Elsa Cladera de Bravo

Both of Elsa Cladera Encinas’ parents belonged to well known families in Oruro. Her father, Carlos Cladera Zelada was a lawyer, mayor of Oruro and member of the Supreme Court. He was among the pioneers who were in favor of the nationalization of the Standard Oil Company. Elsa's grandfather, Froilán Cladera Cabanero, was the founder of the Faculty of Law at the Universidad Técnica de Oruro and the first vice-chancellor there.[11][12] When young, Elsa had worked as her father's assistant at the tribunal. Elsa's mother, Florinda Encinas San Martín, was from a wealthy family in Oruro. Both her mother and her great aunt, Dorotea Encinas, provided advice and financial help to people who were in need. Therefore, Elsa learned the importance of sharing with others from her mother and her great aunt. The seeds of Elsa's social awareness were sown both by the quest for justice on the part of her father and by the generosity of her mother.[13]

Elsa and her parents. Carlos Cladera Zelada, Elsa Cladera Encinas, Florinda Encinas San Martín

The working and living conditions of the miners in Oruro around 1942-1952 were a further factor in raising Elsa's political and social consciousness. During this time Elsa had watched the miners’ demonstrations as they came down from the mines around Oruro voicing their demands for social justice. Elsa attended left groups with other young people where they discussed workers’ power, social and political justice.[14] She was then able to fully appreciate the nature of the demands of the miners.[15][16]

Elsa Cladera Encinas as a young girl in Oruro, about 1940

A third factor that consolidated her social and political awareness was her meeting with Fernando Bravo James (Potosí 1912-La Paz 1962). He was a politician, a Trotskyite, a revolutionary,[17][18] a university lecturer at the Universidad Técnica de Oruro and the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés[19] as well as a teacher. The first time Elsa caught sight of Fernando was when he was leading a demonstration protesting the massacre of miners in Catavi (1942).[20][21][22][23] It was love at first sight and they eventually married in 1943 and later they had three daughters.

Fernando Bravo James as young man. The photo was taken probably in the 1925 or later

Elsa affirmed that effective women's participation in national and international development would only come about through social struggle and that without such participation on the part of women it would in reality be impossible to reach genuine national independence.[24]

She belonged to two women's organizations “Alianza de Liberación de la Mujer Americana” (ALMA)[25] and “Unión de Mujeres de Bolivia” (UMBO).[26] She was a member of the leadership of ALMA in 1960. She was also among the founders of UMBO and delegate of UMBO to the “Seminario Mundial de la Mujer” (Women's World's Conference) that was held in Chile in 1972.

The policies of ALMA included propagating for women's emancipation and equal political rights, the defense of universal suffrage and the demand for equal pay for equal work.[27]

UMBO is a national organization of an anti-imperialistic and anti-feudal nature through involvement in the struggle for peoples’ liberation, for their right to self determination, against foreign intervention in internal affairs, for respect for human rights, for promoting rights and opportunities for women equal to those of men in the administration and affairs of state.[28]

Testimony of Elsa's solidarity with the working class is evident from her energetic, authoritative and crucial work. Her efforts to create a durable relationship between the teacher's trade union and the central umbrella unions for all workers in Bolivia: Central Obrera Departamental (COD) of La Paz and Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) which have been of such immense importance to Bolivia.[29][30] She was not only respected as a trade union leader but also genuinely loved by the people as one of her colleagues said. As a trade unionist leader she proposed radical measures, for example, better economic conditions for teachers, workers’ power, weapons for the working class under President Juan José Torres government (1970-1971) and this posture so enthralled a colleague from Venezuela that she was given the name “Maestra de profesión y revolución”.
The following are some of the posts she held as a trade union leader:

• In July 1964 she was “Secretaria de Vinculación Sindical de la Federación de Maestros urbanos de La Paz”.[31]
• In November the same year she was “Secretaria Ejecutiva de la Federación de Maestros Urbanos de Bolivia”.[32]
• In 1967 she was COD's “Secretaria de Relaciones”. In this period her work consisted of reorganizing the trade unions that were outlawed under René Barrientos (1964-1969).[33]
• In 1969 she was COBs delegate to the Seminar of Latin American Trade Unionists in Santiago de Chile. This seminar was organized by “Central Única de Trabajadores de Chile” (CUT) and Universidad de Chile. She was the only women among all the delegates from Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Perú, Venezuela and Costa Rica.[34]
• In 1970 she was COBs delegate to the first Pedagogy Congress for teachers in Bolivia.
• In 1971 she was CODs delegate at “Asamblea del Pueblo”.[35][36]

Since 1979 she has been named one of the “Maestros meritorios” (Meritorious’ Teachers) in Bolivia.[37]

Recognized by the workers of the trade unions as a combatant trade unionist, she was appointed as COD’S delegate to the “Asamblea del pueblo” in 1971. She was one of the five women among the two hundred and eleven delegates.[38][39][40]

After Banzer’s military coup in Bolivia (1971), Elsa was forced into exile, first in Chile [41] and then later in Switzerland following Pinochet’s military coup against President Salvador Allende in Chile (1973).[42] During the long period that she was forced to live outside Bolivia, she never flagged in her outspoken condemnation of the abuses in Bolivia and other Latin American countries.

In 1975 she was invited to Turin, Italy[43] to participate in a conference [44] during the solidarity week together with members of the Bolivian resistance. During her visits to Stockholm, Sweden (1973-1993) she regularly met with refugees from Bolivia living in many different towns and cities. She founded branch organizations of UMBO in Gothenburg and Uppsala.[45] During a national women’s strike in Switzerland in 1991, she was invited to talk at that event. During that day a street in Fribourg was named after her, “Elsa Cladera de Bravo Strasse”.[46][47] The experiences of struggle that brought about involuntary exile are clearly important testimonies to her life (1973-2005).,[48][49][50]

• Archive Elsa Cladera de Bravo (AECB)
• Barrón Feraudi, Jorge (1963) Esbozo Monográfico de la Facultad de Economía. 1938 - Año de las Bodas de Plata - 1963. Universidad Técnica de Oruro
• Bravo Cladera, Nadezhda (2013) Elsa Cladera de Bravo. Maestra de profesión y revolución. La Paz, Correveidile. ISBN 978-99954-830-29 [1][2]
• Dunkerley, James (1987) Rebelión en las venas. La Paz, Plural. ISBN 99905-75-19-3.
• John, S. Sándor (2009) Bolivia's Radical Tradition. Permanent Revolution in the Andes. The University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-2764-9.

Newspapers

• ABC, La Paz, June -July 1979
• El Diario, La Paz, May 1971
• Freiburger Nachrichten, Fribourg, November 2015
• La Liberté, Fribourg, December 1982
• La Prensa, La Paz, March 2013
• Rebelión, La Paz, June–July 1971
• Página Siete, La Paz, March 2013
• Tribuna Universitaria, La Paz, November 1964