Cinema according to the mining housewives: subaltern agenda, performance, and political communication (Bolivia, 1971-1994)

Abstract

This article analyses the political motivations and communication strategy of the collectives of housewives organised within the Bolivian mining unions, with a focus on their cinematographic participation, during the last three decades of the 20th century. These women were dispossessed of the means of film production and the cultural and technological capital. However, they were fully aware of the power of the mass media and, in particular, of Hollywood cinema, to alienate the working class. Consequently, they acted in alliance with trusted filmmakers; using them as speakers to get their message across to distant audiences. Despite the different audiovisual mediations, the housewives represent themselves uniformly over the decades as fighters against economic, military and gender violence.