Rocio Ramirez

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

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 work to test this thesis with the hip hop movement in the city of El Alto-Bolivia. The socio-economic and cultural situation of the population of El Alto 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 and moreover, hip hop for the Alteños has become a political response to the changing and unequal local, national and international context.