Decolonizing Medicine: Indigenous Politics and the Practice of Care in Bolivia

This talk examines Bolivian health reforms undertaken in the name of descolonización (decolonization) during the presidency of Evo Morales (2006-2019). Pre-dating recent calls to “decolonize global health,” Bolivian decolonial health reforms entailed measures like incorporating Indigenous traditional medical practitioners into clinical spaces, training biomedical providers in cultural sensitivity, and increasing community participation in local health policy. Yet, despite these institutional investments, many Indigenous patients continued to complain of a lack of care in hospitals. In this talk, I unpack the promises and contradictions of Bolivian health reform by examining how radical proposals for decolonial rupture were folded into a more limited paradigm of what I call “warm care.” Warm care emphasized kindness, cultural inclusion, and humane treatment of patients—yet ultimately retained intact colonial and racializing apparatuses that had long governed care for Indigenous patients in Bolivia. I highlight how, amid these limitations, patients, traditional healers, and midwives leveraged care and complaint to hold state and medical institutions accountable to promises of transformation.

Presenter: Gabriela Elisa Morales is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Scripps College. She is the author of the book, Decolonizing Medicine: Indigenous Politics and the Practice of Care in Bolivia (Stanford University Press 2025).