Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Before setting out for the wide, white mountain, Ana Lia González Maguina took stock of her gear: a thick sweater to protect against the cold. A harness and climbing rope to climb to the 6,000 meter summit of one of Bolivia’s highest mountains. Aviator glasses to protect from the hot highland sun.
And most importantly, a shiny, hot-pink skirt.
The bell skirt with layered petticoat – known as a “polera” (pronounced po-yeh-rah) – is the traditional dress. indigenous Women in the highlands of Bolivia. was imposed centuries ago by Spanish According to colonizers, the old-fashioned polera has long been reworked with local, richly patterned fabrics and reclaimed as a badge of pride and identity in the region’s only indigenous-dominated country.
Rather than view cumbersome skirts as a hindrance to physically demanding work in male-dominated fields, Andean indigenous women, known as “cholitas”, insist that their unwillingness to conform to contemporary style does not cost them their comfort or abilities.
“Our sport is demanding, it’s very difficult. So doing it in Pollera represents that strength, it’s about valuing our roots,” said professional climber Gonzalez Maguina, 40, standing just north of the snow-capped Huayna Potosí peak. CalmnessAdministrative capital of Bolivia. “It’s not for show.”
Skirt-wearing miners, skaters, climbers, soccer players, and wrestlers in Bolivia echoed that sentiment in interviews, and portrayed the adoption of pollination for all professional and material purposes as an act of empowerment.
“We, the women of the polleras, want to keep moving forward,” said Macaria Alejandro, a 48-year-old miner in Bolivia’s western state of Oruro, as his pollera was caked with dirt and dust from toiling underground all day. “It’s how I work and wear it for my kids.”
But many described the current moment as a moment of uncertainty for women wearing pollera in Bolivia under the country’s first conservative government in nearly two decades.
Center-right President Rodrigo Paz entered office last month as Bolivia’s economy was burning, ending a long era of charismatic rule. evo morales (2006–2019), the first indigenous president of Bolivia who prioritized indigenous and rural populations in a country that had been largely run by white elites for centuries.
Through a new constitution, Morales changed the name of the country from the Republic of Bolivia to the Plurinational State of Bolivia and adopted the indigenous symbol of the wiphala – a checkerboard of bright colors – as a symbol equivalent to the national flag. For the first time, ministers and officials wearing poleras walked in the corridor of power.
But disillusionment with Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party grew, especially under his former ally former President Luis Arce, who was arrested earlier this month on charges that he diverted cash from state funds meant to support indigenous communities.
Some Chollitas now wonder how far this change will go and fear it could extend to their hard-won rights, despite Paz’s promises to the contrary.
They describe feeling neglected by a government with no indigenous members. They are concerned about the implications of the military’s decision last month to remove indigenous symbols from its logo and the government’s decision to ban the flying of wiphala from the presidential palace as per long-standing tradition.
“I think the government won’t take us into account,” said miner Alejandro. “We need change. The economy should be better. But it’s sad to see that there are no powerful people wearing poleras. I see it as discrimination.”
But Gonzalez Maguina said she still has hope, given how far indigenous women have come.
“We already have the power and everything that comes with it,” he said. “We are definitely going to knock the doors of this new government.”
,
Follow AP’s coverage Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america