Hip hop as empowerment: voices in El Alto, Bolivia

Abstract

In response to neoliberal policies that have been in place since 1985, Bolivian young people have increasingly used hip hop music as a means of protest and to reclaim social and political participation. Hip hop in Latin America tells the story of the struggles that marginalized people have suffered, and speaks to the effects of international policies fueled by globalization. This paper focuses on what the Bolivian hip hopper Nina Uma calls “Hip hop revolution”: a hip hop that critiques and interrogates the social, political, and economic structure, the differences between the haves and the have nots, and proposes using hip hop to spread “education as cultural action of freedom”. This article examines the ways young people of El Alto, Bolivia are making sense of their social, political, and economic context.

Keywords:

• Indigenous
• hip hop
• globalization
• neoliberalism
• Bolivia

Notes

1. “Ya lo habíamos advertido el hombre Aymara es mejor que el sistema.” The translation is mine.

2. Alteño makes reference to people from El Alto.

3. “El Alto always standing, never on their knees.” The translation is mine.

4. Altiplano: Spanish for highland plateau.

5. Latifundio: a massive extension of land, which belongs to a single owner. It is associated with farming and exploitative working conditions for the peasants living there.

6. “The land is owned by the one who works it.” The translation is mine.

7. Microfundio. De Mesa, Gisbert, and Mesa Gisbert (2001) define it as: “The small plot, with a minimum of production that is constantly divided for heritance purposes”. The translation is mine.

8. Peasants.

9. Term used to name the people that were taken away by the government and never brought back.

10. Original phrase: “culturas híbridas”. The translation is mine.

11. The translation is mine. The term ch’ama was translated using the definition provided by Pueblos Originarios de América (n.d.): http://pueblosoriginarios.com/lenguas/aymara.html.

12. This quote and subsequent translations throughout the paper are mine unless otherwise stated.

13. “Gathered skirt worn over several petticoats” (Lazar 2008, 286).

14. Bowler hat.

15. Wool shawl.

16. Colonizer.

17. This and the following quotes from Abraham Bojórquez were taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V4l5QhwJb4&feature=related, unless otherwise stated.