Wikimixtura Tarija: In Search of New Volunteers and New Allies

Although the Wikimedia community in Bolivia has been growing steadily, with volunteers joining from increasingly diverse locations, there is still much work to be done to reach people living far from Bolivia’s three major cities: La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz. Last year, we organized a contest to improve the representation of the Beni Department (Bolivia’s second-largest) on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Thanks to the initiative of a volunteer from that region, we launched a new edition of Wikimixtura.

Wikimixtura is a series of contests organized by Wikimedistas de Bolivia with the goal of enriching content about Bolivia’s living culture on the encyclopedia. Initially, Wikimixtura contests had a thematic focus (funerary rites, gastronomy, traditional dances), but later we ventured into a regional approach, aiming to cover content gaps about specific areas of Bolivia. This is how Wikimixtura Beni began, followed by Wikimixtura Titicaca (in partnership with WikiAcción Perú), and now Wikimixtura Tarija.

The purpose of Wikimixtura is to close content gaps while also reaching new people. At its core, Wikimixtura seeks richer content about these regions and more local contributors sharing their firsthand knowledge. With Wikimixtura Tarija, we were able to connect with two key audiences: 1) new volunteers and 2) new institutional allies. Thanks to the support of the local university, Universidad Autónoma Juan Misael Saracho, we organized a series of activities, including:

1. A photo walk at one of South America’s largest paleontological sites, guided by staff from the National Paleontological and Archaeological Museum of Tarija.
2. A visit to the National Astronomical Observatory, where we held a Wikipedia editing workshop.
3. A photography workshop at Casa Dorada, a national monument that allowed attendees to take photos inside its facilities (where photography is usually prohibited) and later upload them to Wikimedia Commons.
4. A digitization agreement with the Casa de la Cultura Library, making several public-domain documents about Tarija available on Wikimedia Commons.

At Wikimedistas de Bolivia, we celebrate the enthusiasm of the 60+ participants in these activities and all the new volunteers joining our community. We also thank the Universidad Autónoma Juan Misael Saracho for its openness, recognizing Wikimedistas de Bolivia as an ally in creating, improving, and enriching free, high-quality content about Tarija on the internet. We believe it’s crucial for cultural institutions to see Wikimedia affiliates as key partners in showcasing heritage that often remains hidden from much of the world.