Fiesta Plurinacional: A New Chapter of Collaboration Between Bolivia and Peru

Following the success of Wikimixtura Titicaca, a binational contest to enrich content on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons about Lake Titicaca (shared by both countries), Wikimedistas de Bolivia and WikiAcción Perú are once again joining forces to continue building content related to the living and popular culture of both nations.

Fiesta Plurinacional is the name of this new cycle of alliances, with which we seek to deepen even further the already natural ties that unite both countries. The purpose of Fiesta Plurinacional is to become a constant space for collaboration and dialogue to generate reliable information on Wikimedia projects about various themes shared by the two neighboring and brotherly nations.

The first initiative of this cycle was the “Mortuary Sites and Rites” campaign, which aimed to enrich content about the bonds that Peruvian and Bolivian people maintain with their deceased. Death is a topic of particular importance in our territories, as it is understood not as the end of life, but as the beginning of another existence.

The contest invited people to create articles and upload images and multimedia content about intangible and tangible heritage linked to funeral rites. Thus, 32 editors participated on Wikimedia Commons, uploading 442 images and 3 multimedia files to the platform; likewise, 46 people registered for the Spanish Wikipedia editing contest and created and improved 30 articles. Our mapping of the information gap on this topic identified 66 Wikipedia articles to be created and improved, covering 45% of that gap.

The Wikipedia articles developed themes related to musical expressions, such as bolero de caballería; popular saints, like El Minerito; mortuary rituals, such as Cabo de Año or Tullupampay; cultural practices, like the burial of the placenta or the ancestor worship; gastronomy, such as maicillo; archaeological heritage, like the chullpas or the Momia Juanita; and finally, various cemeteries in Peru and Bolivia.

The images submitted to the audiovisual contest documented different moments, spaces, and components of the All Saints’ Day celebrations in our regions, as well as archaeological and modern heritage related to death. Submissions were received from 6 cities and 3 towns or rural communities in Peru: Huancavelica, Juliaca, Lima, the rural communities of Umuto, Andamarca and the town of Mito in Junín, Urubamba, and Huánuco; and from 7 cities and 12 towns or rural communities in Bolivia: El Alto, Tarija, La Paz, Cobija, Potosí, Santa Cruz, Oruro, and Charapaxi, Aiquile, Viacha, Llallagua, Peñas, Ilabaya, Italaque, Chulumani, Sorata, Warisata, Caracato, and Umala.

Photos were received documenting gastronomic and artisanal expressions, monuments, altars, ornamentation, mausoleums, sculptures, tombs of popular saints, cemetery niches in urban and rural areas, musical instruments, traditional clothing, past and contemporary buildings, and rites and customs carried out in public and private spaces related to the celebration of All Saints’ Day.

We also received a considerable number of entries documenting the Ñatitas festival, which involves bringing the skulls of deceased people to cemeteries, where offerings—such as candles and cigarettes—are made to them as a form of gratitude, as they are believed to have protective powers. Contributions were also received documenting the rites celebrated by relatives of people who disappeared between 1980 and 2000 in Peru, who gather every November 1st at the Memorial El Ojo que Llora in Lima.

Finally, as part of the campaign, we held a virtual panel with specialists from Peru and Bolivia to delve deeper into how various communities in Peru and Bolivia celebrate, represent, and reinterpret death from their own worldviews. We had the participation of Manuel Perales, who presented his research on Tullupampay, a ritual in homage to the deceased in the Mantaro Valley; Juan Villanueva, who gave a presentation on death in the pre-Hispanic altiplano of present-day Bolivia; Rodolfo Sánchez Garrafa, who presented reflections on death and the subterranean world in the Peruvian Andes; and Tatiana Villca Paco, who shared academic research on the anthropology of death in the department of La Paz (Bolivia) and in the altiplano and Amazon regions.

Through the planned activities and the generated content, we found both similarities and particularities that prevail in both territories, allowing people from Peru and Bolivia to recognize themselves in shared practices, dialogue about their differences, and strengthen cultural bonds beyond borders. All these materials constitute important resources for preserving the memory of our peoples and learning about the elements of our identity, as well as for revaluing local knowledge that, in many cases, lacks sufficient representation in digital spaces. In this way, the campaign helps communities see their stories, traditions, and worldviews reflected in Wikimedia projects, promoting cultural pride, citizen participation, and open access to knowledge.