Caporales Centralistas San Miguel (London)

We are the London chapter of an Bolivian institution (Fraternidad Caporales Centralistas San Miguel) based in La Paz, Bolivia which is dedicated to performing the Caporales dance at the UNESCO-recognised Oruro Carnival in Bolivia and elsewhere, with chapters throughout South America and the rest of the world.

In London we bring together people of all nationalities around this wonderful dance and the broader cultural heritage that it plugs into, performing it for the Bolivian and Latin-American community and the general UK public and helping our members preserve and share their cultural identity. We aim to make participation as low-cost as possible for our members in order to keep it accessible to all with a passion for what we do.

In doing so, our activities go beyond the already impressive demands of rehearsing twice a week and performing at the highest possible level of skill, and also include community-facing projects that aim to educate, inform and entertain while raising the visibility of our members and the Latin-American community in the UK. We partner with organisations such as the Federation of Latin-American Artists and Groups, Latin-American Community Association of Edinburgh and other similar groups in the UK and Europe. Past projects have included a documentary on the impact of Covid-19 on our community (The Light of Hope) and supporting community festivals and events as well as fundraising efforts by registered charity Friends of Bolivia.

We always have ambitious and exciting projects in view and we look forward to realising them to achieve our core aims of involving people in a healthy passion which provides a non-competitive alternative to sport for young people and adults, engages people with cultural heritage and allows us to share our cultural identity and story, as well as keeping the essence of Oruro Carnival alive far from home.