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Carmen García
Official portrait, 2012
Senator for Potosí
In office 19 January 2010 – 18 January 2015
Substitute	Julio Villegas
Preceded by	Carmen Rosa Velásquez
Succeeded by	Adela Cussi
Personal details
Born	Carmen García Mamani (1963-07-16) 16 July 1963 (age 61) Yonsa, Potosí, Bolivia
Political party	Movement for Socialism
Alma mater	Franz Tamayo Normal School
Occupation	Educator politician trade unionist

Carmen García Mamani (born 16 July 1963) is a Bolivian academic, politician, and trade unionist who served as senator for Potosí from 2010 to 2015. A member of the Movement for Socialism, she previously served on the Tomave Municipal Council from 2000 to 2005.

An ethnic Quechua, García worked for over a decade as a schoolteacher in rural Potosí. She later studied educational management at multiple universities, finally settling on a career in teacher training and indigenous language research. In tandem, García actively operated within the trade syndicates of her home region, through which she began a career in politics as a member of the Movement for Socialism.

Elected to the Tomave Municipal Council in 1999, García later won a seat in the Senate in 2009, representing Potosí. Over the course of her tenure, García grew disgruntled with the often hierarchical structure of her caucus and ultimately joined a group of "free thinking" ruling party dissidents that depleted the government's parliamentary supermajority. She was not nominated for reelection.

Early life and career

Carmen García was born on 16 July 1963 in Yonsa, a hamlet in the Campos Province of western Potosí. She spent most of her early life in nearby Quijarro Province, residing in Tocora, a community situated in one of the many ayllus that make up the Uyuni valley. An ethnic Quechua, García was raised monolingual, speaking only her native tongue until reaching primary school, where she was made to learn Spanish. She completed her primary studies at the 1 de Mayo School in Tocora before moving back to the Campos Province to finish her secondary education.

García graduated as a primary school teacher from the Franz Tamayo Normal School in Llica. She taught at educational institutions in and around southwest Potosí for over fifteen years. In tandem, she also pursued instruction in educational management; taking advantage of the enhanced training opportunities conferred to teachers by the education reform of 1994, García attended courses in multiple cities, graduating with a bachelor's in intercultural bilingual education from Tomás Frías University and a master's in the same field from the Higher University of San Simón, in addition to receiving a second bachelor's in educational management from Juan Misael Saracho University.

After graduating, García settled in Cochabamba, where she dedicated herself to a career in teacher training at the Paracaya Normal School in addition to doing research work in the fields of indigenous and second languages. During this time, between 2007 and 2008, she completed a postgraduate diploma in indigenous rights at Cochabamba's Simón I. Patiño University.

Chamber of Senators

Election

Alongside her work in education, García actively participated in her region's trade syndicates and social movement organizations, holding membership in the Uyuni affiliate of the Unified Regional Federation of Rural Workers of Southwest Potosí. The organization's early association with the nascent Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP) facilitated García's entry into politics, starting out in 1999, when she was elected to a seat on Tomave's municipal council.

In 2009, García's syndicate nominated her for a seat in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, and the MAS, in turn, incorporated her onto its slate of Potosí Senate candidates. The decision to designate her to a high Senate position was driven by the implementation of a fifty percent female gender quota, which first took effect this election cycle. As a result of this requirement, García joined the largest delegation of peasant women ever elected to parliament up to that point. Uniquely, she was the only newly elected senator not to succeed a man in the position; her predecessor, Carmen Rosa Velásquez, had been the sole female senator elected in 2005.

Tenure

With the expressed mission of making Bolivia a benchmark country on the topic, García's senatorial term focused on her field of expertise: education. She chaired the Senate's Education Committee in her first year, overseeing the initial stages of reviewing and passing 2010's landmark Avelino Siñani Educational Law, which implemented a new system of education, with special emphasis on indigenous and traditional knowledge. That bill, notably, was approved by parliament without any modifications from the original draft delivered by the executive, reflecting – from García's perspective – the MAS's rigid internal hierarchy, which often discouraged legislators from challenging the party line.

Over the course of her tenure, the inability of legislators "to participate at all" in decision-making led García to grow disaffected with her party. By 2013, she had joined the ranks of the so-called "freethinkers", a small faction of MAS dissidents that assumed a critical stance toward the government without fully aligning with the conservative opposition. Though a majority of the group's members came from the Chamber of Deputies, they also counted the support of a few senators, including García, but also her regional colleague, Eduardo Maldonado, as well as Pando's senator, Manuel Limachi. García's break with the ruling party was not without consequences; in 2013, she was expelled from her committee seat, ostensibly due to coordination issues, and by the end of her term, she was not nominated for reelection.

Commission assignments

• Chamber of Senators Directorate (Third Secretary: 2011–2012)
• State Security, Armed Forces, and Bolivian Police Commission
  • State Security and Fight Against Drug Trafficking Committee (Secretary: 2013–2014)
• Plural Economy, Production, Industry, and Industrialization Commission
  • Energy, Hydrocarbons, Mining, and Metallurgy Committee (Secretary: 2012–2013)
• Social Policy, Education, and Health Commission
  • Education, Health, Science, Technology, and Sports Committee (Secretary: 2010–2011, 2014–2015)

Electoral history

Publications

• García Mamani, Carmen (2011). "La descolonización en la construcción de la política educativa". In Navarro, Mónica (ed.). Estrategias para una educación superior descolonizadora intra e intercultural (in Spanish). Cochabamba: FUNPROEIB Andes. pp. 79–96.
• ——————————— (2014). "Pluralismo epistemológico en perspectiva indígena". In Zambrana B., Amílcar (ed.). Pluralismo epistemológico: Reflexiones sobre la educación superior en el Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia (in Spanish). Cochabamba: FUNPROEIB Andes. pp. 151–162. ISBN 978-99954-874-4-7. OCLC 885219963.

References

Notes

1. ^ Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.

Footnotes

1. ^ Nuevo Estado 2013, p. 18.
2. ^ Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 481.
3. ^ Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 247.
4. ^ Página Siete 2012.
5. Gonzales Salas 2013, pp. 481–482; Romero Ballivián 2018, pp. 247–248.
6. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 630.
7. Página Siete 2012; Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 482.
8. Los Tiempos 2010; Ministerio de Comunicación 2020.
9. La Razón 2010; Página Siete 2012.
10. El Deber 2013.
11. Opinión 2013; Romero Ballivián 2018, pp. 194, 248.
12. El Diario 2014.
13. La Razón 2013.
14. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 248.
15. Los Tiempos 2011.
16. Prensa Senado 2012; Prensa Senado 2013.
17. El Diario 2010; Prensa Senado 2014.
18. Atlas Electoral 1999.
19. Atlas Electoral 2009.

Works cited

Online and list sources

• "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2010–2011". El Diario (in Spanish). La Paz. 3 February 2010. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
• "La Cámara de Senadores conformó su Directiva: Gestión Legislativa 2011–2012". Los Tiempos (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 21 January 2011. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2012–2013". senado.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Senadores del Estado Plurinacional. 27 January 2012. Archived from the original on 14 May 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
• "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2013–2014". senado.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Senadores del Estado Plurinacional. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 20 November 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
• "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2014–2015". senado.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Senadores del Estado Plurinacional. 27 January 2014. Archived from the original on 29 June 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
• "Elecciones Muncipales 1999 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Órgano Electoral Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "Elecciones Generales 2009 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Órgano Electoral Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.

Digital and print publications

• "Cárdenas evaluará la Ley Avelino Siñani y postulará transformación educativa" [Cárdenas Will Evaluate the Avelino Siñani Law and Propose Education Reform]. comunicacion.gob.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Ministerio de Comunicación del Estado Plurinacional [es]. 29 January 2020. Archived from the original on 29 November 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "Carmen García: 'Que el 'vice' descanse un periodo y después entre en otro'" [Carmen García: "Let the Vice President Rest for a Period and Return Another Time"]. El Deber (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de la Sierra. 13 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2023 – via eju!.
• "Cinco asambleístas del MAS se reunieron con disidentes" [Six MAS Assemblymembers Met with Dissidents]. Opinión (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 11 June 2013. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "Evo promulgará este lunes la Ley Avelino Siñani" [Evo to Sign Avelino Siñani Law This Monday]. La Razón (in Spanish). La Paz. 20 December 2010. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "La Ley Avelino Siñani ingresará en agosto a la Asamblea Legislativa" [Avelino Siñani Law to Be Discussed in the Legislative Assembly in August]. Los Tiempos (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 16 July 2010. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• Luizaga, Dennis (24 August 2013). "El MAS remueve a senadora Carmen García" [The MAS Removes Senator Carmen García]. La Razón (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "Moya se suma a diputados que dejan al oficialismo" [Moya Joins List of Lawmakers Who Left the Ruling Party]. El Diario (in Spanish). La Paz. 31 March 2014. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• Peralta, Pablo (8 July 2012). "Senadora Carmen García: 'He venido con tantos sueños, pero me siento desmotivada'" [Senator Carmen García: "I Came with So Many Dreams, but I Feel Unmotivated"]. Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
• "Senadoras y senadores del Estado Plurinacional: Carmen García Mamani" [Senators of the Plurinational State: Carmen García Mamani]. Nuevo Estado (in Spanish). Vol. 2, no. 5. La Paz. November 2013. p. 18. Retrieved 12 August 2023 – via the Internet Archive.

Books and encyclopedias

• Gonzales Salas, Inés, ed. (2013). Biografías: Historias de vida en la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional (in Spanish). Editorial Gente Común; ERBOL; Fundación Friedrich Ebert; IDEA Internacional. pp. 481–483. ISBN 978-99954-93-05-9. OCLC 876429743 – via the Internet Archive.
• Romero Ballivián, Salvador (2018). Quiroga Velasco, Camilo (ed.). Diccionario biográfico de parlamentarios 1979–2019 (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). La Paz: FUNDAPPAC; Fundación Konrad Adenauer. pp. 247–248. ISBN 978-99974-0-021-5. OCLC 1050945993 – via the Internet Archive.

External links

• Parliamentary profile Office of the Vice President (in Spanish).
• Parliamentary profile Chamber of Senators (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 9 July 2014.
• Biographic profile ERBOL (in Spanish).

• Biography
• Bolivia
• Education
• Indigenous peoples of the Americas
• Organized labor
• Politics

• 1963 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Bolivian politicians
• 21st-century Bolivian women politicians
• Bolivian educators
• Bolivian women educators
• Bolivian municipal councillors
• Bolivian people of Quechua descent
• Bolivian politicians of indigenous peoples descent
• Bolivian senators from Potosí
• Bolivian trade unionists
• Bolivian women trade unionists
• Higher University of San Simón alumni
• Movimiento al Socialismo politicians
• People from Daniel Campos Province
• Tomás Frías Autonomous University alumni
• Quechua politicians
• Women members of the Senate of Bolivia
• Bolivian women academics