Bolivia."

She moved to Cochabamba, Bolivia, where she learned how to speak fluent Spanish. With a small research grant from Dartmouth, she worked there for two years, initially focusing on the women's social movement. She learned that the women who were growing coca plants were being urged to pick another profession because of the U.S. war on drugs, even though cocaine and the coca plant are not the same thing.

"In Bolivia (the coca plant) has traditional uses," Draper explained, "but because of the pressure from the United States, these women were trying to find other ways to have income."

She helped them develop small-scale projects -- sewing, tailoring and making products out of local goods -- until September 2001, when the military took over the coca-growing area of Cochabamba. Draper switched her focus to how U.S.-led development projects affected Bolivia, then returned to the U.S. to go to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University.

After her two-year program in international development and women's studies, she headed right back to Bolivia to work on the book at the invitation of Schultz, founder of the Democracy Center, which works for social justice abroad. He has lived and worked in Bolivia for nine years.

"My chapter looks at six different case studies of the range of women's experience in the face of globalization," Draper said. "It really highlights the intense diversity -- you have a majority indigenous population ... and a large minority of European descent."

Draper said the indigenous culture views development differently than the nonindigenous population.

While the book portrays how globalization has affected Bolivia in a negative way, Draper examines a few cases where it has helped.

"I profile one woman in a remote village in the highlands," Draper said. "She weaves in the tradition of her Incan ancestors, and the sale of those weavings helps her support her family." Draper said women can sell their art at venues like the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market.

She also profiles the first female indigenous minister of justice, Casimira Rodrguez, whom she got to know well during her time in Bolivia. Rodrguez's case shows how the solidarity of women has been globalized as well.

"You have a local women's movement -- like Casimira's -- that is able to link up with similar groups in Argentina, Mexico all the way up to Washington, D.C., the Philippines and countries in the Middle East," Draper said.

The book includes contributions from 10 other authors.

"I think as the U.S. is entering a new political era under President Obama, and we're seeing a new moment of hope in this country, it's important for us citizens to look at what the U.S.'s impact has been abroad, especially with our Latin American neighbors," Draper said. "This book gives us an example of how the U.S. has had an impact and what globalization means to real people on the ground."

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084

or [e-mail].