ABSTRACT

This chapter describes and interrogates the concept of the good life' as practiced and articulated by Aymara informants in the city of El Alto. It develops the argument through the case study material on El Alto, the neighbourhoods of Senkata and Amachuma. It presents a description of the city of El Alto and outlines some of the issues emerging when dealing with wellbeing and place. The chapter focuses on how place is symbolically constructed in relation with wellbeing and how the good life' assumes different forms even within the same city. It provides a general background of the Bolivian highlands. In Bolivia, the Western and Eastern parts of the country diverge from one another, just as the city does from the countryside and the mountains from the tropical regions. Understanding alteo identity means engaging with stories not only of migration, displacement and marginality, but also of expectation, hopes, social advancement and return.