Every Sunday afternoon in the city of El Alto, hundreds of Bolivians and tourists queue at the door of the 12th October Sports Complex to watch women's wrestling. The fighting is performed by cholitas, indigenous women that wear pollera — multilayered, brightly-colored skirts — braided hair and bowler hats in the ring.
The women have endured a history of repression and isolation. “Our ancestors would say that women [in] pollera couldn’t even write or read, they didn’t even have the right to learn”, says Mary Llanos Sanz, 31, commonly know as Juanita La Cariñosa, the leader of the fighting cholitas. Slowly, however, the women are starting to earn respect in Bolivian society.
As the public lost interest in wrestling in Bolivia, a fighter and promoter, Juan Mamani, put cholitas in the ring to attract the public. It was successful, but mostly for the promoter who kept the money. The women, after years of exploitation decided to leave and take over their own destiny: In July of 2014, they formed an association in which everyone has a voice.
Not everything in the ring is a spectacle. The falls and the blows are real and even if they are friends outside the ring, inside it the women take the fight seriously. Mostly they participate for the notoriety, since the money barely covers the ring rental and transportation. On a normal Sunday, they earn between 150 to 200 Bolivianos (US$21-$US28).
To be eligible to wrestle, a cholita has to practice for a year. If she makes it through that year, then she can step in the ring and fight for the crowds. It is difficult, however, for the men in their lives to accept their sport in a society as rife with machismo as Bolivia's.
Yet the women keep fighting in the ring for their sport and outside it for their freedom — despite the challenges.