The Fighting Cholitas are a group of female

wrestlers Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat spor ...

who perform in

El Alto, Bolivia El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an esti ...

.Forero, Juan. "In This Corner, in the Flouncy Skirt and Bowler Hat..."

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, 2005-07-21. The Cholitas are part of a group called the Titans of the Ring, which includes both male and female wrestlers. The Titans perform each Sunday for an audience of hundreds at El Alto's Multifunctional Center. Tickets to the exhibitions cost $1. The idea of including female wrestlers as a maneuver for publicity came from Juan Mamami, a wrestler and president of the Titans. They routinely attract over a thousand spectators to their bouts in El Alto and several hundred spectators when they travel with the Titans to smaller towns. Like the general population of El Alto, which consists almost entirely of

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

and

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

residents, the Cholitas are

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

. They wear braided hair,

bowler hat The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...

s and multilayered skirts in the ring. According to a 2005 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' article, the Titans earn about $13 for each bout. Most of the wrestlers have other jobs besides their wrestling careers.

Media

The Cholitas were the subject of an award-winning 2006 short-subject documentary, ''The Fighting Cholitas''.Adelman, Kim. "'Tanghi Argentini' Dances Away With Four Prizes at Aspen Shortsfest."

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

, 2007-04-18. The twenty-minute documentary was directed by Mariam Jobrani and produced by Jobrani, Teresa Deskins and Kenny Krauss."The Fighting Cholitas (2006)".
Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-10-13. The film received an honorable mention in Short Filmmaking at the 2007

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. In October 2008, the Fighting Cholitas were featured in the third episode of thirteenth season of the American reality series ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...

'', in which a contestant from each team was tasked with learning and performing a six-step wrestling routine with a Cholita.

References

External links

* Bolivian documentary films Short documentary films Lucha libre films Documentary films about women's sports Sport in Bolivia Women's professional wrestling films Professional wrestling documentary films Professional wrestling-related mass media Professional wrestling in Bolivia Women in Bolivia {{prowrestling-stub