ISSUE 3
RELEASE DATE: 01 Sep, 2010
EDITORIAL BY
artistic La Paz, transforming its streets and squares into the aisles of a gallery and rooms in a museum, because that’s precisely what this issue is: an ‘artistic wander’ of sorts. This month, every Bolivian Espresso (n. person who works at the Bolivian Express) has been sent on a journey through the city sampling all the creative canapés it has to offer. Along the way, we’ve crossed paths with all sorts of artists, from street jugglers and sculptors to experimental hip-hop dancers and amateur cooks (given the theme, permit us some artistic license: they’re known as the culinary arts, after all). We’re also publishing the first in a series of articles about how it feels to be
a foreigner living in Bolivia, starting with a brief overview of a peculiar flavour of Spanish spoken on the streets of La Paz. The subject of this month’s centre-spread, the internationally-recognised Mamani Mamani, has generously offered to design our front cover: un niño condor, as
young as our very own Bolivian Express. “The young condor,” he explains, “should learn poetry,
songs, and dances”; for Mamani Mamani, it represents the arts. Three months on and we’re still finding our feet, but with a little support, we hope to take flight like the condor fledgling on the cover – across Bolivia and across continents.
ARTICLES FROM THIS ISSUE
Killer Spanish, innit?
22 Oct, 2010 | Anthony Moore-Bastos
Arriving in El Alto or La Paz knowing some standard Spanish - be it from Spain or Latin America - may prove insufficient to communicate with many locals. Paceño Spanish has been promisc...
MALABARISTAS We meet the street artists of La Paz
22 Oct, 2010 | Sarah Lund and Erick Trillo
The Malabaristas are not to be found labouring discontentedly behind a substandard bar. No, they ply the traffic lights of La Paz, entertaining the motorists with all sorts of mischievous...
The 15th International Book Fair (Feria del Libro)
22 Oct, 2010 | Lorange Dao
The 15th International Book Fair (or ‘Fe- ria del Libro’) in La Paz took place from 18th to 29th August. This year’s main theme was ‘Celebremos la Bibliodiver- sidad’ (‘Let’s Celebrate Bib...
The Experimental Side of Hip Hop
22 Oct, 2010 | Andrew Cummings
It seems, then, that the face of hip-hop – at least in Bolivia – is changing. To investigate this a little further, a few of us took a trip to an incredibly obscure-sounding ‘experimental hip-hop’ dan...
Mamani Mamani
22 Oct, 2010 | Andrew Cummings
Waiting ages for an interviewee to turn up for the second (yes, second) time isn’t exactly my idea of fun, but when said interviewee one of the most famous artists to come out of Bolivia, I’d happily...
Andean Trance: An Interview With Deep South
22 Oct, 2010 | William Barns Graham
Deep South, also known as Ricardo Prudencio, is a well- known DJ harbouring an obsession for Andean Trance music. Bolivian Express journalist William Barnes-Graham caught up with him in July to quiz a...
The Plurinational Republic of Bolivia
22 Oct, 2010 | Anna Hunter and Rishum Butt
If you’re like me, when someone mentions hip-hop your mind will be inundated with images of bling, fast cars, and jeans swinging super low with knees struggling to keep them from falling to the ground...
Sculpture Vulture
22 Oct, 2010 | Andrew Cummings
Scavenging amongst the houses littered about the Miraflores area of La Paz, you might come across the Escuela de Escultura. An annexe of the Academia de Bellas Artes devoted solely to sculpture studen...
Chairo
22 Oct, 2010 | Camille Reltien
Gabriela (the Bolivian Express’s favourite Swede – not the vegetable, mind you) hates to cook, but on a whim decided to go on a cooking class and invited some of us to come along. Over the next...
A Wondrous Wander through La Paz : An errant gringo’s Artistic Pursuits
22 Oct, 2010 | Jack Brooker
It’s barely my second day in La Paz and my priorities have become ap- parent: mustering enough oxygen to find my way around, and simply surviving the shooting ranges that are paceño zebra-cr...
