The first thing that caught my eye in the introduction was the way Dr. Carwil Bjork-James framed his context. The way he was able to capture the historical transition in the environment of the city was especially effective to me because I was truly able to characterize the city in its details. As the book details documents of revolution among the people, I thought the way he described aspects of the city that have/will change was interesting because they were connected to the people, whether it be about the stalls that vendor women sell drinks or the celebrations that used to take place in La Paz.
I also thought it was interesting how Dr. Bjork-James included smaller accounts with people who he didn’t necessarily seek but those who had sought him out. He was able to intertwine these accounts in a way that contextualizes the introduction in the very essence of ethnography that I am still learning about. He also included the full process of his research from the very beginning of discovering Bolivia’s political revolution to his personal witness there. I learned that narrative style writing can be extremely effective in portraying research realistically while drawing on the human experience. Although many may think this is not as credible when compared to statistics or plain text, I think there is a true importance in understanding there is power when presenting research/ethnography in its natural context alongside emotion and relationships. This inspired me to take these details into my own project when accounting my own ethnography for the final paper.