The Bolivian Water War In The Film Even The Rain

The film Even the Rain presents a clear parallel between the events of the Bolivian Water War and the days of Spanish colonialism. From Christopher Columbus to Bartolome de Las Casas, the ideas of those early Spanish Conquistadors can be seen in the neocolonialism of western companies and neoliberalism of the Bolivian Government during the water crisis. The filmmaker is trying to argue that history is repeating itself across Latin America, with the violence in Bolivia being the latest example of this cycle.
The Bolivian Water War took place from January to April of 2000. Bolivia at this time was very poor with underdeveloped infrastructure in desperate need of foreign capital to improve. The war began when the people of Cochabamba organized …show more content…
Columbus exploited the natives for their labor and their resources for the benefit of his conquistadors and the spanish crown. The government of Bolivia is doing the same thing with regards to resources by taking the water away from the people. The film crew represents the exploitation of labor by foreigners, intentionally going to Bolivia to save money by hiring desperate natives and only paying them two dollars a day. For most of the film the government and the film crew do not care about the native grievances until they begin to affect them personally, especially the director who wants a solution to the problem so he can finish his movie. The selfish views of the director represent the view of American and European companies that invest in Latin America. These companies want a stable government to protect their investments at all costs, including the livelihood of natives. The story of Bartolome de Las Casas is played out in the character of Costa. Costa is the film director that decided to shoot the movie in Bolivia to save money. Like Las Casas, Costa is coming to Latin America to exploit the natives to make a profit. As the story progresses, Costa begins to view the natives as human beings and believes their treatment by the government is inhumane. By the end of the film he has made a complete change and risks his life to save the daughter of a native man that he insulted for most of the film. Another very subtle parallel between the two is that Las Casas witnessed and wrote about the conquistadors training dogs to attack the natives, and towards the end of the film Costa witnessed the military with trained dogs going to put down the rioters. That image is another parallel between colonialism and