Cholita women are so easily recognizable in the streets of Bolivia, as they walk by with their black flat sandals, with a burrowed textured fabric nestled over their back, all while sporting a black bowler hat. Cholita women most iconically wear ankle length puffy layered black skirts.
Cholita women were disregarded often as second-class citizens, and shuffled to not have access to post-secondary education and not given many options beyond being household maids.
In reality, Cholitas, the indigenous women of Bolivia, are often ethnically Quechuan or Ayamaran. Cholitas are the original caretakers of Bolivia’s landscapes, long before the Spanish settlers arrived to overtake Bolivia’s lands.
But today in the wrestler’s ring, Cholita women are feeling radically empowered to hone in on their strength, power and courage as Bolivia’s women.
As a sport, wrestling has been an opportunity for masculine men to showcase their strength and buff bodies, but now Cholita women are taking that stage to wrestle too. It’s a true act of defiance and grappling with the stereotypical narrative of the Cholita woman.
These women aren’t wearing spandex like typical American female wrestlers, instead they’re wearing the Cholita clothing they typically wear: Long skirts and bowler hats. Another distinction between the Cholita women wrestlers is that they fight other men, not women. It truly is a match against Latin sexist stereotypes for the Bolivian Cholitas.
We at Munay Bolivian Food are always proud to represent an extension of our Bolivian culture with our Cholita women figures in the customer checkout counter.
We recommend pairing our Bolivian Salteña Ready-to-Bake takeout packages with you for those days when you need to take on the world with your errand lists.
Go forth luchador! Go forth warrior!
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