This paper studies the consequences of the spread of music technology via the internet and how it is used by the global Bolivian diaspora. The use of virtual spaces by the diaspora and appropriation of this new media culture will be studied. I study virtual rooms on the internet, such as leisure spaces where old and new meanings of identity, “here” and “there”, and relationships based on enjoyment and relaxation can be pursued. Is it a question of finding new places for diasporic identities, or new ethnic identities through online/offline communities? Or are older spatial identities reproduced through new media and interactions? How do issues of gender, ethnicity and age impact on the form and content of the virtual rooms? By describing the new media and its contents I try to understand processes of cultural production as ways of creating ‘alternative cultures’ and diaspora media spaces. These spaces are seen as new centres of meaning for diasporic groups. Issues such as how relationships between the local and global music cultures and new and old identities are articulated on the Internet are examined.

The production and consumption of music via the internet is studied as an active local, transnational and national production of meaning. In the paper I try to show how the Bolivian diasporic communities are created as ‘alternative public spheres’, where multiple identities can be articulated. I also point out how contemporary social and political issues and changing identities are juxtaposed in complex collages. The central arguments of this paper maintain that the participants in these diasporic groups are continually discovering and rediscovering a dominated culture as well as creating different forms of diasporic communities in different virtual spaces.

Ethnographic methods are used in the study. Participant observation of relevant websites where different forms of popular culture and 'Bolivianness' may be staged have been carried out to study questions of identity, origins and belongingness.