Crónicas urbanas

Abstract

The urban chronicle is probably one of the least cultivated genres in Bolivia, not because the country lacks a repertoire of urban stories, but rather that those stories are neither produced nor consumed as a literary "genre." They are, instead, lived, savored and distributed through circuits of affection by which the city, the country and its inhabitants reveal their daily lives, the clamor forged by their stories of struggle, by their sorrows and disappointments. What follows is a sample of what these stories are capable of saying when caught by the sharp ear of an inveterate “paceño” who listens to the city, the country and the times lived by those in Bolivia.