Julia Elena Fortún

Julia Elena Fortún Melgarejo (9 October 1929 – 5 December 2016) was a Bolivian historian, anthropologist, folklorist, and ethnomusicologist, who pioneered the study of ethnomusicology in Bolivia. She held an array of government and academic posts throughout her life and was a key figure in Bolivian anthropology.

Biography Fortún was born in Sucre but lived in La Paz since her childhood.

She was married to Carlos Ponce Sanginés, whom she accompanied during the expedition which discovered the Ponce Monolith. The Unión de Mujeres Americanas honored her as the "Woman of the Americas" in 1964. On 23 January 1954, Fortún became president. Shortly afterwards, she completed two years of postdoctoral coursework in anthropology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, returning to La Paz in 1956.

While director of the National Cultural Institute, Fortún published the 1973 monograph Educación y Desarrollo Rural, highlighting the importance of education in improving the condition of rural Bolivians. The monograph outlined a proposed reform project in which rural normal schools would be converted into "technical rural normal schools with emphasis on education, health and work." There she coordinated alongside Oreste Plath the symposium on "Basic problems of the study of Andean folklore". However, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état on September 11 hindered the publication of the conference proceedings.

Works Among the books written by Julia Elena Fortún are:

Música indígena de Bolivia (1947) Nuestra música folklórica (1948) Manual para la recolección de material folklórico (1957) La danza de los diablos (1960) La mujer aymara (1964)