Cristina Quisbert of Voces Bolivianas has received a scholarship to attend the Blog Her 2009 Conference on July 24 and 25 in Chicago. She will be a part of a prestigious group that includes Annie Zaidi (India), Esra’a Al Shafei (Bahrain), Pilirani Semu-banda (Malawi) y Toyin Ajao-Dawodu (Nigeria).

Here is the profile of the scholarship and a summary of the prize:

Cristina Quisbert, Bolivia, publisher at http://boliviaon.blogspot.com

Blog Mission: According to Cristina’s nominator: “The mission of this blog is to strive to show indigenous communities as a source of pride. There are a lot of misconceptions about indigenous people, and Cristina shows a more personal side and uses her own voice to represent other members of indigenous communities in the Bolivian Altiplano. Cristina is a bridge blogger, allowing fellow Bolivians who may not identify themselves as a member of an indgenous community, to interact and learn about indigenous communities in another region of the country. By also writing a blog in English, she is able to reach a much wider audience and show another side of life in El Alto, Bolivia.“

Congratulations to Cristina and we wish her good luck in Chicago.

During a visit to Buenos Aires, I met Juan Vasquez, member of a group of Bolivians in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, called “Agrupación Simbiosis Cultural.” They wrote to Voces Bolivianas in order to learn a little more about the use of blogs. I showed him a little of what can be done by using blogs, and how easy it is to create and maintain. After I returned to Bolivia, Juan wrote me with the address of his new blog A Bolivian in Argentina. . I am still in touch with him via MSN Messenger to answer his questions and provide any tips for his blog.

His latest post talks about the 2nd annual event called “United Youth for the Children” where in 2008:

get together to give children, Bolivian or not, an enjoyable afternoon where the primary objective will be to show them the games that they left behind when they came to this country and which they grew up with, as well as learn lessons that are given at that age.

His group will participate once again this year on January 10th, and he summarizes last year’s event, which only expected 300 children and in the end attracted more than 700 children.

The afternoon was exciting from the very start, because not only more young people attended, but also other joyful people, who had the desire to donate a little of what they had so that it was enough for all of the children.

Other people came by with presents, clothes, soft drinks or with the simple, but important question, “can I help with something?”

Edgar Andrés Yana tells about the contest and election of the “Cholita Carabuqeña” (Miss Carabuco) where his friend Beatriz Mery came in first place. Five women participated in the event that took place in Canton Ambana, Third Section in the Camacho Province in the Department of La Paz. The women participated in two events:

1. Demonstration of a typical folkloric dance.

2. Showing of a formal cholita dress.

Following that they asked each of the participants a question regarding national culture, and from that they selected 3 semi-finalists, and they also asked a second question in which the Cholita Beatriz Mery Choque Bellido correctly answered the question, “how many communities make up Canton Ambana?” and she correctly answered 48 communities, and upon that the jury announced that she had won, the Cholita Beatriz Mery Choque Bellido representing her community of Comaptia.

To read and comment on the original article, please visit: Brand New Cholita Carabuqueña

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Education wordpress principiantes

Virginio Sandy writes about the tradition and the meaning of All Saints Day, and also comments about the feast of Halloween is replacing our culture in the cities, something that doesn’t happen in the rural communities. There, the tradition of All Saints remains stronger than ever. He posts photos of the feast in the Bombo Allyu in the Province of Dalence of Oruro.

Each year that passes, more abrupt changes can be seen, in the feast of All Saints Day, which according to our traditions marks the arrival on November 1 of our Ajayus (ancestral spirits), tired and thirsty after going around the world arriving from beyond.

To read and comment on the original article please visit: All Saints Day and Halloween in the Andes [es]

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.

With the help of two of our bloggers in El Alto, Voces Bolivianas is pleased to offer the sale of laptop sleeves made from the traditional aguayo textile with a fleece lining. The sleeve is held by velcro. If this is successful, we will continue to manufacture more in different sizes. For now, the exact size is made for the dimensions of a Macbook (laptop measures 12.78 x 8.92 x 1.08 inches (WxDxH). Numbers are very limited.

There is a choice of two style (#1 and #2) and the cost is $25 USD and includes shipping within the US only (for now). Payment may be made via Paypal. 100% of proceeds goes towards Voces Bolivianas activities.

For more information please write: info [at] vocesbolivianas [dot] org or eduardo [at] vocesbolivianas [dot] org Please specify style #1 or #2.

To purchase:

Sorry, we are sold out. Please check back for future sales.

Note: We are trying this to see if there might be future interest in other sizes.  If you have a laptop that is not a Macbook, but would be interested in helping support Voces Bolivianas through the purchase of a laptop bag, please indicate what size you would be interested in (Survey Monkey)