Hip Hop: The Response from the Streets?: Youth Cultures and Politics in Bolivia

In an era driven by neoliberal and globalizing values and characterized by widespread youth distrust in the institutionalized politics, one could make the hypothesis that young people are finding alternative channels to voice their discontent and to challenge a society that is increasingly marginalizing them. These channels are more in agreement with XXI century youth's codes and are untranslatable to the institutionalized political logic. It is the intention of this paper to test this thesis in Bolivia and more concretely is concerned in analyzing the particular case of the hip hop movement in the marginalized city of El Alto. The deprived situation of the population of El Alto is the result of Bolivia's history of colonialism, repression exclusion and poverty that has been worsened with the long years of high debts, hyperinflation, dictatorships and structural adjustments. This condition has changed the social and familial dynamics, pushing some of the youth inhabitants into the street reality where young people underwent new forms of socialization. This process of socialization has led young people to engage to the hip hop subculture. Hip hoppers have found in hip hop culture not only a source of identification but also a space from where they can voice their concerns. Moreover, the hip hoppers' discourses and symbols, which are public in their exercise and in their ends, clearly show a challenging position against the dominant culture and thus, hip hoppers are aiming to change the existing power relations. Consequently, the participation of young people in the hip hop culture by being context-driven and by countering the marginalizing hegemonic culture in a public sphere, constitutes a political response to the changing and unequal local, national and international context.