Waiting for the miscegenation to arrive

The objective of the study, “Waiting for miscegenation to arrive” is to analyze the influence of political discourse in the construction of racial identities in the city of La Paz. This analysis focuses on the debate generated around the approval of the Law against Racial Discrimination and all types of discrimination, approved in October 2010, as a case study. To analyze the influence of political discourse in the construction of racial identities, an analysis of the political discourse reflected in the television broadcasts of the days prior to the approval of the aforementioned law was carried out. To collect data about the way in which racial identities were being constructed in the population and the influence of political discourse on said constructions, focus groups were held. The study concludes that, although political discourse strongly influences racial constructions in the city of La Paz, people challenge and question said discourse, appropriating the racial constructions that give meaning to their social world. The title of this research was inspired by Javier Sanjines ‘ book “Mestizaje upside-down” in which the author explains that ‘Mestizaje never arrives for Bolivians’. This idea is reflected in this research since the main conclusion of this work is that the gap between the ideal of miscegenation and its concrete expressions is quite large.