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In Bolivia, the year 2011 was characterized by the return of a combative approach to a maritime territorial claim. The country lost its Pacific coastline during the War of the Pacific (1878-1879) which pitted Bolivia and Peru against Chile. In 1904, a treaty formally ratified this territorial loss. Bolivia thus became the only Andean country without a Pacific coastline, leaving the country completely landlocked. Although this territorial loss dates far back, it has continued to have a “strong emotional impact that still influences Bolivia today” (Mesa, Gisbert and Mesa Gisbert 2001, 529). The maritime claim, the quest to regain a coastline, structures Bolivians’ national imagination and provides a basis for nation-building. This paper analyzes the resurgence of the maritime claim at a time when Bolivia, as a “Plurinational State,” should have changed its nationalist posture. As a further question, our analysis focuses on the role that the country’s lost coastline has played in shaping Bolivia’s territorial memory and the means set up to build a memorial device common to all Bolivians.