On September 6, we held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the second free Mini Comic Workshop in Quechua, a space born from the desire to explore new ways of creating and expressing ourselves in our language. The activity took place at the Casa Roja Cultural Center and was organized by Simi, Atuq Yachachiq, and Wikimedistas de Bolivia User Group, with the support of a Wikitongues Fellowship that I received as a Quechua illustrator and linguist this year. This support allowed me to develop the Practical Guide for Creating Mini Comics in Indigenous Languages, a tool that emerged from previous experiences leading comic workshops in native languages as a means of linguistic revitalization, and from the need to promote writing in our own languages within spaces of creation, reflection, and cultural affirmation.
The proposal was simple yet powerful: to experiment with comics as an accessible format for storytelling in Indigenous languages, and to open new ways of imagining Quechua in the present. The comic becomes not only an artistic medium but also an accessible strategy for linguistic and cultural revitalization.
During the workshop, participants followed this step-by-step guide — first identifying the basic elements of comics such as panels, speech bubbles, and visual narration — and then creating their first stories in Quechua in a mini comic format. The process opened a space for critical reflection, raising questions such as: Why write in Quechua? How does a laugh or the sound of a strike resonate in Quechua? What stories do we want to sharel? These questions accompanied the creative exercise and gave shape to narratives that connect everyday life with collective memory.
The workshop brought together 13 participants — men and women aged between 20 and 70 — all bilingual Quechua and Spanish speakers, teachers, language activists, and people committed to the transmission of Quechua in Cochabamba. It was an intergenerational encounter filled with learning, creativity, and curiosity.
Participants were also introduced to Wikimedia Commons, where they uploaded their first drafts and initial versions of their works, contributing to the free circulation of Quechua-language materials in digital and global spaces.
Currently, the best mini comics from the workshop are being digitized for high-quality publication on Wikimedia Commons, ensuring that these creations circulate and are shared with other Quechua speakers.
The experience was so meaningful that a second version of the guide is already being developed — with new ideas and adjustments drawn from practice — as well as translations into other languages. The goal is for speakers of different languages to access this tool, allowing comics to continue opening paths for self-expression and linguistic revitalization.
This workshop showed that comics, far from being merely a form of entertainment, can become a tool for resistance, collective memory, and creative practice. Each mini comic in Quechua reaffirms the vitality of the language and invites it to engage in dialogue with the past, the present, and the future.
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