Cholitas in the ring: fighters who defend indigenous women

In a small arena in the city of El Alto, Bolivia, two women with waist-length braids, petticoats, shoes, skirts and hats climb a steep street into the ring as the audience gathers around their seats. Benita, Benita!several men shout as the performance begins. The rude Benita La Intocable and María José Simonini exchange keys and punishments in what seems like a choreography of which the referee is a part. They receive little money, but they boast a lot of pride.

The first cholitas were presented here in La Paz, at the multifunctional Ceja in El Alto, at least 22 years ago. In all this time we have shown that indigenous women with skirts and hats, which is our way of honoring the La Paz chola, can do the same things in wrestling as any gladiator.dice a The Day Benita La Intocable, public employee, tough and with a family history linked to the ring. My brothers and my dad were fighters. With them I learned to differentiate life between good and evil.

People who attend a performance of the Cholitas Luchadoras (Cholitas Wrestling) – a concept that is an image of the empowerment of indigenous women in Bolivia – share rituals such as passing a glass of Paceña beer from hand to hand. It’s rude to return the drink. They assure that the fight is real, that they use bad words, get angry and have injuries everywhere. In the ring we only take care of our knees, we have no other protectionexplains María José Simonini, a 22-year-old student studying physical education and a descendant of Benjamín Kid Simonini, one of the legendary gladiators in the country.

It takes a lot of courage to fight well. We don’t have health insurance. We have suffered ankle and clavicle fractures, which are expenses covered by the promoter depending on the contract we sign. We would like to receive support from the authorities. Sometimes people see this sport as something unreal, but the falls and blows are real, much more the blows that one has to receive.he adds as a light drizzle of La Paz’s unpredictable weather begins to mix with the conversation. Currently we are more than 20 cholitas. Only Nelly La Pankarita wears a mask.

Typical costumes, high costs

On one side of the large stage, a series of buildings with curious shapes display elements of Andean culture. They are what many call ‘cholets’, thematic constructions that are icons of architecture in El Alto, 4,150 meters above sea level. The party usually continues there when night falls. We fight twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundaysexplains Benita La Intocable. In the cholets we see a lot of people from abroad, people who are surprised that we go into the ring with sneakers. They don’t last long. After three or six months we have to change them, because they break just like clothes..

Each Aymara women’s festive skirt costs between 300 and 500 dollars (9,700 pesos). The difference is in the number of fabric folds, the length and the style. The cholitas began to use them in colonial times. Then they added scarves, jewelry, shoes and bowler hats, which the Bolivian army brought from Italy. It was a little difficult at first to fight with the petticoats and everything, but we got used to it. Only people from La Paz and El Alto came, and now social networks have helped us take our culture to other countries.says Juanita La Cariñosa, merchant, mother and one of the creators of the Cholitas Luchadoras.

People recognize us on the street. We have gone out to fight in Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador. We do better there, because they pay us up to 100 dollars per fight (1,938 pesos). In El Alto we earned about 400 Bolivian pesos (1,120 pesos). We are very excited to visit Mexico. We are in the process of doing so, but it has not yet been finalized. The promoters are the ones who bring the videos of everything we do and, according to that, we sign a contract.

Juanita La Cariñosa’s sweet voice contrasts with the rudeness she shows in the ring. He had no choice but to enter the fight since he was 17 years old. The first time they even gave me takeawayremembers about the day she faced La Guerrillera, a veteran gladiator who wore mail and boots. Behind her appears María José Simonini, who is curious that the video call is from Mexico. It is the cradle of wrestlingemphasizes; We often see videos of Místico, Faby Apache, Lady Shani, Zeuxis and Stephanie Baker. We are inspired by the things they do.

The Cholitas Luchadoras train three days a week with the help of Kid Simonini, who in the 90s played the tough, bad and bloodthirsty role. In this fifth generation, there are indigenous women who were part of the audience and then dared to get into the ring. They came to see us fight, they were followers of other cholitas and now they are in the new generationsays Benita La Intocable. Rosita Chonchoncita is the youngest of all, she is 17 years old. The most difficult thing at that age is leaving the family, but we are good at everything. To fly, to fall and to proudly represent the La Paz chola.

In the stands where the people are located, the tourists are the ones who harangue the most and who the gladiators look for before greeting the referee. Her hair is divided into two long braids. They wear jewelry, a tight blouse, a fringed blanket, a petticoat, a bowler hat, flat shoes, and a skirt. The latter is the definitive piece, an element that they have turned into a sign of identity and value against those who discriminate against them. Perhaps few in El Alto say it out loud, but the word chola has been used with contempt in different social contexts.

Some believe that because we are women in skirts we have no strength, but they are very wrong.maintains María José Simonini and gives as an example the different feats that Bolivian cholitas have achieved when climbing mountains, running a bicycle or practicing the skateboarding. The woman can. Who hasn’t fought for something in this life? Nothing prevents us. We got bruises, bad falls, injuries, but we learned to defend ourselves.