Toribia Álvaro

Toribia Álvaro
Portrait of Álvaro, c. 2014
Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Oruro's special constituency
Substitute
In office 25 January 2010 – 18 January 2015
Deputy	Benigno Quispe
Preceded by	Seat established
Succeeded by	Inés López
Constituency	Indigenous
Personal details
Born	Toribia Álvaro Moya (1966-04-16) 16 April 1966 Vilañeque, Oruro, Bolivia
Party	Movement Toward Socialism
Occupation	Indigenous leader politician

Toribia Álvaro Moya (born 16 April 1966) is a Bolivian indigenous leader and politician who represented Oruro's special indigenous constituency as a substitute in the Chamber of Deputies from 2010 to 2015.

Raised in Vilañeque among the Uru of Lake Poopó, Álvaro received limited formal education and worked as a sheep farmer. Beginning in 2004, she held traditional leadership positions in accordance with Uru usos y costumbres. She served as community mayor of Vilañeque and as a member of its school board, and was later mama t'alla of the Uru Native Nation.

In 2009, the Uru people gained a reserved seat in the Chamber of Deputies. For the election, the Uru of Lake Poopó agreed to support Benigno Quispe, an Uru Chipaya, with one of their own as his substitute. To satisfy gender parity law, the candidate had to be a woman, so Álvaro agreed to run. Their ticket won the seat, and she served a single term in the legislature.

Early life and career

Background and early life

Toribia Álvaro was born on 16 April 1966 in Vilañeque, a hamlet of Challapata Municipality in the Eduardo Abaroa Province of Oruro Department. The settlement is one of three inhabited by the Uru of Lake Poopó, an indigenous people native to the lakeshore. Her parents were José Álvaro Mauricio and Ángela Moya Choque. Toribia's father and his family were among the first to settle Vilañeque. The land was property of an Aymara family, who employed them as shepherds and, in gratitude, ceded it for the Uru to live on.

In her youth, Álvaro spoke only Quechua, the language adopted by her people after the loss of their native Chholo. She was educated in a small adobe schoolhouse, where she struggled with Spanish-only instruction. Even as an adult, Álvaro said that she spoke "just a little" Spanish. She attended up to the second grade but dropped out to support her mother following her father's death. To earn money, she performed housework and helped graze sheep for some neighbors.

Indigenous leadership

Álvaro married at age 32 and, alongside her husband, began assuming roles of traditional authority among the Uru from 2004. In Vilañeque, she served as community mayor, its principal customary leader in accordance with usos y costumbres. Later, she sat on the school board, which oversaw the academic achievement of Uru youth and the promotion of Uru cultural heritage. During her husband's term as mallku jilarata of the Uru Native Nation, she accompanied him to general meetings as mama t'alla of the organization.

Chamber of Deputies

Election

Further information: 2009 Bolivian general election

Beginning with the 2009 election, Bolivia's indigenous minorities were allocated reserved seats in the Chamber of Deputies, determined by their presence in each department. In Oruro, suffrage was reserved for the Uru peoples: the Uru Chipaya and Uru Murato. Being the more populous of the two, the Chipaya imposed their claim to the seat. In turn, the Uru of the Lake settled for the substitute position. Initially, they nominated a man, but the candidate had to be a woman to satisfy gender parity. "None of the women were willing; no one wanted to do it. I said to myself, 'What could happen?' and decided to go for it", Álvaro recalled. The resulting ticket paired Benigno Quispe of the Chipaya with Álvaro representing the Uru of Lake Poopó. They ran on the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) list, a party Álvaro had been a member of since 2000, and won by a wide margin.

Tenure

Álvaro was sworn in alongside other substitutes on 25 January 2010. Regarding her time in parliament, she stated, "I [didn't] know anything, and the pressure [was] immense". But, she added, "nobody arrives knowing everything". During her term, Álvaro focused on initiatives for the benefit of the Uru, including a project to install solar panels in the settlements of Llapallapani, Phuñaka Tinta María, and Vilañeque.

Commission assignments

• Indigenous Native Peasant Nations and Peoples, Cultures, and Interculturality Commission
  • Indigenous Native Peasant Nations and Peoples Committee (Secretary: 2010–2011; 2011–2012)
  • Cultures, Interculturality, and Cultural Heritage Committee (Secretary: 2014–2015)
• Territorial Organization of the State and Autonomies Commission
  • Indigenous Native Peasant Autonomies Committee (2012–2013)
• Plural Justice, Prosecutor's Office, and Legal Defense of the State Commission
  • Indigenous Native Peasant Jurisdiction Committee (2013–2014)

Electoral history

Electoral history of Toribia Álvaro

Year	Office		Party		Votes			Result	Ref.
					Total	%	P.
2009	Deputies	S		Movement Toward Socialism	437	74.83	1st	Won
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas

References

Works cited

Online sources

• "Comisiones y Comités: Período Legislativo 2011–2012". diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Diputados del Estado Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011.
• "Comisiones y Comités: Período Legislativo 2012–2013". diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Diputados del Estado Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012.
• "Elecciones Generales 2009 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Órgano Electoral Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 6 August 2026.

News publications

• "En Oruro 94,9% de la población participó del proceso electoral" [In Oruro, 94.9% of the Population Participated in the Electoral Process]. La Patria (in Spanish). Oruro. 22 December 2009. p. 4. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019.
• "Legisladores aprobarán reglamento de debates" [Lawmakers to Approve Debate Rules]. Los Tiempos (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 26 January 2010. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022.
• "Partidos opositores al MAS llegan disminuidos a elecciones" [Parties Opposed to the MAS Arrive at the Elections Weakened]. La Patria (in Spanish). Oruro. 25 November 2009. p. 4. Archived from the original on 27 May 2016.

Books and encyclopedias

• Callapa Flores, Carlos E. (2020). Vilañeque: Comunidad uru entre las aguas y la tierra (in Spanish). Cochabamba: FUNPROEIB Andes. ISBN 978-99974-997-4-5. OCLC 1246269997.
• De la Barra Saavedra, Sigrid Z.; et al. (2011). Exclusión y subalternidad de los urus del lago Poopó: Discriminación en la relación mayorías y minorías étnicas (in Spanish). La Paz: Fundación PIEB. ISBN 978-99954-57-18-1. OCLC 820570654.
• Gonzales Salas, Inés, ed. (2013). Biografías: Historias de vida en la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional (in Spanish). La Paz: Editorial Gente Común; ERBOL; Fundación Friedrich Ebert; IDEA Internacional. pp. 252–253. ISBN 978-99954-93-05-9. OCLC 876429743.
• Vargas Luna, María Elena; Villavicencio Arancibia, Jois Sarelly, eds. (2014). Primera Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional de Bolivia, Cámara de Diputados: Diccionario biográfico, diputadas y diputados titulares y suplentes (2010–2015) (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Diputados del Estado Plurinacional. p. 171. OCLC 961105285.

External links

• Parliament profile Office of the Vice President (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 21 September 2019.
• Biographic profile ERBOL (in Spanish).