Quijano, Rivera Cusicanqui, and Mbebe all explore the implementation of rigid power structures as mirrors through which individuals are allowed to see themselves. Either in the forcing of a conception of a “History” told as historical chains characterized by a framework of progress (Quijano), by the violent and forceful reorganization of sacred territories in Bolivia since the 16th century (Rivera Cusicanqui), or in the firm external and internal compartmentalizing so necessary in previous and late-modern colonial occupation (Mbembe).

 

Apart from the necessary arguments made by these authors there was a deeper current in my experience with them that not only touched the content. When these texts come upon moments of subversion, those “actuaciones en reversa”, (e.g. Quijano pg. 204, Rivera Cusicanqui pg. 15, and Mbembe pg. 22) the structure of the text crumbles allowing for a more generous and fluid reading; a writing-reading that cannot use concepts because subversion is written with the body-integrated, through action. In these cases, words are only approximations: movement that penetrates the, YES, rigidity of the texts-mirrors.