Evo worked from a very young age, but he also went to school and, on top of that, had time to dedicate to soccer. In his youth, his peculiar sense of humor and gift of leadership started to show.

Evo Musico

"Since I was small, I remember I was an organiser, a mobilizer. At school, Seccional de Calavilca, when I was in first grade, the teacher made us draw a donkey. I drew it and colored it red, yellow and green. It was the joke of the class all year: 'Evo's donkey is red, yellow and green.' When I was 13 or 14 years old, I founded a soccer team in my community. It was called Brotherhood and we played in the championships. I was the captain, the delegate, I was the referee. I was like the owner of the team. I had to sheer sheep, llama wool. My father helped me, he was a sports enthusiast. We sold the wool to buy balls, uniforms. At 16 years of age, the three ayllus of the community, the different delegates, elected me as Technical Director of the selection of the whole canton."

The students in eleventh and twelfth grade at the Unidad Educativa Central Orinoca, where Evo studied, went to visit the Palacio Quemado in La Paz. Unfortunately, the protocol and communications people didn't let them talk to the president. When they were sitting waiting for a government representative, Evo, who was then 15 years old, declared, 'one day, I'm going to be president', and notified his classmates that 'you will be my ministers', according to his cousin Adela Ayma. Then he declared that 'when I'm president, it will be easy to reach me', emphasizing both the snub they had received and their disdain for the full schedules of the supposed representatives of the people.

To continue his studies, Evo went to the city of Oruro, where he worked as a brick-layer, a baker and a trumpet player. He got to play in the Royal Imperial Band, which allowed him to travel and get to know different ways of life. "One of my best memories that I have of the band has to do with my trip to the mining areas in the south of Potosí. I must have been 16, still an adolescent and with lots of stories."

He studied until eleventh grade. Then he left to do his mandatory military service, in the military headquarters in La Paz. During this time, there were the coup d'etats of Juan Pereda Asbun (1978) and David Padilla Arancibia (1978).

When he left the barracks, he returned to his community to farm. But nature changed the lives of the Morales family and thousands of other residents of Orinoca. In 1980, the El Niño phenomenon ended more than 70% of agricultural production and swept away more than 50% of the animals. "One afternoon, we had just finished clearing the potato field with lots of helpers. Then at night came wind and cold. The next day, the potato field was burnt, black, with a bad smell. My mother cried all day. My father was with my uncles and they all decided, 'here we're never going to progress, we're never going to be prosperous farmers. We have to go and find land in the east of Bolivia.'"

Soon afterwards, the Morales family left Orinoca to start a new life as colonizers in the tropics of Cochabamba.