Fernando Bravo James

Fernando Bravo James as young man. The photo was taken probably in 1925 or later. (Photo:Fernando Bravo James Archives (FBJA))

The father of Fernando Bravo James, doctor Zacarías Bravo Miranda, was one of the doctors who graduated from the first class of the Potosí medical school at the "Universidad Tomás Frías", founded in 1892. Fernando's mother, María James Revilla, was born in Potosí. The surname James comes from Maria's father, Benjamín James, who was of Irish origin. The couple had five children: Carmela, Sofía, Fernando, Gaby and María Luisa Bravo James. The siblings on the fathers genealogy were an older brother Esteban Bravo and on the mother's side, one younger sister and brother, Betty and Jorge López James.[5][6] Bravo James did his primary studies at the "Colegio Nacional Pichincha" in Potosí. He continued his studies at the American Institute[7] of La Paz where he graduated from high school. Fernando had many qualities: he was easy to deal with and pleasant in his conversation. He had a silvery and melodious voice. He was accustomed to and enjoyed singing with his three daughters. He composed a libretto of revolutionary songs for the political party POR based on well-known and popular melodies for whom he wrote the lyrics.[8]

“Those who knew him perfectly remember his eternal state of cordial serenity”, writes Jaime Amonzabel.[9] “Never showed in Bravo James the pose, much less the contemptuous self-sufficiency towards the interlocutor. And this transcendent simplicity of human affection, towards those who at some time approached him, accompany him throughout his existence.”[10] Lucha Obrera points out Fernando's "value as an intellectual and his dynamic and rich activity in the hearth of the masses". Fernando Bravo "was above all a Trotskyist militant. His personality was fused into the organization, to the revolutionary process, to the flesh and bones of the workers, as he used to say."[11][12] Fernando Bravo James dedicated his life to his political ideals and he did so consistently. Elsa Cladera de Bravo testifies: "He never compromised with his principles. He fought without hesitation or yielding (…) he was like steel that breaks and does not bend. He had a clear concept of his duty."[13]

POR leaders, late 1940s. From left: Fernando Bravo James, Enrique Ferrante (?), Hugo González Moscoso, Miguel Alandia Pantoja, Ismael Pérez Alcalá, unidintified. (Photo: Fernando Bravo James Archives (FBJA))

Bravo James “belonged to the generation that witnessed and participated in the Chaco War [1932-1935]. His spirit was shaken by the war fought by imperialism. On his return from the Chaco [region] he joined, while still very young, the political currents that sought an explanation and a solution to the problems of Bolivia.” After his participation in that war with Paraguay, he moved to the mining site of La Joya and “soon joined the nascent mining workers’ movement.”[14] It was in Oruro, where Bravo James began his political integration in the POR, Trotskyist tendency, back in the 1940s and then continued doing so until his death.[15] "Indefatigable for more than 25 years, Comrade Fernando Bravo, as a militant and leader of the POR, was dedicated to the revolutionary struggles of the Bolivian masses", states Lucha Obrera.[16][17]

Elsa and Fernando met in Oruro in 1942. In that same year on December 21, the Catavi massacre took place. “There in the pampas that were later named “María Barzola”, a manifestation of 8 000 persons, where the front lines occupied by women and children were fired at.”[18] With this background, Elsa tells of her meeting with Fernando:

This was the event that captured Elsa's hearth, they were married in 1943. Fernando and Elsa had three daughters.

“As a university student, Fernando Bravo attended the National Congresses and held management positions from where he promoted the student alliance with the mine workers” [20] In 1943 Fernando Bravo James was General Secretary of the Center for Economic Sciences Students of the “Universidad Técnica de Oruro”.[21]

Bravo James graduated as a financial auditor in 1945 and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economic Sciences in 1949 from the “Universidad Técnica de Oruro”. He was one of the senior lecturers “forged in the own classrooms and whose merit is indisputable”, writes Barrón Feraudi,[22] “Fernando Bravo James […] high carat intellectual, honest politician and indefatigable social fighter alongside the national majorities, he dictated with sufficiency and youthful teaching ardor, the subject of General and National Economic Geography for more than seven years. In 1956 he moves to La Paz, where through selection by a competitive examination, he teaches the same subject at the university of that city at the Faculty of Economics".[23][24] Fernando Bravo James also lectured on Historical Materialism at the “Universidad Obrera de Oruro” from 1950 to 1956. He will be senior lecturer of Economic Sciences at the “Universidad Mayor de San Andrés” in La Paz from 1956 to 1962.[25]

POR rally, Oruro, August 1946. The man immediately in the front of the banner is Fernando Bravo James, Guillermo Lora is below him. Back row, from left, fourth, Elsa Cladera de Bravo, eighth, Leticia Fajardo (Photo: Fernando Bravo James Archives (FBJA))

“It was, however, with the mine workers with whom Fernando Bravo shared their conflicts and struggles since 1942”, writes Lucha Obrera[26]. “He participated in the organization of the “Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia" (FSTMB) [Mining Federation], but not only in the organizational tasks proper, but also in the doctrinal orientation of the miners.” In continuation the editor of Lucha Obrera, writes. “On [July 29], 1946 he signed the “Pacto Obrero -Universitario” [Workers-University Pact] in Catavi. The Pact was elaborated on the basis of a program prepared by him; it was the first time that a Pact of this nature was elaborated. In addition to many mining-university claims, the fundamental point of this Pact was the nationalization of the mines which was the national objective during all that time”, Elsa Cladera de Bravo testifies.[27] “Nobody has mentioned until now (…) the university-mining Pact of July 1946 as an immediate antecedent of the “Pulacayo Thesis” and thus one of the indispensable premises to understand that it has been overlooked”, points out Guillermo Lora.[28]

The Worker-University pact is the antecedent of the “Pulacayo Thesis” (Tesis de Pulacayo). It states that the workers and the university students will fight together against the “ROSCA”. They advocate a series of social demands such as the creation of student committees, the mobile salary scale, the regulation of working hours, collective bargaining, workers control, trade union independence, educational autonomy, the proletarian united front, weapons for the workers as a measure of defense of social laws.[32][33]

Oruro, in the house at the corner Ayacucho and Presidente Montes ca 1947. Back row, from left: Edwin Moller, Miguel Alandia Pantoja, Guillermo Lora, Elsa Cladera de Bravo, Leticia Fajardo, Ernesto Ayala Mercado, Humberto Salamanca, Oscar Mendoza, Nelson Capellino, Emilio Pérez, unidentified. Front row, from left: Filomena Ocampo, with glasses: Fernando Bravo James, Nadezhda Bravo Cladera,Jorge Salazar Mostajo,unidentified. (Photo: Fernando Bravo James Archives (FBJA))

The house at the corner of Ayacucho and Presidente Montes streets in Oruro, property of the Encinas family, will fulfill in 1946 a historical role related with the advancement of the thriving mining proletariat. Elsa Cladera de Bravo testifies, that it was in this house that the Pulacayo Thesis, the political program of the miners, was written. In an interview with Elsa, at the “Hôpital Cantonal”[34] in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 2001, I inquired about the writing of the Pulacayo Thesis. Elsa says “It was written in my house, among those who participated in the wording: Barrientos from Cochabamba; Ayala Mercado (…)”, I asked if Fernando Bravo intervened in such writing, Elsa replies: “he also contributed, but Lora (…) wanted to be known as the sole author of the Pulacayo Thesis.” [35][36]. However, Bravo James “was part of the team that developed the famous Pulacayo Thesis”, testifies the editor of Lucha Obrera.[37] In summary “the party developed the Pulacayo Thesis for the miners of Llallagua to present it”, John writes quoting Hugo González. [38]

It was at the mine workers’ Congress in Pulacayo on November 8, 1946 that the “Tesis de Pulacayo” was presented. “Two of the youngest and most active members of the POR attended the Congress; Guillermo Lora (…) and Fernando Bravo (…)”, writes James Dunkerley,[39] “Lora and Bravo (…) they managed to obtain the support of an extensive political resolution (…)”. Dunkerley refers to the Pulacayo Thesis which in his opinion “was, in essence, an adaptation to the Bolivian situation of the Transitional Program written by Trotsky in 1938.”[40]

As for its approval, it was Fernando Bravo who “defended the thesis (…) got it approved in the mines (…), because he was at the level of the working class, as a trade unionist, as a teacher, he had access to the COB [Central Obrera Boliviana], and from that level he had the thesis approved. It was [him] who got it approved”, Elsa adds. It was Elsa Cladera de Bravo who transcribed the original of the Pulacayo Thesis, her daughter Emma Bolshia states in an interview with Steven Sándor John for his book Bolivias Radical Tradition. Permanent Revolution in the Andes.[41] In another interview, in the aforementioned book by John, Hugo González, leader of the POR group, in which Fernando Bravo was active after the split of the party in the 1950s, alludes to a song about Pulacayo’s Thesis.[42] The literary skills of Fernando in the composition of the texts of the songs for the POR have already mentioned. This is the song composed by Fernando Bravo James for the Pulacayo Thesis:

In 1956 the POR-Lucha Obrera decided to participate in government elections. "Political personalities such as Fernando Bravo, who was joined by Gonzalez, undertook a high-level campaign against the MNR," according to Dunkerley.[44] Although the intention seems to be another: "They said they were going to announce the candidacy simply to take advantage of the situation, that moment of the elections, to make all the political propaganda possible, because they had no opportunity to make a profuse propaganda (...) It is then that Fernando worked as never before with the militants bringing propaganda to all the mines", says Elsa Cladera de Bravo.[45] The POR-Lucha Obrera nominated Hugo González for the presidency and Fernando Bravo James for the vice presidency.

In the June 1977 interview, Marcelo Quezada, asks Elsa about the 1956 elections and also about the merits that Fernando Bravo James had to be a candidate for the vice presidency:

In September 1957 Fernando travels to Paris as a delegate of his party to the Congress of the Fourth International. He embarks in Buenos Aires and, on the ship, he writes:

Upon his return from his trip to Europe, Fernando brought abundant information. From France came political, cultural news and enthusiasm that marked that trip. He brought with him an album with songs sung by Yves Montand in which he sang melodies like Les Temps des cerises, Le Chant des partisans; glasses, a gift from Mandel for the family. From Spain he transmitted the impression of a retrograde country that lived under Franco's dictatorship.[48]

Fernando was a man with a positive attitude in his conception of life. He always relied on changes to improve the world politically, socially and economically. “Fully aware of the reality of his people and its multiple problems, he easily transmitted his accumulated experience in words.” At school “his work was carried out with enthusiasm, colleagues appreciated him for his simplicity and sincerity, the students valued him because he was a laborious, optimistic teacher, full of initiatives and faith in the transformations that would take place in Bolivia and in the world”, writes Elsa Cladera de Bravo.[49] In an allocution delivered to the colleagues and students of the school “Ildefonso Murguía”, in Oruro, several of the pedagogical ideas of Bravo James are written down. He talks about the organization of the school: “Every school is a community where the organizing process is indispensable, and of tremendous work, importance and power. In our opinion children must organize their own life in school, in order to develop those collectivist characters”.[50] He compares the school to a small society and emphasizes the importance of creating the way of working and in the student organization, the concept of autonomy which is of special importance, since it signifies the responsibility with which the students will act. Bravo James explains the named characteristics in the organization of the school:

Fernando Bravo James speaking at teachers' strike rally shortly before his death, 1962 (Photo: Fernando Bravo James Archives (FBJA))

In 1962 Fernando Bravo became seriously ill. In spite of his fragile state of health he continued with the teachers' union struggle that turned into a strike in 1962. As the leader of the teachers of La Paz Fernando organized and led the strike. "He served as Chairman of the Strike Committee (...) The doctors prescribed absolute rest. But he could not admit that and would not abandon the fight. He did not obey the doctors and continued to lead the strike." Likewise, "in this movement new methods of struggle were introduced, such as 'lightning rallies' in the popular neighborhoods and throughout the city. The objective was to incorporate the population in support of the teachers' strike, that is, to link the strike to the population itself. The success of the strike was especially due to this social bond", writes Elsa Cladera de Bravo. The "lightning rallies" consisted of groups of teachers who suddenly appeared in a certain place to launch his preaching in a loud voice, like minstrels in the Middle Ages. After this quick intervention, it was the turn of another group in another place. The "lightning" interventions of the action groups were synchronized in such a way that when one group had finished its mission, another group started elsewhere. In this way, the police vigilance was impossible. The police were incapable of knowing where the different action groups would be and could not be at all the different locations of the "rallies".[52][53]