Bolivia, Aymara, and hip-hop: Wayna Tambo

http://www.casawaynatambo.tk/

Wayna Tambo is a principally an Aymara hip-hop station run out of El Alto, in La Paz. I visited and was a translator for the two linguists as the station interviewed them both live and recorded on why they were in Bolivia and what they thought of the Aymara language movement. Its important to note that the linguists I was with didn't even want to do this interview because they focus almost solely on languages that have fewer than 5,000 speakers (Aymara has I think around 1.5 million). The film crew we were with thought it would be good footage for the storyline.

The Bolivian hip-hop scene is, as one might expect, pretty small, but I think this station speaks a lot to the nature of the Aymara movement and how it has been picked up in recent years by a younger crowd. Unfortunately this younger crowd has made it more of a militant, anti-establishment movement as opposed to a cultural fight (necessary? i dont know). They tend to blame government policy and the white, spanish-speaking oligarchy instead of teaching the language to their children which is what really keeps a language alive. The decision to speak a language is made by childre ages 5-7 when they first start going to school. If the parents are insistent at that age that they continue to speak the language even if just at home, the child will remain bilingual even when schools are only in spanish (or any other dominant language) Anyways, the site is interesting to look at.