Indigenous Digital Borderlands: Quechua social media from the Andes to the diaspora

Quechua speaking communities have long navigated uneven regimes of visibility, celebrated as cultural heritage while marginalized as contemporary political subjects. Today, social media is reshaping the landscape of this language family, spoken by approximately 10 million people across the Andes of South America. This talk explores how Quechua digital creators and community broadcasters use TikTok, Facebook, and related platforms to cultivate translocal spaces where language, culture, and belonging are produced across geographic distance.

Through examples from the Andes and diasporic communities in the United States, I examine how everyday digital practices such as short videos, livestreams of festivities, instructional clips, and WhatsApp-based circulation become tools for community building and for contesting stereotypes that frame Indigeneity as confined to rural space or incompatible with new technological platforms. I also consider the broader conditions that shape these digital ecologies, including mobile first internet access, the pandemic era acceleration of online learning and…