Abstract

LENAZ ZENTENO, Adriano  and  BUSTOS QUITON, Laura Elena. Bolivian culture. Ch'ixi and abigarrado. Decoloniality through semiotic interpretation. Inv. y Des. [online]. 2025, vol.25, n.2, pp.64-73.  Epub Dec 30, 2025. ISSN 2518-4431.  https://doi.org/10.23881/idupbo.025.2-11e.

This study applies a qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative approach, using the semiotic method proposed by Umberto Eco [1] and Roland Barthes [2] to unravel the ideological discourses in colonial visual production. Through a decolonial perspective, based on Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui [3], and Walter Mignolo [4]. The research questions colonial power structures inscribed in virreinal pictorial works and their influence on contemporary Bolivian identity construction. The analysis reveals that colonial graphic signs functioned not only as instruments of cultural domination, but also as spaces for resignification and resistance. Furthermore, the study posits the reappropriating of these signs for current graphic design an exercise in cultural reclamation and identity construction. The research contributes to the debate on the decolonization of art and proposes a critical reading that links history, aesthetics, and visual communication in the Bolivian context.

Keywords : Graphic design; Semiology; Culture; Decoloniality.

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