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From a fellow instructor of Where There Be Dragons' cultural immersion programs in Bolivia, here's a beautiful description of El Alto and Teatro Trono, as well as El Alto's history and global importance.  Fascinating.

Gods, Mountains, and a Collective of Artists
by Julianne Chandler
Instructor
May 04, 2012

La Paz with Mt. Illimani in the distance

One of COMPA's cultural centers

Lake Titicaca with the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Real in the distance

I am home.  Despite my love of travel, the thrill of visiting new places and rediscovering old ones (my fourth visit to Machu Picchu!), I always experience a sense of release when we cross the border back into Bolivia and I am enveloped by my adopted home.  The sacred, snow-capped peaks in Peru take my breath away, but there is something about the familiarity of Illimani, that majestic god-mountain overlooking La Paz, that brings me peace and tranquility.  It is in the bosom of this magical peak that we are sharing our final two weeks of the semester.

At 20,200 feet, Mt. Illimani is the second-highest peak in Bolivia and one of the most sacred in the Andes.  According to Andean cosmology, mountains are physical manifestations of the gods, and within them reside the forces of both good and evil.  These forces must be balanced and appeased in order to maintain equilibrium between man and nature, and for the Andean people this necessitates constant acts of reciprocity and solidarity with the natural world.  From our fairy-tale like vantage point in El Alto, Illimani’s striking presence on the horizon has been both a constant reminder of that precarious balance as well as a radiating force of humility and positivity.

We are currently collaborating with Teatro Trono, a fascinating and inspiring collective of artists and activists in the community of Ciudad Satelite in El Alto.  Perched dramatically on the edge of La Paz, the city spread out in a crater-like formation below, El Alto is both the youngest and fastest-growing city in Bolivia and perhaps the entire South American region.  Emerging in the 1970s and 80s as a result of structural changes in the economy and the sudden closing of several of Bolivia’s largest mines, El Alto is an autonomous, primarily Aymara city that began as peri-urban sprawl and ended up over-taking it’s mother city in both size and population.  With over a million people, El Alto today is bigger than La Paz and the second-largest city in Bolivia.  It has been built entirely by the people of El Alto, with limited support from the government and through the collective labor of its vibrant neighborhood associations.  Borrowing from the political formation of the mining families that originally settled in El Alto, in addition to the enduring tradition of social struggle of the Aymara people, the city is arguably the most socially-organized society in the Western Hemisphere.

Emerging from the midst of this colorful social landscape, Teatro Trono and it’s umbrella organization Colectivo COMPA is an energetic force of artistic mobilization and social action.  Started in 1989 to respond to rising rates of delinquency  and youth homelessness, COMPA seeks to engage young people in theater and the arts in order to bring about social transformation.  Over the years, they have built a series of architecturally dazzling cultural centers across El Alto where children, youth, and even parents can find a creative outlet to help understand and respond to economically challenging circumstances.  

This unique community of artists has taken us in, inviting us to participate in their work and opening up homestay opportunities with families that are associated with Trono.  Based in a sprawling, seven-story artistic center in Ciudad Satelite that was built largely by Collective members with recycled materials, Teatro Trono is a powerful hug of social and artistic activity and an inspiring place  to begin to close out our time together.  In addition to homestays, we have participated in a theater workshop with Collective members, taken a tour of their cultural centers around El Alto, and had the great pleasure of seeing one of their theater productions which the Collective will be taking to Rio de Janeiro later this summer to present at a climate change conference focused on water issues. During this time we have also met with well-known journalist and longtime Dragons friend Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, met with diplomats at the US Embassy, helped paint a mural with Trono members in El Alto, and will head into the Cordillera Real this afternoon for a bit of hiking in glaciated peaks.

From the roof of Teatro Trono in El Alto, Illimani watches over us and reminds us to be grateful for this magical experience.  In a few days time, we will head to the Valley of the Spirits, at the base of this great peak, in order to reflect on our time together and begin to bring the journey home. 

from:

http://www.wheretherebedragons.com/Gods,-Mountains,-and-a-Collective-of-Artists_Y15260A2012A05Kcategory.htm

The majestic Cordillera Real, with Lake Titicaca (which lies on the Altiplano high plateau at 4000 meters), and La Paz/El Alto.  This is one image that we're using as inspiration for the opening animation of the film... which will include the mass migrations from the mines in these mountains and the communities on the Altiplano, which created the city of El Alto. Of course, our mountains will be cholitas with huge skirts and awesome hats.