Quya Reyna: “I don’t want to be subaltern all my life because I’m Indigenous.”

The young Bolivian writer Quya Reyna , of Aymara origin, believes that "in Bolivia in general, indigenous people have been romanticized and stigmatized greatly since they have been victimized by the political discourse of the left," in an interview with EFE in Madrid.

Reyna Maribel Suñagua Copa (El Alto, 1995) presented Los hijos de Goni , a book of chronicles that delves into the repression ordered by the Government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (Goni) in October 2003, which left more than 60 dead in El Alto and other regions of the Bolivian highlands and forced the resignation of the former president.

Known as Quya (Queen) Reyna, themes of indigenism and mestizaje are a constant in the work of this writer and communicator.

"There is one nation that is prioritized in Bolivia, which is Bolivian," says Reyna, who also calls for the recognition of other identities in the country.

For example, the author explains, in El Alto (in the metropolitan region of La Paz) many young people "have grown up understanding Aymara, and even speaking it," but their primary language is Spanish, although sprinkled with words of indigenous origin.

In Bolivia, he continues, " the indigenous have been romanticized and stigmatized a lot since the victimization based on the political discourse of the left and obviously that is going to generate a reaction, a rebound, people who do not want to be locked into that stereotype, so many people from Salta, for example, consider themselves mestizo, but that does not make them renounce their origin, which is Aymara, Quechua."

Goni's Children tries to "demystify the indigenous people of El Alto," he says, "because I don't consider myself indigenous," despite being Aymara, "because indigenous people are often seen as subaltern, and I don't want to be subaltern all my life."

Considered one of the young Latin American writers who portray peripheral spaces and give voice to minorities, Reyna recognizes the fundamental support she has received from other storytellers such as Gabriela Wiener (Peruvian writer and journalist) and Daniela Catrielo (Chilean Mapuche writer and poet).

"Thanks to Gabriela and Daniela, I have occupied spaces that I didn't previously project," she says gratefully.

In a literary context dominated by the most well-positioned sectors of society, Reyna, Wiener, and Catrileo create literature that is "closer to the realities of certain cities and peripheral spaces" that they have managed to become "part of."

In his opinion, the cholos, Indians, Aymara, Quechuas... "are building our own networks," and "it's evident that women predominate" and that they are the ones leading this literary space.