Roosters at Midnight : Indigenous Signs and Stigma in Local Bolivian Politics

Roosters at Midnight is an ethnography about the political lives and careers of a growing urban-dwelling and indigenous constituency that operates primarily within the informal economy in and around the provincial capital Quillacollo.

In its finely wrought detail, its loving attention to the subtleties of daily interaction, its insightful analysis of the political uses of culture and heritage and genealogy, Roosters at Midnight is like no other ethnography of the Andes that I have read. It is a gem of a book. Daniel M. Goldstein, Rutgers University --Pre-publication blurb

Albro's work provides us with a detailed look at the ways local politics work by following local politicians who must perform on a stage mediated by historical legacies, unspoken prejudices, and complicated gendered enactments. His work follows a long line of political anthropology and makes a timely contribution to the field by showing the intricate relations between political action and cultural notions of value and honor. Nancy Postero, University of California San Diego --Pre-publication blurb

Albro's book offers crucial insights for understanding the internal tensions within contemporary indigenous identities in Bolivia and their political implications. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the Andean region or indigenous politics more broadly. -- John Cameron, Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 33, no. 1, Jan. 2014.

This book is a marvellously detailed, subtle and complex ethnography of local politics...and one of the first books written in the context of Evo Morales' rise to power that has managed to fully take this on board...It is so refreshing to have an utterly contemporary treatment of...familiar themes in Andean anthropology...One of the joys of this book is that it will ring so true to anyone who has studied urban politics in Bolivia. -- Sian Lazar, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2, May 2013.

Robert Albro's new ethnography demonstrates how daily practices and expressions of humble people in periurban Quillacollo shape and color a neopopular political scene that preceded and continues to inform Bolivia's high-profile indigenous politics. --Susan Paulson, American Anthropologist, vol. 114, no. 3, Sept. 2012

This rich ethnography, written in the tradition of classic political ethnographies of towns, pueblos, and villages, is important for the Bolivianist and any student of Latin American politics...As questions of racism, inequality, and change take on a renewed centrality, the book provides an illustration of how these issues play out in the rising secondary cities of Bolivia. -- Bret Gustafson, Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 68, no. 2, summer 2012.

Robert Albro weaves popular use of language, symbols, political and apolitical rituals, rumors, insults, and occasionally literature, song, and poetry into a multifaceted description of meanings in political life. -- Carwil Bjork-James, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, vol. 16, no. 2, Nov. 2011