Macarena Gómez-Barris - Beyond the Pink Tide: Art and Political Undercurrents in the Americas

One origin moment for this book came from my time living in Quito during 2015. There I saw how a progressive Latin American government, or what has been dubbed the Pink Tide, turned against the leaders of the social movements that had first brought them to power. Manuela Picq, an anthropologist and journalist and currently a professor at Amherst, was persecuted for her activism alongside her long-term partner, Carlos Prez Guartambel, Indigenous activist and president of the Kichwa Confederation of Ecuador (Ecuarunari). Even before Manuela was jailed for her supposed antistate activities in solidarity with Indigenous land and water defenders, it became clear that the strong-arm tactics of the state were meant to quell increasing discontent with the politics of resource extraction. As she herself noted, Surprisingly, the Left is also prone to criminalizing social protest.

In contrast to these strong-arm tactics, I witnessed how on the ground, eco-feminist, transgender, anarchist, artist, youth, and Indigenous activists worked collaboratively to denounce state violence. A series of actions called out President Rafael Correas cover-up of the real story, which was the Ecuadoran states alliance with extractive corporations. In the face of Manuelas shocking beating by police and her subsequent arrest and imprisonment, I found my hope in the Pink Tide, or the turn to progressive governments in Latin America over the past twenty years, quickly dissipating.

Like many, I wrongly assumed that progressive governments coming to power on radical-sounding platforms would cement social and economic change. Put into power by coalitional movements, Pink Tide states had mobilized the language and symbols of decolonization to garner support. But in the space of a few short years, new progressive states sometimes deployed the same authoritarian methods as their predecessors, and they continued policies that perpetuated social and economic inequalities and reinforced the class, color, sex and gender order.

At the same time, I observed that local communities, artists, Indigenous organizers, and eco-feminists and queer/trans activists embodied alternatives to colonial and modern authoritarianisms in the Americas. Whether through youth radio programs, vibrant exchanges on the street, meetings in peoples houses, coalition marches, or experimental performances in small theaters, artistic and political undercurrents provided alternatives to the increasing violence of the neoliberal and extractive economy. By strengthening these undercurrents, activists in Ecuador deepened the prospects for social transformation.