Heaven Gallery

Documentary by Maya Jensen $5 donation
Solidarity in Saya: An Afro-Bolivian Cultural Music Movement

Abstract:
This documentary examines the Afro-Bolivian urban youth movement of Saya music in La Paz, Bolivia that uses this traditional music to pursue their social and political needs. As migrants from villages in the rural, semi-tropical Yungas, this community of youths faces alienation in dealing with the foreign urban environment in which they also cope with racial discrimination on a daily basis. These urban youth build a supportive community around the Saya music group, which serves as a refuge from marginalization in mainstream Bolivian society. The social cohesion and unity cultivated within the Saya group has become a platform for political activism to confront the invisibility of the Afro-Bolivian minority. Rather than standing idle while the colonial hegemonic system of racial hierarchy defines them, the Afro-Bolivian Saya group members empower themselves by defining their own history and identity through these music performances. The Afro-Bolivian youths in La Paz use the musical expression of their history and identity to pursue their current goals of increased respect within society and official recognition by the state.