Sunday, February 2, 2014

Las Cholitas

http://joaowainer.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/cholas0241.jpg


Las Cholitas, the female lucha libre wrestlers of El Alto, Bolivia regularly attract over a thousand spectators a their sold out fighting matches. The subject of an award wining 2006 documentary entitled the Fighting Cholitas (directed by Mariam Jobrani and available for viewing through Amazon Prime), the story of these remarkable indigenous Bolivian female wrestlers provides a case study for examining the ways in which gender roles, gender stereotypes, gender bias, gender stratification, and resulting gender gaps constrain women's access to participation in the public sphere, an arena of life traditionally reserved for men. It also documents how shifting gender roles can help increase women's social and economic mobility. See it for yourself on Dateline: 


For more information on the place of fighting matches in highland Bolivian society, also check out the 2005 New York Times feature on Las Cholitas

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