THE clothes tell different identities, eras, social classes and stories of oppression. Throughout human history, clothing has been used as identification marks, labels and control tools. But many of these leaders, imposed to imprison, discriminate and stigmatize, have transformed over time. They adapted to the body they had to wear, without ignoring it. From instruments of oppression they have become symbols of rebirth, freedom and strength. Particularly for women.
Just think about cone cups by Jean Paul Gaultier, from a garment useful for controlling the woman’s body to a garment that celebrates her strength and liberation. It also happened with the veilwith the unique example of Burka Band and with many other Muslim women who have decided to make theHijab the symbol of their struggle. By burning it or wearing it. And this is what also happened to the indigenous women of Bolivia: the Cholitas Escaladoras.
Who are they Cholitas?
The Cholitas I am indigenous Bolivian women of ethnicity Aymara And Quechua. After the Spanish colonizationfor centuries they were the object of social and cultural stigmatizationpenalized both as women and as members of indigenous communities. The term itself cholita comes from colonial Spanish choloa word used with a derogatory tone to indicate “mixed” people. The oppression and control of these people began right from their clothes. The same clothes that today have become for women Cholitas symbol of pride and reclamation of one’s cultural identity.
A cholita dances wearing traditional skirts at the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flat), in southwestern Bolivia. (Photo by Marcelo Perez Del Carpio/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Traditional clothes and the relationship with the mountains
The traditional clothes of Cholitas they understand pollerawide flounced skirts, agayos (colorful shawls) e bowler hats. Although today they are fascinating, colorful and exotic dresses, they were once a daily reminder of their inferiority in Spanish colonial society. Their relationship with the mountain is natural and profound.
The Aymarà and Quechua populations they have always lived in the mountainous regions of the Bolivian Andesoften at altitudes between 3,000 and 4,500 metersin the areas around La Paz, El Alto and Lake Titicaca. Life in the mountains has shaped their daily lives: cultivations of potatoes and quinoabreeding of llamas and alpacaswarm and durable clothing and a close relationship with i rituals and spirituality linked to the peaks.
A group of cholitas from the “Warmi Empollerada” project are portrayed in front of a salt sculpture depicting a condor in the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Plain), in southwestern Bolivia. (Photo by Marcelo Perez Del Carpio/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
How they became Cholitas Escalators?
For years, the Cholitas they worked like high altitude guides or cooks for foreign mountaineers in the Andes. Physical resistance and knowledge of the area were an integral part of their life, but as women they could not climb independently. In the 2015a group of Cholitas decided to challenge the chauvinistic conception according to which mountaineering was the exclusive domain of men.
«Why can’t we go climbing too, like men do?». The first peak conquered was Huayna Potosí (6,088 meters). They have since climbed other iconic mountains such as Illimani, Aconcagua And Salad eyesalways wearing their traditional clothes with crampons and polleras, transforming the mountain into a symbol of identity, strength and freedom.
The “Climbing Cholitas of Bolivia Warmis” are a group dedicated to defending the rights of indigenous women through mountaineering. (Photo by Martín SILVA / AFP) (Photo by MARTIN SILVA/AFP via Getty Images)
Their story told in the film Cholitas
The adventure of Cholitas was told in the film Cholitasdirected by Jaime Murciego and Pablo Iraburu. The film follows five women between 25 and 55 years old who, while their husbands work as guides, they prepare to climb the highest mountains in Bolivia.
As he says Lidia Huayllasone of the protagonists: «We are proud of not losing the Aymara culture, of the pollera, of the indigenous culture, of our roots. We will not lose it, we wear it and we will never take it off. We have been discriminated against for years, because women and indigenous Aymara. Now that we are famous, climbers greet us and take photographs of us. I hope that our notoriety brings more tourism and more work to our people and inspires all Bolivian women, indigenous and otherwise».
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