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Article: Coca: It's an indigenous thing
- Article from:
- Charleston Gazette
- Article date:
- December 8, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2006 Charleston Gazette. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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LA PAZ, Bolivia - "Coca, coca, coca!"
The Aymara women beckoned from beneath a golden tent in a corner
of Plaza de Alonso Mendoza, elbow deep in towering burlap sacks
filled with emerald leaves. Around them, other tents housed pyramids
of honey-stuffed coca wafers and bottles of coca shampoo.
Cristobal Benavides, a 32-year-old Peruvian with a frayed
ponytail, condor earrings and a "Coma-Coca" ("Eat-Coca") T-shirt,
encouraged me to rub my arm with a coca-based ointment for "increased
mental health and vigor." Other vendors hawked coca bread, cookies,
candy, frosted cake and other comestibles; coca-infused alcohol,
reminiscent of tequila crossed with lemon liqueur; ointments and
medicine to ...