PLAY PODCASTS
Bolivia’s Cholitas – From Outcasts to Icons

Bolivia’s Cholitas – From Outcasts to Icons

How Bolivian women are reclaiming their cultural heritage

The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

October 7, 202527m 21s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (open.live.bbc.co.uk) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

With their pleated skirts and bowler hats the “cholita” women are a common sight in Bolivia’s administrative capital La Paz. They’re often from indigenous Aymara and Quechua cultures. Until recently cholita was used as a derogatory term to talk about their distinctive traditional clothing and they were discriminated against.

Jane Chambers travels to Bolivia to find out how these women are reclaiming their cultural heritage and going from outcasts to icons and what it says about society. Join her to meet the cholita wrestlers, fashion designers and mountaineers changing public opinion.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.