| Summary: | Based on empirical research in 2017 and contributing to a break with a perspective of losses that is widespread in the work on Latin America by anthropologists of religion, this article doesn’t focus on “authenticity”, but analyzes how the population in today's Bolivia perceives and interprets a modern achievement.The article builds on data from participatory observations on motor vehicle blessing rituals in Bolivia and on narrative and semi-structured interviews with various drivers. It demonstrates that two blessing rituals are performed to be protected when driving in Bolivia: The bendición by Catholic priests and the ch'alla per-formed by the drivers themselves or by a professional yatiri. I compare the collected data to the model of andino-catholic syncretism by Ina Rösing and contrast it with her thesis that the Andean religiosity is getting lost due to urbanization.The efficiency attributed to these rituals for protection against accidents and incidents, and the fear of negative consequences when not performing them show that in today's Bolivia the logic of reciprocity is widespread and that also “mod-ern” technologies, such as the motor vehicle, are interpreted by the Bolivian population inside the symbol system of andino-catholic syncretism.
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