{"id":17523,"date":"2019-08-10T01:16:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-10T01:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17523"},"modified":"2019-08-11T09:09:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T09:09:18","slug":"how-indigenous-women-revolutionized-bolivian-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-indigenous-women-revolutionized-bolivian-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"How indigenous women revolutionized Bolivian wrestling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nell Haynes<\/a>, Georgetown University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Though wrestling is widely regarded as the world\u2019s oldest sport<\/a>, women have only recently gained a foothold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And even then, they\u2019ve done so while facing tremendous<\/a> discrimination and resistance<\/a> from organizers, other wrestlers and fans.<\/p>\n

This is certainly true in competitive Olympic forms of wrestling. But it\u2019s also been the case for more spectacular forms of wrestling entertainment, where women have long been relegated to the roles of managers or girlfriends. When they do actually wrestle, they\u2019re often sexualized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet these women are nonetheless making advances. World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s most recent Wrestlemania featured the first ever women\u2019s main event<\/a>. And in the world of Bolivian wrestling, women have also made big strides. In fact, many Bolivian women wrestlers now have achieved far more popularity<\/a> than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n

As an anthropologist of gender in Latin America, I actually trained and performed alongside these wrestlers while conducting ethnographic research.<\/p>\n

These women have not gained respect easily: They have met resistance and sexism at every turn. However, their stories not only pay tribute to Bolivia\u2019s past<\/a>, but may foretell a more egalitarian future<\/a> in the world of wrestling.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Women have become a force in Bolivian wrestling.<\/span>
\nNell Haynes<\/a>, Author provided<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wrestling\u2019s masculine past<\/h2>\n

Bolivian wrestling traces its roots to Mexican professional wrestling, called lucha libre<\/a>, and professional wrestling in the U.S.<\/a> before that.<\/p>\n

The scale and production level of Bolivian lucha libre are certainly not on par with World Wrestling Entertainment, but the conventions are the same. This form of wrestling is less about the competition, and more about the theater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just like in the U.S., promoters, wrestlers and others with a stake in the business at times decide beforehand who will win<\/a> the match in order to further developing storylines. To this end, referees don\u2019t always enforce the rules. The wrestlers aren\u2019t just grappling. They\u2019re performing as characters.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, Mexican wrestlers toured South America, and while there, trained a number of Bolivian men. Early wrestlers like M\u00e9dico Loco, Mr. Atlas and Diablo Rojo<\/a> helped build the tradition in Bolivia, which waxed and waned in popularity for four decades.<\/p>\n

But beginning in 2001<\/a>, Bolivian women started appearing in the ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fighting cholitas<\/h2>\n

These women wrestlers began calling themselves \u201ccholitas luchadoras<\/a>,\u201d or fighting cholitas. They take their name from the \u201cchola<\/a>\u201d of the Andes, women who have historically worked in markets \u2013 though not all of them do \u2013 and have earned reputations for being aggressive negotiators, strong advocates for workers\u2019 and women\u2019s rights. At the same time they\u2019re romantically evoked as national icons.<\/p>\n

The combination of this character type with the spectacular physicality of lucha libre has made them popular<\/a> with both local and foreign audiences.<\/p>\n

Some represent morally corrupt characters<\/a>: \u201crudas,\u201d or the equivalent of heels in English. They\u2019ll sometimes shake a 2-liter soda bottle and spray its contents into the audience. Others will simply sneer and hurl insults at the crowd.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the good ones \u2013 called \u201ct\u00e9cnicas\u201d \u2013 will stand with a microphone in the ring and declare their loyalty to \u201cthe people\u201d and promise to fight for their honor.<\/p>\n

Once the match begins, the luchadoras often incorporate humor, pulling each others\u2019 braids, or even ripping off the spandex pants of a male opponent to reveal hot pink boxer briefs. At times they pull audience members up to dance with them, or will lean in to kiss the cheek of a young man in the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leonor Cordova, known as \u2018Angela la Simpatica,\u2019 wears a pollera skirt to a wrestling match.<\/span>
\nAP Photo\/Paul White<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Costumes and cumbia music<\/h2>\n

But perhaps their most eye-catching quality is the pollera skirt<\/a>, a knee-length garment made by extensive pleating of sparkling fabric and further puffed by multiple petticoats beneath.<\/p>\n

As they enter the ring to local cumbia music<\/a>, they\u2019ll swirl these layered skirts. As they flip from the ropes or throw an opponent to the ground, the polleras will billow in the air.<\/p>\n

After a few years of wrestling, international journalists began to take notice. Outlets like National Geographic<\/a>, BBC<\/a> and The New York Times<\/a> have published articles about the luchadoras. They even appeared as a \u201cchallenge\u201d for competitors on \u201cThe Amazing Race<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of the stories plays up the novelty of women wrestling in these \u201ctraditional\u201d skirts. And it doesn\u2019t hurt that the colorful pollera makes for a good cover photo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But much of the media coverage fails to acknowledge the continued struggles the women face. They often find themselves demeaned by other Bolivian wrestlers and spectators, who sneer at their gender, race and performance styles.<\/p>\n

\u2018All show, no ability\u2019<\/h2>\n

As I wrestled alongside both men and women in La Paz, I heard trainers, current wrestlers and even the retired luchadores of the country disparage the women for relying too heavily on the chola character \u2013 which they derided as a \u201cgimmick\u201d \u2013 rather than on their craft as wrestlers.<\/p>\n

Many of the men involved in wrestling have said that the women have degraded the skill level of the sport. Others called them \u201cpayasas\u201d \u2013 clowns \u2013 or said that they were \u201call show, no ability,\u201d even as they urged male wrestlers to incorporate more elements of spectacle into their performance.<\/p>\n

The cholitas luchadoras have also been criticized by a number of Bolivians as a kind of racist performance. They suggest the characters are offensive to the image of the chola, Bolivia\u2019s indigenous women, and Bolivians as a whole.<\/p>\n

While some of these critiques may be valid, at times they are leveled by the same promoters who fill their events with male luchadores whose gimmicky personas often involve little technical ability. These men perform as stiff mummies who simply bulldoze their way across the ring, or clowns who spend more time popping balloons than grappling with opponents.<\/p>\n

The luchadoras, many of whom identify as Indigenous<\/a>, counter that they are using their popularity as a springboard for highlighting the roles that Indigenous women may play in society. They say they are attempting to act as role models providing young Indigenous women with positive representations in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

So while the luchadoras are bringing progress, critiques of them show that the more popular they become, the more backlash they have to contend with. But women\u2019s acceptance in sports is not only an issue in Bolivia.<\/p>\n

Even in the United States<\/a>, women fight to be taken seriously in areas related to sports and entertainment. By understanding how these stories are linked, observers can understand the widespread difficulties women face when navigating power structures in sports that continue to be largely made up of men.<\/p>\n

[ Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n

Nell Haynes<\/a>, Assistant Teaching Professor, Georgetown University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nell Haynes, Georgetown University Though wrestling is widely regarded as the world\u2019s oldest sport, women have only recently gained a foothold. And even then, they\u2019ve done so while facing tremendous discrimination and resistance from organizers, other wrestlers and fans. This is certainly true in competitive Olympic forms of wrestling. But it\u2019s also been the case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":17518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[6772,2103,1180,1538,1976,520,203,6774,6775,2114,6773],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17526,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523\/revisions\/17526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}