As local residents and tourists fill into a large coliseum in El Alto, Bolivia, they anxiously await the next wrestling match. After several hours of anticipation, members of the crowd rise to their feet. Two women have just entered the ring. Both women arrive dressed in similar fashions: long braids, bowler hats, shawls and multilayered skirts. Both are ready to fight. They are Cholita Luchadores, indigenous women wrestlers of Bolivia. Since 2001, fighting cholitas have been one of the most popular attractions in Bolivia. With their unique wrestling attire and fierce competitive nature, these women have captivated audiences around the world. Fighting cholitas have not only competed against one another, but men as well. In many cases, women train alongside men. In addition, many of these women are members of a well respected male wrestling group known as the Titans of the Ring.
Today, fighting cholitas are popular for many reasons. They provide audiences with an entertaining combination of theater and street fighting, said a research report from the University of Georgia (Curo Symposium). In every match, there is a ‘tecnica’ or a “good” cholita and a ‘ruda’ or “bad” cholita. The ‘ruda’ is often aggressive, provoking her competitor while the technica is more subtle and gentle. The ‘tecnica’ “represents the good side of the fight,” says the San Francisco Gate. For example, one excerpt from National Geographic describes one ‘ruda’ and one ‘technica’: “Claudina, who is officially a ruda, or baddie, has taken a swig of soda pop and is spraying the public with it at the precise moment that Yolanda, a tecnica, or goodie, pounces on her and drags her up to the bleachers, sending the spectators there scattering in blissful, screaming alarm”
Others claim to enjoy these wrestling matches because they feel they can relate to them. “In Lucha Libre the good guy, the bad guy and the referee reflect our lives,” says Cortez Hidalgo in the San Francisco Gate. “It’s a way for people to de-stress, and to take some courage from the fight.” Another reason people enjoy watching the fighting cholitas is because it gives people the opportunity to forget their troubles and have fun. According to National Geographic, many residents of El Alto have been affected by poverty, lack of resources and unemployment. As a result, many go to the fights to relax and enjoy themselves. “This is a distraction, a chance to laugh, yell, mostly for the kids” said Victor Choque in the New York Times. The fact that many of these wrestlers are indigenous women may suggest that they are contesting both traditional conceptions of women (by men) and indigenous people (by society). Female wrestlers in Bolivia have broken many barriers.
They have entered a male-dominated profession within an already male-dominated culture and successfully taken over. Today people from different parts of the world come to Bolivia to watch these women in action. They are admired as fighters who embrace their femininity through dress and appearance as if to say that they are women who wear skirts, fight and win matches too. That these women are also indigenous may be a way for them to embrace their ethnicity (as many are members of the Aymara indigenous group) and fight against such popularly held beliefs that indigenous people are socially inferior. For many of these women becoming cholita luchadores is also empowering. They no longer perceive themselves as victims who are oppressed but rather women who can defend and protect themselves. In addition, although Bolivia remains extremely patriarchal, women’s involvement within the wrestling profession has also created more opportunities for Bolivian women in general. This has been seen especially within the political sector as more women have been placed in the government and judicial system.
by: womensrevolution.com
In recent years two films were produced, them both interesting for their effort to describe the Choitas beyond their most overtly folkloric features:
Mamachas del Ring (2009) by Betty M. Park
Set in the heights of the Bolivian Andes, Mamachas del Ring is the story of Carmen Rosa the Champion, a cholita and wrestler who struggles to make it on her own in the male-dominated world of Bolivian professional wrestling. In 2004, Carmen Rosa was at the forefront of a cholita wrestler revolution. Never before had Bolivia seen an indigenous woman take her petticoats and bowler hat into the ring, and the crowds couldn’t get enough. Along with three other cholitas, Carmen became an international star, and all four were anointed the Mamachas of the Ring. The film begins in 2006, shortly after their return from a star-making turn on Peruvian TV—but their rapid success has come at a price. Jealousy and envy begin to ripple throughout the wrestling community, and eventually they are black-listed from performing in Bolivia’s main wrestling league by its notoriously egotistical league commissioner, Don Juan Mamani. Betrayed but not discouraged, the Mamachas take matters into their own hands. They pound the pavement organizing their own shows, contracting media appearances, and traveling for days to perform across Bolivia, often to paltry crowds who can barely afford to pay the entrance fee. They were the first indigenous women to wrestle; they were the revolutionary stars. Now they are the first women wrestlers to manage their own business and contracts, desperately hoping to regain their crowns. The pressures of daily living and gendered responsibilities begin to eat away at the foundation of the Mamachas, and Carmen Rosa increasingly shoulders more of the work burden. Her day job as a street vendor begins to suffer and her attention to her family dwindles, until one day her husband issues her a firm ultimatum: wrestling or your family.
The Fighting Cholitas (2006)
The Fighting Cholitas is a documentary short produced by Mariam Jobrani, Kenny Kraus and Teresa Deskins about a group of bold and fierce female Bolivian wrestlers. These indigenous Indian women jump into the ring every Sunday in their traditional vibrant mulitlayered skirts and perform the acrobatic maneuvers of Lucha Libre (a blend of Mexican and American professional wrestling). The Fighting Cholitas documents this weekly fight and goes behind the scenes to find out who these women are and what draws them to this unusual sport.