The politics of Bolivia’s eastern Media Luna lowlands are under increasing attention after the ouster of the government of Evo Morales in 2019 and the repressive violence of the interim Áñez administration.1 The economic and political power of Santa Cruz as the main hub of agribusiness and gas extraction grew tremendously in the past forty years. Right-wing and elite Cruceño organizations and personalities have captured media attention recently, but much less is known about the migration and internal colonization efforts that built the rising agro-industrial region in the tropical lowlands.2 Nobbs-Thiessen’s Landscape of Migration offers a richly detailed history that helps to explain the political and ecological dynamics of the region through the lens of transnational mobility and environmental change.
The book is composed of five distinct case studies that answer a common question: “What happens when people, ideas, and technologies are transplanted from one location to the...