0:00:05 > 0:00:09I'm on a journey through South America, one that will take me many thousands of miles,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13from south to north and east to west.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16An exploration, an adventure, and a revelation.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21It is spectacular.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26It's the driest desert in the whole world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29This "new world" used to mean dictators and brutality.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34But South America has changed. Instead of despair, there's hope.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39There are riches in abundance. Economies that are booming.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43Take just one wagon of copper.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48That's something like 600,000 per wagon.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53There's also poverty, crime and violence, impossible to ignore.
0:00:55 > 0:01:01I'm with the police on patrol in a barrio notorious for gang warfare.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07The story of this continent is resonant with pride in the past.
0:01:08 > 0:01:14The real evidence that this came with the slaves from Africa centuries ago.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20The countries of South America, with some 400 million inhabitants,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25are blessed with living traditions and perplexing surprises.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28This is important not only as a sport,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30but culturally, would you believe.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36There are radicals at the rodeo, breaking a great taboo.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42And children who formed their own trade union.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45The unexpected is everywhere.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48HE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:01:55 > 0:01:58My journey starts with something of a success story,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01with a state that was once reviled,
0:02:01 > 0:02:03but is now the envy of the continent.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16This is Santiago, home to nearly six million people.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23A cosmopolitan capital that is growing and flourishing as never before.
0:02:29 > 0:02:30This is the spirit of the new,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34an economy that has more than doubled in the last ten years.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Foreigners flooding into the country because of the free market.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41If it goes on like this, over the next ten years,
0:02:41 > 0:02:47Chile will have an average income per head that rivals that of Spain,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50the old colonial master.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55Chile is now an open society, confident and outgoing.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Corruption is notable by its absence.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03Freedom has usurped tyranny, democracy has replaced dictatorship.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10For me, the transformation is startling.
0:03:11 > 0:03:1630 years ago, most of South America was under the jackboot.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Military dictators, fascist rule.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Chile was a quintessential example.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26When I was last here, General Pinochet was in power.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Foreign reporters were banned, so I had to go undercover.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31It was very unnerving.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37The people of Chile were cowed, and men in uniform
0:03:37 > 0:03:40were the face of a regime that terrorised its own people -
0:03:40 > 0:03:43that locked them up, that tortured them,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46that killed them, and had them "disappeared".
0:03:46 > 0:03:51Now, instead of being protectors of a tyranny,
0:03:51 > 0:03:56these troops are the outwardly symbolic face of a genuinely free society.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03Today, I can go where I want and meet who I like.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09Trapped by my own past here, it is a very strange experience.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Even though I know Chile is free,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19it still seems remarkable to me that somewhere like this can exist.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24It's The Clinic.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31Patricio?
0:04:31 > 0:04:34- Yes.- Patricio.- Hi, John.- Hi.
0:04:34 > 0:04:40Patricio Fernandez runs a best-selling magazine, a weekly shock of satire and subversion.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42Chile's Private Eye.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58The magazine was founded in 1998,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02inspired by a drama in London that convulsed Chile.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Why do you call it The Clinic?
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Our name came from the name of a London clinic
0:05:11 > 0:05:14where Pinochet was arrested.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18In 1988, Pinochet, who was no longer in office,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21was charged internationally with crimes against humanity.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23Though he'd never be put on trial,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26the dictator's humiliation was total.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32The arrest of Pinochet was, maybe for me,
0:05:32 > 0:05:40the most important event in the new democracy in Chile.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43It's like...
0:05:43 > 0:05:46you have a devil in your house,
0:05:46 > 0:05:50and some day a magic hand can take off it.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56You can't imagine that before.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01Never Pinochet would be arrested, for us.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03That was impossible.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08The Clinic is profoundly irreverent. The rich and powerful are lampooned,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12their hypocrisies ridiculed, their scandals exposed.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Freedom of expression with a vengeance.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21What we like is find here a lot of very different voices. Crazy voices.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26Logical voices, left voices, right voices.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31So it's a really open place where everyone can say what they want,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35where you can be very subversive, very offensive,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39you can sometimes be very kind, but not very often!
0:06:40 > 0:06:44I really can't get over this. If you think only a generation ago,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47for daring to sit like this together,
0:06:47 > 0:06:49they would've been put in prison, tortured,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54and some would've been killed for having the temerity to speak freely.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Now they have the same freedom to say what they want
0:06:58 > 0:07:01as anywhere in the world. It's absolutely fantastic.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03I've got to get the drinks back.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Sorry. There we are.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12- I was needing...- You were needing it!
0:07:12 > 0:07:14THEY LAUGH
0:07:18 > 0:07:23But you don't measure freedom simply in terms of rights or rules.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Pinochet stole Chile's liberty.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30The big question for me is how they live and breathe that liberty
0:07:30 > 0:07:32now that they've got it back again.
0:07:32 > 0:07:38When you've been through the kind of dramas and traumas that the people of Chile have,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42it makes one wonder, now that they're free, what they do with their identity.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Has it been stolen from them?
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Do they have to rediscover it, remake it?
0:07:47 > 0:07:49What country is it that they now have?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51And who are they?
0:07:55 > 0:07:58MUSIC PLAYS
0:08:02 > 0:08:03This is a tea dance,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07but the rhythm and the steps express the very soul of the nation.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09It's the people's dance, the cueca.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20But Pinochet not only seized power from the people, he stole the cueca, as well,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and turned it into a weapon for jingoistic propaganda.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34The lead singer is one of Chile's most famous actors.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37A-ha!
0:08:42 > 0:08:44And Daniel Munoz is using this status
0:08:44 > 0:08:47to reclaim the cueca for the people.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51HE WHOOPS
0:08:57 > 0:09:01I've never seen... Can you first show me those plates?
0:09:01 > 0:09:04They are like, er, castanets.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19What happened to the cueca, then, when the dictatorship was in place?
0:09:19 > 0:09:23When Pinochet was controlling this country?
0:09:49 > 0:09:51That was the past.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Today, Daniel wants the cueca to be the theme tune for the future.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59An assertion of freedom and a rejection of tyranny.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43They've even given the cueca a new name to reflect its new purpose.
0:10:43 > 0:10:44The cueca brava.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52The dance takes the form of an elaborate courtship between a rooster and his bird.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55It's not only seductive, but irresistible.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Dictators come and, mercifully, they go.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14Today, there seems no reason to doubt that the spirit that inspires the cueca brava will prevail.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:11:34 > 0:11:38The real thing is the amazing atmosphere in here. It's so lovely.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41There is not one unsmiling face.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Away from the capital, and into Chile's rural heartlands,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53once the stronghold of Pinochet's most committed followers,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and, I presumed, somewhat ambivalent about the new Chile.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06The National Rodeo Championships at Rancagua,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08almost men only, and not for the faint-hearted.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29This is the machismo, if you like, that goes deep back in Chilean tradition,
0:12:29 > 0:12:34when the cows had to be brought down from the mountains, and had to be controlled and separated.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Of course, it has its roots, too, in a very male
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and, historically, quite violent society, as well.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47That violence was incubated almost 500 years ago,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52when the Conquistadors swept across South America, wreaking havoc.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57After three centuries of colonial rule, the Spanish departed.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Among their bequests, the rodeo.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Deeply conservative, fiercely competitive.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Today, rodeo is a national sport, and almost as popular as football.
0:13:08 > 0:13:14You might think that rodeo is run by ranchers, Pinochet people. Not so.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18The president of this year's event turns out to be a property developer.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20Oscar Leria, like many of those here,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24is hooked on a romance with the past, not with Pinochet.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26What is a real Chilean?
0:13:29 > 0:13:33The real Chilean is people who have come from the farms.
0:13:33 > 0:13:40Of course, now my children, they believe in different things.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45There is globalisation, Facebook, internet, so they are changing.
0:13:45 > 0:13:51But, in our sport, we try to conserve the old stuff.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53- To hold on to that?- Yes, yes.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02The Rancagua Championships are televised across the nation.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07A three-day festival with a formal opening at sunset on the first evening.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYS
0:14:13 > 0:14:15It's a solemn ceremony.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19The Conquistadors not only brought horses to Chile, but the deity
0:14:19 > 0:14:23in whose name the rodeo is given a Catholic blessing.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46For many modern Chileans, the rodeo is an embarrassment, a reactionary anachronism.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49But, for me, the hooves and the history make a heady cocktail.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06A long time ago, when I was young, I used to love horses
0:15:06 > 0:15:10and I used to do all of this, cleaning and washing them and riding them.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16Smells the same, too. A mixture of horse sweat and manure. Nothing like it.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18What I'd really like is a ride.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24And I was to get my wish.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29Though in a rodeo world so deeply enthralled to the past, not quite in the way I'd imagined.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Yeah?
0:15:32 > 0:15:34Suave hacia al lado, suave.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39Michelle Recart is a rebel who challenged the old rules that kept women at bay.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Now, she's the first lady of Chilean rodeo.
0:15:43 > 0:15:44Cambiamos de mano...
0:15:44 > 0:15:49- Mm-hm.- Tomas... Esa con esa.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53She is also a very good trainer...
0:15:54 > 0:15:59..teaching me the ancient art of persuading the horse to perform a kind of soft-shoe shuffle.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04The purpose - to pin a cow against the wall, forcing it into submission.
0:16:06 > 0:16:07That was better.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Suave.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13In Chile, women only got equal voting rights in 1949.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Even today, fewer than half of them go out to work.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Michelle, though, helps run the family business, a cleaning firm.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23But rodeo has always been her passion.
0:16:27 > 0:16:33How do you think the men in the rodeo regarded the role of women?
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Against these odds, Michelle qualified for the National Championships
0:17:06 > 0:17:11when she was 17, so the men immediately changed the rules to keep her out.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17But she refused to back down and, eventually, the men gave up.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21In 2010, women were finally permitted to compete at Rancagua.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Michelle thinks I'm ready for the next stage.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40A cow?
0:17:41 > 0:17:42Wow.
0:17:44 > 0:17:45She's serious!
0:17:45 > 0:17:48HE LAUGHS
0:17:50 > 0:17:52This will be quite something.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04I did as I was told and, to my immense relief, it seemed to work.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Very good!
0:18:06 > 0:18:10In almost every area of life, not only in Chile, but throughout South America,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14there are women like Michelle, challenging old certainties...
0:18:16 > 0:18:18..and thereby changing the continent.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Estupendo!
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Just being here is a treat for me.
0:18:31 > 0:18:32And they call it work!
0:18:37 > 0:18:42From the rural rodeo to the Atacama Desert, over 700 miles to the north.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58'This train is heading west to the Pacific.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02'It's carrying copper, the principal source of this country's wealth.'
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Chile has more than 30 per cent of the world's total supply
0:19:06 > 0:19:11and most of the mines are in this invaluable desert.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16Take just one wagon of copper, 60 tonnes.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20Each tonne worth up to 10,000.
0:19:20 > 0:19:2760 by 10,000. That's something like 600,000 per wagon.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30When you have a big load on,
0:19:30 > 0:19:35what's the maximum load sometimes you have with one, two, three locomotives?
0:19:38 > 0:19:43- That's a huge weight to have. - Two locomotives. Two. - Two locomotives?
0:19:43 > 0:19:45That's a huge weight.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48What is it you most enjoy about it?
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Copper is a crucial raw material.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Without copper, electrical engineering would be impossible.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16And demand across the globe for what is now a precious metal in all but name,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20is not only insatiable, but rising fast.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22Likewise, the price.
0:20:22 > 0:20:2411,51...
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Last year, copper earned Chile more than 11 billion.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31But there's a twist to the story of the Atacama Desert.
0:20:33 > 0:20:39Intriguingly, this line wasn't originally built for copper.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43It was built to take nitrate out of the desert.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Those who built it were the British.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05This is Chacabuco.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Like the desert railway, the town was also constructed by the British.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13It was founded in 1924, in an age when the demand for nitrate,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16which was then used to make fertiliser,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20was almost as great as the demand for copper today.
0:21:25 > 0:21:31No -one knows the bleak story of this company town better than the writer Jorge Montealegre.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Was it like a model community?
0:22:07 > 0:22:11But if the workers were trapped here, there were compensations.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15With a little imagination, you can hear the voice of Caruso,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20who came here once to entertain the workers in Chacabuco's flourishing theatre.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28But nitrate was soon to be replaced by a synthetic substitute.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33And in 1938, a mere 14 years after its foundation,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Chacabuco was closed down, for what was presumed to be the last time.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39But that was not the end of the story.
0:22:42 > 0:22:4735 years later, Chacabuco was given a new lease of life.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51In 1973, General Pinochet turned it into a concentration camp
0:22:51 > 0:22:54for those who opposed his dictatorship.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Jorge was one of the inmates.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05What was it like when you came here?
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Jorge was a student radical
0:23:30 > 0:23:34and an aspiring author who wrote his first poem in this prison.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Today, he is a writer and scholar of renown.
0:23:41 > 0:23:48When you look at Chile today, how do you feel about your country?
0:24:03 > 0:24:07The detainees were kept nine to a room, up to a year
0:24:07 > 0:24:11in a prison that was fenced with electric wire and ringed by tanks.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26I think this place ought to be a monument to repression.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29It's so easy to say it happened out here in Chile,
0:24:29 > 0:24:34but the truth is that a lot of other people were party to it.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39Governments - Britain, America, elsewhere - propped up Pinochet,
0:24:39 > 0:24:40kept him in power.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45And the monument should be saying to all of us, "Don't deal with dictators."
0:24:54 > 0:24:59From Chacabuco, it's 70 miles to the Pacific Ocean.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03It was a liberation to drive through this harsh stretch of the Atacama Desert.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13It is spectacular.
0:25:14 > 0:25:15Nothing growing.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Barely a drop of rain.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22It's the driest desert in the whole world.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Caleta Concepcion is a fishing village so isolated
0:25:38 > 0:25:41that it has no telephones, no running water.
0:25:41 > 0:25:48But, unlikely as it may seem, it's an entrepreneurial hot-spot of real significance.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54It's beautiful weather. Fantastico.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59For me, it's a real delight being out here on the water.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03It's a warm, lovely afternoon. But, for Humberto and his team,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07this is work, because he's a fisherman day in, day out.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Except, that is, this afternoon.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12He's not after fish today, but another crop from the sea.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39For today's harvest, the crew land on an island that's devoid of other human life.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43They lead me across an eerie moonscape in search of their quarry.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58This is it.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Seaweed.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Chile not only has a 4,000-mile coastline,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07but is now the fifth-largest exporter of this valuable algae.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Humberto is a natural leader of men -
0:27:14 > 0:27:19a union activist who has represented Chile's fishermen at home and abroad.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21But, as the boss of the local co-operative,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24he's now turned himself into an entrepreneur.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01A bag of seaweed weighs in at 10.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Once dried and crushed, it's exported to the rest of the world, and principally to China.
0:28:06 > 0:28:13There, it ends up as a gel in foods, medicines, toothpaste, face creams, and even beer.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Seaweed is a nice little earner for Chile.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19But for the fishermen of Caleta Concepcion,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24it's a vital harvest that allows them to stay put in the village they cherish.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54From one of the richest countries in South America, to one of the poorest.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57By plane, it takes a couple of hours.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09I've reached Bolivia and the city of La Paz, the highest capital in the world.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11At 12-13,000 feet,
0:30:11 > 0:30:17the houses cling to the side of the Andes. It is truly spectacular.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24La Paz is home to nearly a million people,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27half of whom live at or below the official poverty line.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34But their resilience defies the altitude.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Unusually for South America,
0:30:46 > 0:30:5085 per cent of the population is Bolivian Indian in origin -
0:30:50 > 0:30:53the indigenous people of the Andes.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Until recently, they had been ruled first by the Conquistadors
0:30:57 > 0:31:00and then their descendants, Bolivia's Spanish minority.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02It's been an explosive cocktail.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15When I first came here, it was coup and counter-coup,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18violent repression. Now, things are very different.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20There's democracy.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24The majority population has reclaimed its country.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29It's asserted its rights. A profound social revolution is now under way.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32And I'm about to see an example of just that.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38La Paz is dominated by the Aymara community,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43which celebrates its liberation with a passion...for wrestling.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46Not only men, but women, as well.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50The Cholitas, as they call themselves, dress in traditional costume -
0:31:50 > 0:31:53a powerful assertion of their national identity.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59Maria and Marta are twin sisters rehearsing for a bout later this evening.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05And, of course, their moves are carefully choreographed to achieve maximum impact.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07HE GRUNTS
0:32:07 > 0:32:09HE LAUGHS
0:32:11 > 0:32:17This is important not only as a sport, but culturally, would you believe?
0:32:23 > 0:32:25- Better?- Si.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05I distrust... I-I...
0:33:05 > 0:33:06Oh!
0:33:06 > 0:33:08HE LAUGHS
0:33:09 > 0:33:11I surrender.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18The twins invited me back to the home they share on the mountainous edge of the city,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22where they have surrounded themselves with symbols of their native culture.
0:33:25 > 0:33:30Their social and political emancipation is very recent.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34But it was achieved through the ballot box, not by violence.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40How were you treated, before, in the old days?
0:34:13 > 0:34:15Perched above the capital
0:34:15 > 0:34:18is a satellite city with a population of a million or more.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21It's called El Alto.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Three out of four people here live hand-to-mouth
0:34:24 > 0:34:28on the very margins of the money economy. Wrestling is their refuge.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Maria and Marta are big stars, and their fans are out in force.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47And I've been roped in to do my bit in support of what will certainly be the winning side -
0:34:47 > 0:34:49I hope!
0:34:49 > 0:34:54They make a formidable pair. But there's a rare suspense.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57For the first time, they've elected to challenge two men.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Maria and Marta are not only skilled wrestlers,
0:35:08 > 0:35:13but fine thespians, who understand perfectly the essence of high drama.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18So, for a while, all seemed lost.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22The men behaving badly, the damsels in deepening distress.
0:35:23 > 0:35:24A miracle was needed.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27On cue, I sprang to the rescue.
0:35:31 > 0:35:32REFEREE SHOUTS
0:35:41 > 0:35:44It did the trick. Suddenly, the women were on top.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57And, finally, the coup de grace.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14SHE WHOOPS
0:36:21 > 0:36:23I said we'd win.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44The real breakthrough for Bolivia's Indian majority came in 2005,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49when, for the first time, they elected one of their own as the country's president.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53Evo Morales promised them a future of radical reform,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56an end to discrimination, and a socialist tomorrow.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59The critics predicted chaos.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07But the doom-mongers were wrong.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09The economy is stable, growth rates are steady,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and, being rich in strategic raw materials for the global market,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16there is abundant cash in the state coffers.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22Despite the poverty, there's a new energy in the streets of this restless capital.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28I am in one of the thousands of minibus taxis,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32which are the main means of getting around in this great sprawl of a city.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Everyone seems to be on the move.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39Everyone working in one way or another, including the children.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44Juan Carlos is 13. He's a vocero, a bus conductor.
0:37:46 > 0:37:48HE SHOUTS IN SPANISH
0:37:56 > 0:37:59His job is to drum up business.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05Every time he fills the bus, he gets one boliviano - ten pence. He also goes to school.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42It's a uniquely Bolivian notion,
0:38:42 > 0:38:48but the fact is, Juan Carlos belongs to a formal union of child workers.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51As elsewhere in South America, child labour is widespread,
0:38:51 > 0:38:56in mines and plantations, as well as on the buses,
0:38:56 > 0:39:01all of which the children themselves regard as a right, not an abuse.
0:39:05 > 0:39:11The Union of Child Workers is not only for the young, it's run by the young, and they're very powerful,
0:39:11 > 0:39:15so powerful they managed to change the constitution of the land,
0:39:15 > 0:39:19persuading the politicians that instead of outlawing child work,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22they should enshrine the rights of children to work, in the law.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Noemi is 16. She's one of the leaders of the child union,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33out recruiting more members.
0:39:35 > 0:39:41It seems to many people in my country very wrong that you should be urging children to work.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57You want to have more rights. How are you going to get that?
0:40:15 > 0:40:21Noemi would like every one of the country's one million child workers in a union.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23You are a real militant.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42From La Paz, I headed through the chilly splendour of the Andes
0:40:42 > 0:40:47on my way towards a very different Bolivia, a region called the Yungas.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Here, it is warm, humid and rich in vegetation.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16I'm in the mountains and I'm on my way to meet a family
0:41:16 > 0:41:20which, like all those who farm on these hills,
0:41:20 > 0:41:26is harvesting a crop which is the source of Bolivian's national drink.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44- You leave the young leaves.- Si.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46You pick the dark leaves.
0:41:53 > 0:42:00Guillemina is one of that 40% of Bolivia's population who depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03In her case, the crop is coca.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07It's a hard life, for a very modest income.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12How many hours do you do this every day when you're picking?
0:42:20 > 0:42:27How important is coca as a drink for the people of Bolivia?
0:42:37 > 0:42:38And when you chew it...
0:42:41 > 0:42:43- What effect does that have?- Si, si.
0:42:53 > 0:42:59People have said to me that coca has a special spiritual value as well.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01Can you explain that?
0:43:24 > 0:43:27Pachamama is the fertility goddess, Mother Earth,
0:43:27 > 0:43:33a mother who presides over the harvest, and in whose benevolence the family has unquestioning belief.
0:43:33 > 0:43:39'Pachamama has been worshipped throughout the Andes for thousands of years.'
0:43:39 > 0:43:41What struck me enormously about this
0:43:41 > 0:43:46is the feeling that you pray to the earth, and it's in some way sacred.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51For me it's wonderful to hear someone openly say,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54"We say to the earth, 'Please give us good crops'"
0:43:54 > 0:43:57without any sense of embarrassment at all.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02It's a real belief, that I find very attractive.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08The family harvest the crop three times a year.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12It provides an average annual income of just over 2 a day.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Life on the margins.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20There is one problem with the cultivation of coca.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24The leaf contains ingredients that can be manufactured into a drug
0:44:24 > 0:44:29that the governments of the world are pledged to stamp out.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31Cocaine.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42Bolivia is the third largest producer of the raw materials of cocaine in the world.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49Before Morales, the US Drugs Agency operated freely here,
0:44:49 > 0:44:53with the intention of eradicating coca farming completely.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57HE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:44:57 > 0:44:59Uh-huh. Gracias.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32When Morales became president, the American enforcers were expelled.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35The new government claimed it could tackle the cocaine problem
0:45:35 > 0:45:37on its own.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38But it has yet to succeed.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Production of cocaine continues to rise.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48But the overwhelming majority of coca farmers
0:45:48 > 0:45:50have no connection with narcotics
0:45:51 > 0:45:55They don't like Bolivia still being treated as America's back yard.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00I can only wonder what they must think,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02how crass it is that government should say,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06- "Sorry, your crop- can- damage other people's lives,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08"therefore we're tearing it out."
0:46:08 > 0:46:10Imagine what would happen if we said,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13"Alcohol kills and causes untold damage,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16"so we're taking out all the vineyards in the world."
0:46:16 > 0:46:19It's an outrage to them that we could even contemplate it.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23They must say to themselves, "Surely there's another way."
0:46:28 > 0:46:32From the mountains in the west, to the lowlands in the north,
0:46:32 > 0:46:34close to the border with Brazil.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51The Madre de Dios is a tributary of the Amazon river.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55From this region, deep in the rainforest,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00they harvest 70% of the world's supply of what are called, unfairly,
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Brazil nuts.
0:47:11 > 0:47:16I've come to meet Nada Vaqueros, one of Bolivia's great campaigners.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18A union activist, who's spent 20 years
0:47:18 > 0:47:20fighting for the rights of the workers
0:47:20 > 0:47:22who gather and shell the nuts.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24- Nada?- Hi!
0:47:24 > 0:47:26SHE SPEAKS QUECHUA
0:47:26 > 0:47:28Riberalta!
0:47:42 > 0:47:45Upwards of 700 people are employed
0:47:45 > 0:47:47in this swelteringly hot factory,
0:47:47 > 0:47:49one of 18 in the town.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Almost all the workers are women.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55Their wages - £5 for a 12-hour shift.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20'Nada has led strikes.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23'She's been vilified and fired, but she's always come back for more.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27'As a direct result, pay has gone up four-fold
0:48:27 > 0:48:28'and the women, at last
0:48:28 > 0:48:30'have some dignity.'
0:48:30 > 0:48:33What were conditions like
0:48:33 > 0:48:36until you started to agitate to improve them?
0:49:11 > 0:49:14The work that's going on all around here is really hard
0:49:14 > 0:49:17and I feel...humbled
0:49:17 > 0:49:19by people like Nada.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23What they have to achieve is quite astonishing,
0:49:23 > 0:49:27more than most of us ever achieve in a lifetime.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32So, it's a kind of privilege to be here, in all seriousness.
0:49:49 > 0:49:50Nada hasn't been content
0:49:50 > 0:49:53simply to make a radical difference
0:49:53 > 0:49:56to the wages and conditions of the workers in the nut factories,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58she's taken a step further.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01She's managed to persuade - or, actually, virtually -
0:50:01 > 0:50:05to force the government to build houses for them, as well.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Nada is an inspiration to the women of this region and beyond.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14No-one has ever offered to improve the lot
0:50:14 > 0:50:15of Bolivia's women.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17She has insisted on it.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23As a result, the workers are building more than 200 houses
0:50:23 > 0:50:25on the edge of town,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28thanks to an interest-free loan from the government.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32When the project was declared open,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36President Morales turned up for the ceremony in person.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38Nada thought he was taking credit he didn't deserve.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43The next thing you did was pour juice over him.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45Why was that?
0:51:01 > 0:51:03- So you threw the juice on him?- Si.
0:51:03 > 0:51:04NADA IMITATES JUICE SPLASHING
0:51:04 > 0:51:06- JONATHAN LAUGHS - What did he do?
0:51:06 > 0:51:08SHE SPEAKS QUECHUA
0:51:11 > 0:51:13Nada's implacable resolve
0:51:13 > 0:51:16is not only changing lives in Riberalta,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18it's transforming attitudes as well.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23The new Bolivia is being built as much from the bottom up
0:51:23 > 0:51:25as the top down.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43Flying ever deeper into the rainforest,
0:51:43 > 0:51:48I headed for a unique reminder of Bolivia's rich heritage.
0:51:48 > 0:51:49In the 17th century,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52when the country was ruled by Spain,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56this remote region was at the very edge of the Catholic world.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04San Ignacio de Moxos is a jungle settlement of 14,000 souls
0:52:04 > 0:52:09that was founded in 1689 by two Jesuit missionaries.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12Their legacy is music -
0:52:12 > 0:52:15baroque harmonies from the age of Handel and Vivaldi,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17which still flourish
0:52:17 > 0:52:18in this isolated town.
0:52:21 > 0:52:23HE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:52:23 > 0:52:25Edgar Villa helps to run a music school.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30He's an archivist who scours the community for music
0:52:30 > 0:52:33that's been passed down through the centuries.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58MAN SINGS
0:53:05 > 0:53:08Missionary baroque still survives,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11even in the smallest communities.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Marcel is an elder of the local church...
0:53:14 > 0:53:19..who holds in his head the sacred melodies of his father's generation.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39How was it passed down to you?
0:54:09 > 0:54:13In this way, the music school has now assembled
0:54:13 > 0:54:16hundreds of baroque scores from the surrounding community.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21I could sit here all afternoon listening to this music,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24being taken down the generations
0:54:24 > 0:54:26and surviving for future generations.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30It's wonderful.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38CHOIR SINGS
0:54:38 > 0:54:39The music school itself,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42is an artistic beacon for more than 100 young students
0:54:42 > 0:54:45from San Ignacio and the surrounding area.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53CHOIR SINGS HYMN
0:54:53 > 0:54:55It is extraordinary.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58A small town in the middle of the jungle...
0:54:59 > 0:55:00..a music school...
0:55:02 > 0:55:05..and they're playing early baroque music...
0:55:06 > 0:55:09..which has its origins here, nearly 400 years ago.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33Until the 1970's,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36the existence of Bolivian baroque was virtually unknown.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40Now, it's renowned throughout the country, and in the world beyond.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44The school is flourishing,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46and - which is more impressive -
0:55:46 > 0:55:48it draws exclusively on local talent.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56Everyone in the choir and everyone in the orchestra
0:55:56 > 0:55:57comes from the community?
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Yes, everyone. Everyone in this school.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04Because of the communication's here,
0:56:04 > 0:56:06it's very difficult to arrive to this town.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08It's very difficult to get to?
0:56:08 > 0:56:12And the only way we can find people
0:56:12 > 0:56:14is people from the town.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17The baroque arrived
0:56:17 > 0:56:19from an alien, colonial culture,
0:56:19 > 0:56:20but it's been embraced and adapted -
0:56:20 > 0:56:26European and native traditions woven together to form new harmonies.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31There are many levels of mixture.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36You can find music that remembers just to the natives.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40But you are playing with a violin, a very European instrument.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43And now you can find this instrument,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47native instrument, playing very European music.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51WOMAN SINGS
0:56:52 > 0:56:55What I've seen on my journey so far,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57makes a nonsense of our old-world cliches,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00implying that the New World prefers
0:57:00 > 0:57:04to snooze on the sidelines while the rest of us get on with it.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07WOMAN SINGS
0:57:09 > 0:57:12South America is moving fast,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14but making its own future in its own way.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16And very impressive it is.
0:57:37 > 0:57:38Next week -
0:57:38 > 0:57:41Colombia emerging from civil war...
0:57:44 > 0:57:47..and Venezuela, wrestling with Hugo Chavez -
0:57:47 > 0:57:50two very different visions for the New World.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56# Gloria, gloria, gloria
0:57:56 > 0:57:59# In excelsis deo
0:57:59 > 0:58:02# Gloria
0:58:02 > 0:58:04# In excelsis
0:58:04 > 0:58:07# Gloria
0:58:07 > 0:58:09# In excelsis
0:58:09 > 0:58:12# Gloria
0:58:12 > 0:58:13# In excelsis
0:58:13 > 0:58:17# In excelsis deo
0:58:17 > 0:58:22# Gloria in excelsis deo. #
0:58:22 > 0:58:25Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:25 > 0:58:28E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk