A self-organized rehearsal, 50 postcards, and new friendships: my third Wikimania

This 2026, I was lucky enough to attend Wikimania for the third time. Olga Paredes, Nicaela León, and I (Carla Salazar) made up the Bolivian delegation in Paris. Among the three of us, we tried to share as much as possible about the work we’ve been doing from Wikimedistas de Bolivia over these past years. Below, I share a bit about my experience in the City of Light.

Representing Wikimedistas de Bolivia and WikiAcción Perú, I presented a poster in the corresponding session, which covers the progress and new challenges of the Fiesta Plurinacional campaign, which this past August was dedicated to enriching content about markets in Bolivia and Peru on the Wikimedia projects. Fiesta Plurinacional is a binational effort to document the diversity and richness of street life in both countries. You can read more about it here.

I also participated in numerous sessions, where I was able to forge new alliances, for example, with Wikimedians from Slovakia, through Matej Grochal (user:Jetam2). Both Bolivia and Slovakia are recent Wikipedia affiliates that face similar challenges as small countries with a growing volunteer community and a reduced staff. The idea is to talk about the common experiences between both groups, share recommendations, and create bridges of collaboration, despite the distance that separates the two countries.

It was also a pleasure to meet Noé Gasparini, a French lexicographer who worked in Bolivia with the Sirionó people. Gasparini published open educational resources about the Sirionó language on Wikimedia Commons, and at this moment, Wikimedistas de Bolivia is working on building similar resources in several Indigenous languages of the country. What made this encounter special is that it wasn’t planned;  I happened to meet Noé casually at the workshop “From Pause to Progress: An Affiliate Recognition, Health, and Readiness Clinic“, and through the conversations that arose in the workshop itself, we both realized that we share common interests.

Another highlight was the reunion with the people from the LGBT Wikiproject, of which I am a part as an ally. The work that the LGBT Wikiproject has been doing for years on Spanish Wikipedia is a constant source of inspiration for the Bolivian community and for me. What’s more, many of the people from the wikiproject have become my friends beyond the wiki world.

I was also part of the Wiki Orchestra presentation, where I joined other musicians to perform French music. Here I’d like to highlight the wind section rehearsal, which I was part of. In a completely self-organized way, the wind players of the wiki Orchestra decided to rehearse before the closing ceremony to get to know each other better and improve our performance. It was a beautiful moment, because at Wikimania you can connect with people in very different ways, and at the rehearsal we were people of all ages and nationalities with a common purpose: to do justice to Clair de Lune.

And finally, there was the lunch we had to meet the Japanese editors who participated in the campaign called Wikimedia Bolivia-Japan Friendship. On Wednesday, July 22, the three representatives from Bolivia and five Japanese editors met to talk about how successful this campaign was. We also took the opportunity to exchange the gifts we had brought. Yuriko Kadokura (user:Wadakuramon), a key volunteer in organizing the campaign, couldn’t attend Wikimania in Paris, but through a friend she sent more than 50 postcards for the Bolivian editors, and we brought a similar number of postcards for the Japanese editors. At this moment, in both countries, the postcards are being distributed to everyone who participated in the campaign.

Each year, I’m more grateful to be part of this gathering, not only because I have the opportunity to proudly share what the Bolivian community is doing, but also because I have the chance to reunite with people who have become dear friends, with whom I share not only my passion for the wiki world, but a similar way of seeing and inhabiting the world.