Xavier Albó writes on Olivia Harris’s life and death
April 22, 2009 by T’anta Wawa
Olivia belonged to a well-connected British family, associated with the upper levels of the Anglican church and even linked to the Crown. But she immersed herself fully over many years in a completely different world, in the community of Muruq’u Marka, a day’s travel away from the paved road in the south of the Mining District of Catavi, in the far south of Ayllu Laymi, near the conflictive dividing line with Ayllus Jukumani and Qaqachaka. Upon presenting her credentials in the Direccion Nacional de Cultura in La Paz they told her she should study Quechua. She did. But when she arrived, she discovered that the people were Aymara, although many knew Quechua as a second language.
