Bolivian Voices

The magazine “Américas” of the Organization of American States (OAS) recently published a short article about Voces Bolivianas in its October 2008 issue. Reporter Chris Hardman interviewed Eduardo Ávila about the project’s goals and about its plans for the future. The article also provided examples of some of the new bloggers such as Marisol Medina.

On a Saturday morning in El Alto, Bolivia, a group of men and women intensely watch the computer screens at the Internet Café Scorpio. Some of the users have never had access to the internet and now they are learning to write mesages, digital photograhy and video techniques, tools necessary to have a voice within the global online conversation that is the Internet.

(…)

“I think the internet can be a great equalizer, as it can connect people that may not normally interact offline,” says Eduardo Ávila, the director of the program.

To see a scan of the article please click here.

Rock Boliviano is one of the most active blogs within the family of Voces Bolivianas. What makes it one of the most active is that it is related to a radio program that has been on the air quite some time.  Maintained by the bloggers Omar Ali and Yelmo Vasquez, the site is maintained in El Alto, but they also cover events and activities in the nearby city of La Paz.

The program Resistence has been supporting Bolivian rocks of all genres for the past 5 years. This blog is dedicated to promote new bands and allow that more people hear them because we believe that exclusivity is dead. The program is transmitted on the FM Radio Wayna Tambo 101.7 FM, Tarija 100.7 FM on Wednesdays at 14:30

In addition to supporting Bolivian rock bands, the site hosts many unedited songs, and writes reports on bands from abroad, record and concert reviews. Please visit the blog at http://resistencia.blogspot.com

Virginio Sandy of the blog Nación Suyu Suras Parcialidad Aransaya [es], one of the most active bloggers in the Province of Dalence, writes about the history of Tupaj Katari, one of the indigenous leaders during Spanish colonial rule, who made the following premonition:

Before being executed, Tupaj Katari predicted: “I die, but later will come millions and millions”

Virginio participated in the historic march that took place during October 13-20, 2008 from the town of Caracollo in the department of Oruro to downtown La Paz. In addition, Virginio talks about his wishes and thoughts regarding the march:

It took 516 years since the Spanish invastion and 183 since Independence to break the shackles of injustice, marginalization and exclusion for the indigenous nations and peoples of Bolivia. During colonization, for more than 300 years they were brutally treated like beasts for their role as slaves, thousands and thousants died in the mines while extracting riches for the Spanish, and in exchange they beaten because they were not considered men, but animals.

To read the entire post, please see: his original post

Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia with content that anybody can edit and contribute to has three versions with native languages of Bolivia: Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní. This page from the Spanish version shows how those interested can contribute.

Quechua (qu): Contains 8,096 articles

Aymara (ay): Contains 681 articles

Guaraní (gn): Contains 1,014 articles.