ABSTRACT
The origins of alternative urban music in Guatemala can be traced back to the late 1990s, when young teenagers started listening to hip hop, dance, and reggae music before forming their own underground bands. This chapter is a contribution to the emergent field of Internet Studies in Latin America, whose process demands further and attentive observation of contestatory initiatives in cyberspace launched by marginal groups, such as the young hip hop artists in Guatemala. In Guatemala, young people are among the social groups that continue to remain subjugated. To overcome stigmatization and prejudice, young Guatemalans have engaged with hip hop culture to raise their social consciousness and publicly perform their cultural creativity. Members of Trasciende actively promote Guatemalan hip hop in cyberspace by uploading their music and performances on YouTube, Veengle, or Vimeo. Instead, Rapsista makes a decolonial turn and brings into light a Maya genealogy that continues to be suppressed in postwar Guatemala.
