Weaving WikiJuventud(e) LATAM: Connecting Youth Voices in the Wikimedia Movement

Participation in the Wikimedia Youth Conference 2025 in Prague marked a milestone for the community of young Wikimedians from Latin America. Eight participants from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela met face-to-face, shared their paths within the movement, and sparked deep conversations about building a regional youth network that connects local actions with a shared vision.

During both formal and informal sessions of the conference, key points emerged that outline the path forward for Juventud(e) LAC, a network of young Wikimedians from Latin America and the Caribbean. The strengths and challenges faced by youth within the regional Wikimedia movement became clear. Shared experiences highlighted that there are already valuable initiatives underway. These include edit-a-thons and workshops in schools and universities, linguistic revitalization in rural regions, photowalks, digital inclusion campaigns, and actions that blend art, science, and eco-social activism. However, these initiatives often remain isolated and face common barriers such as lack of resources, disconnection between groups, and the absence of long-term strategies to engage youth.

There was a consensus on the need to create contextualized learning spaces, build bridges between dispersed communities, and promote youth leadership from the Global South without reproducing top-down structures. It was agreed that the Wikimedia movement must broaden its openness to younger generations, with proposals that go beyond editing. The focus should be on community-building, valuing situated knowledge, and fostering intergenerational and intercultural collaboration. The proposal for the WikiJuventud(e) LAC network emerged in response to this purpose. It seeks to connect existing efforts, share learnings, strengthen capacities, and position youth as central actors in the Wikimedia movement. This network does not aim to homogenize but to enable a horizontal framework that respects regional diversity and promotes solidarity.

Below, we share personal reflections from each Latin American participant after the conference in Prague, in relation to their own communities and contexts.

Mexico (Ferfive)

As a young member of Wikimedia Mexico, I realized that each community in the Wikimedia movement builds free knowledge from very diverse realities, practices, and perspectives. In Mexico, there is still a need to increase youth participation in the movement, although initiatives such as edit-a-thons, photo contests, training workshops, and collaborative spaces are already paving the way. Beyond editing, it is crucial to build community, share learnings, and create spaces where youth can engage from our own identities, contexts, and territories.

Sharing this vision with young Wikimedians from around the world during the conference was deeply enriching. Listening to their experiences, challenges, and projects allowed us to find points of connection and recognize the strength of an active, critical, and committed youth. From Latin America, we started weaving networks to establish a regional group of young Wikimedians supported by chapters and user groups. This developing proposal seeks to amplify our voices, share regional strategies, and open new pathways for more youth to join the movement. For us, inhabiting the local is a way of transforming the global through meaningful and authentic participation.

Argentina (BugWarp & Luis Fernando Flores LAB)

The Argentine community has faced challenges in involving young people for years. The conference was an excellent opportunity to learn about other regions’ realities, exchange ideas, and reflect on our own situation. It was also a chance to meet new friends, many of whom are taking their first steps in the Wikimedia movement. A crucial conversation during the conference focused on ensuring that young voices are heard. It was concluded that clear guidelines and policies must be created to make this happen. The local and WMF organizing teams rose to the occasion, providing us with workshops and experiences to grow both as editors and individuals. The idea of a Latin American youth group will enable discussions I always wished for as a newcomer. It is an excellent opportunity to grow, learn, and make new friends.

Understanding global and regional realities, and recognizing the great work of fellow Latin Americans in attracting youth and educational and rural communities to the Wikimedia movement, helped me identify shared challenges and solutions. As a facilitator of edit-a-thons in high schools and universities, photowalks, and science-art workshops, I shared and learned new ways to engage youth in Wikimedia projects. I believe the Wikimedia experience can be a powerful learning engine in our peripheral communities. I truly value the leadership training and the skills we are developing, as well as those we still need to strengthen. Global South experiences enriched my perspective and offered new ways to bridge digital access gaps, improve inclusion, and adapt methods to resource-limited contexts. I support creating a regional volunteer network to boost youth participation from their own territories. I am also motivated by training trainers and developing sustained strategies to attract and retain youth in the Latin American Wikimedia movement. I believe this holistic approach will transform the local into a meaningful contribution to the global Wikimedia ecosystem, empowering new generations to bring their local knowledge to free knowledge.

Bolivia (Nicaela Phuyu

Youth participation in the Wikimedia movement is growing but still faces many challenges, especially in areas with limited access to training, resources, or local communities. As a volunteer with Wikimedistas de Bolivia, I was drawn to the movement through my passion for Quechua language revitalization. This interest allowed me to bridge my cultural identity with the opportunity to contribute to Wikimedia. Along the way, I have witnessed how valuable in-person and online workshops can create pathways for more youth to join this global community and promote free knowledge in our contexts. These spaces not only teach editing but also foster community, share knowledge, and connect local struggles with a global vision. The Wikimedia Youth 2025 conference was a key milestone. It was not a traditional event but a collective co-creation based on our experiences, challenges, and dreams. Gathering young people from over 50 countries to imagine a more inclusive, open, and sustainable Wikimedia community is a crucial step toward building a movement where we truly feel represented. For me, the most valuable aspect was the cultural and linguistic richness in every conversation. Seeing people edit in their own languages and share stories from their lands reaffirms that Wikimedia is a living network of collective memory and knowledge.

Peru (Shitvia)

As a Peruvian wiki-activist with Andean roots and co-founder of Wikikausari, this event was a key experience to connect with young Wikimedians, activists, and wiki project organizers from different countries. In Peru, youth participation has grown thanks to microgrant opportunities and decentralized editing activities. However, sustaining this participation over time remains a challenge. I believe it is essential to share our lived experiences from our territories and in our languages with Wikimedia Foundation members, who play a vital role in encouraging youth engagement. During the event, I spoke with members of the Board of Trustees about the need for more young Wikimedians from underrepresented regions to access decision-making spaces and funding opportunities to sustain wiki projects in rural areas and Indigenous languages. Currently, only one of the twenty committee members is under thirty. This reveals the need to integrate more youth. In collective reflection sessions, we came together as the LAC community to push for a regional hub that strengthens youth leadership and empowerment in Latin America and the Caribbean. This experience was inspiring and enriching. Meeting other wiki-activists managing projects with intercultural, environmental, and gender perspectives reaffirmed my commitment to editing and building networks in the movement.

Brazil (CorraleH)

Participating in the Youth Conference in Prague was an experience of collaboration and openness to dialogue about the future of Wikimedia projects and the role of youth in producing and curating a free knowledge ecosystem in a world suspended between misinformation, unequal access, and threats to knowledge. In Brazil, one of the main ways to attract new editors is through university projects. However, retaining them within the Wikimedia community is difficult, as there are few initiatives outside academic contexts or aimed at high school students. Understanding how new generations engage with knowledge production, both as readers and as contributors, requires analyzing regional contexts and how young people interact with other forms of content, such as social media. Building regional collaboration in Latin America that listens to youth and creates Wikimedia initiatives with them may be a path to movement sustainability. The exchange of experiences with other countries during the conference reinforced that, despite local differences, we share common challenges in youth inclusion and the need to diversify our engagement strategies. Past Latin American efforts, such as the Conference on Climate Justice, Indigenous Voices, and Wikimedia Platforms in Huaraz, Peru, show the potential of creating Global South dialogues from Latin America to guide discussions and actions on shared issues.

Chile (Ojos2)

As a young Wikimedian who joined the movement about a year ago, I deeply value every opportunity to meet and connect with others in the Wikimedia community. Participating in this conference helped me better understand the movement’s internal dynamics and learn about the various experiences and local realities of others in this still-new community for me. It was a unique opportunity to connect with other young Latin American Wikimedians and to share our realities, different but also similar. Based on our shared foundations and challenges, the idea of collaborating emerged naturally. The desire to build collaborative networks within, across, and beyond the Wikimedia community is one of the most powerful takeaways from this conference. As a member of a local socio-environmental organization in Chile (Fundación Ojos de Mar), I discovered Wikimedia projects for their potential to highlight environmental conflicts and promote the importance of local socio-ecosystems. After learning to edit Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata, I have used these platforms both individually and collectively. Leading introductory workshops for local socio-environmental organizations and participating in the Huaraz Climate Justice Conference and now the Youth Conference in Prague has shown me the importance of collaborative work to bring in voices and knowledge often overlooked in digital platforms. I see the Juventud(e) LAC network as a great opportunity to support each other as young Wikimedians in the region, learn from our diverse experiences, and lead collective projects that create impact in our territories.

Call to Action

The Prague gathering planted a seed whose future growth depends on how it is nurtured in our respective territories. For this reason, we invite youth from across Latin America and the Caribbean to join the construction of this regional Wikimedian youth network. We want to hear your ideas and harness your energy for this collective effort. Those engaged in local, educational, or community Wikimedia projects will find in this space an opportunity to enhance their initiatives. The time has come to get organized, share knowledge, and amplify voices from every territory.

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