“Cholas” are the indigenous women of Andean Bolivia who wear their hair in two long braids along with a bowler hat, a blanket, an aguayo that allows them to carry things on their back and a wide pleated skirt with a petticoat underneath.
What place do Cholas have in Boliva? How are Cholas depicted in Bolivian media? What is said about them in schools? What do they do when they participate in fashion shows? What is their place in electronic parties? What political positions are they offered, after Bolivia’s first indigenous president has now been in power for over a decade?
“Being chola is fashionable” replies Bolivian feminist Chola Yolanda Mamani. In fact, she published a blog with the same name at the end of 2015 to compliment her YouTube channel called “Chola Bocona” which she started in early 2019. Yolanda explains as if she were a primary school teacher and reports like a journalist, and also provides forensic feminist analysis about the role of the cholas in Bolivian society.
