Episode 133: Las cholitas de hoy (Cholitas of Today) - Revisited

A group of indigenous women from Bolivia go to great heights to show the world that mountaineering is for everyone — including cholitas who wear their traditional skirts and shawls with pride.

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Transcript

Martina: ¡Hola listeners! For this special season of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast, we’re revisiting some of our favorite stories from Indigenous communities across Latin America! Today, we’ll hear an episode from May 2021, featuring an Aymaran woman who’s reached new heights. We’re headed to Bolivia to meet Lidia Huayllas Estrada, together with some friends she decided to challenge society’s expectations for Indigenous women like themselves. And be sure to stay tuned for a special update at the end. Now, onto the episode.

Martina: Just a heads up that our storyteller today is a native speaker of both Spanish and Aymara — an indigenous language from the Andes. As a result, her Spanish pronunciation is sometimes influenced by the Aymara, like when she says ropa, it sounds like “ropa.”

On a warm summer’s day in El Alto, Bolivia, Lidia Huayllas Estrada hears her alarm go off…at midnight. It’s time to get up. She rolls out of bed and gets her attire, or vestimenta, ready.

Lidia: Yo me pongo una falda larga con muchos colores que cae justo debajo de mis rodillas. Luego, me pongo una blusa de algodón y, por encima, la cubro con una manta de un solo color hecha de lana de alpaca o llama. Por último, me pongo el sombrero que llamamos “borsalino”. Esa es la vestimenta tradicional de la cholita.

Martina: A cholita is an indigenious woman from Bolivia. Many cholitas speak Aymara and Quechua, two languages that are indigineous to the region, and also Spanish. But it’s really the cholitas’ colorful and distinct clothing that sets them apart.

Lidia: Somos famosas solo por nuestra vestimenta y eso no siempre ha sido fácil. En mi país, si eres cholita, te discriminan y te consideran de clase baja. Para mí es una forma de vida. Yo quiero hacer algo para cambiar los estereotipos.

Martina: As a proud cholita, Lidia is going to great heights to reframe the narrative around her people — literally. Bolivia is a country filled with beautiful mountains and high peaks, or cimas. Yet for centuries, cholitas have worked low-wage jobs as cooks and porters, serving mountaineers without ever getting to climb, or escalar, themselves. But on this summer day, Lidia is planning to change that.

Lidia: Tras vestirme, hago las maletas para mi caminata y salgo de casa. Desde allí, veo la cima de la montaña que voy a escalar. Quiero llegar a uno de los puntos más altos de mi país. Quiero ser la primera mujer en Bolivia en escalar el Huayna Potosí… vestida de Cholita.

Martina: Bienvenidos and welcome to the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. I’m Martina Castro.

This season, we’re taking you on a special journey across the Spanish-speaking world… From Spain to the Americas, a new generation of Spanish-speakers is working to keep their cultural traditions alive…with a contemporary twist. In today’s episode we travel to: Bolivia.

As always, the storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish and I’ll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Martina: Growing up Lidia was a very hyper kid. When she wasn’t inside helping her mom cook, she was outside playing in the streets and fields around her house.

Lidia: Mi gente se conectó con nuestros ancestros gracias al contacto con la naturaleza. Todas las mujeres de mi familia eran cholitas: mi bisabuela, mi abuela y mi mamá, y todas vestían el traje tradicional.

Martina: But when Lidia was growing up in the 1970’s, being a cholita was very difficult. Cholitas were widely discriminated against — seen as uneducated and lower class. They were banned from using public transit, from entering certain public spaces, and often only hired to cook or clean.

Lidia: Cuando era niña, no entendía por qué mi ropa era tan importante. Solo era una forma de vestir. Me ponía la falda y la manta y salía a jugar, pero los otros niños se reían de mi ropa.

Martina: The word “cholita” has several different meanings depending on the country. But in Bolivia, “cholita” comes from the word “cholo,” meaning mixed race. Historically, it’s been used as a derogatory term for an indigenous person and given the female ending “-ita” makes it geared towards women. It even appears as its own ethnic category in the country’s demographic surveys.

Lidia: Pero para mi familia y para mí ser cholita es más que una etnia, es una forma de vida. Significa apreciar el trabajo duro y respetar a la madre naturaleza, o como la llamamos nosotras "Pachamama". Vivimos de la tierra, pero no abusamos de ella y solo tomamos lo necesario.

Martina: Lidia was raised on the outskirts of Bolivia’s second largest city, El Alto — located near the Andes Mountains. El Alto is one of the highest major metropolitan areas in the world — sitting more than 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) above sea level. Lidia and her five siblings grew up living off the land.

Lidia: La vida era dura. Nosotros teníamos muy poco y mi padre murió cuando yo tenía cuatro años. Mi madre tuvo que criarnos a mis cinco hermanos y a mí sola. Para ella fue muy difícil encontrar trabajo, porque era cholita y nadie la quería contratar.

Martina: Lidia’s mom eventually became a cook, which she could do right out of her own home. When Lidia was just a young child, she would help her mom out in the kitchen.

Lidia: Yo ayudaba cortando las verduras y preparando los condimentos. Mi mamá siempre me enseñaba cosas nuevas. No era un trabajo difícil y me encantaba cocinar con mi madre.

Martina: Lidia’s mother always dressed as a traditional cholita, including the long skirt — falda — and colorful shawl — manta. She always wore elegant jewelry and brooches, and of course, the iconic Borsalino hat.

Lidia: Si usas un sombrero borsalino recto, significa que estás casada. Si lo llevas inclinado, significa que eres soltera o viuda. Cuando era pequeña, me dijeron que, originalmente, los trabajadores extranjeros en Bolivia usaban estos sombreros. Pero eran demasiado pequeños para las cabezas de los bolivianos y, por esta razón, se los vendían a las mujeres locales.

Martina: This outfit dates back more than five centuries to Spanish colonialism, when the colonists forced indigenous people to adopt the European dress of the time. Over the centuries, indigenous communities came to embrace this fashion and made it their own.

Lidia: Fuera de casa, ser cholita no era fácil. En la escuela me prohibían usar mi ropa y me obligaban a usar pantalón.

Martina: Although Lidia couldn’t wear her cholita clothes to school, she made sure to change into them right when she got home. She did this all through her teenage years, until one day, when the bills started really piling up, she decided to drop out of high school to work.

Lidia: Yo cocinaba con mi mamá todos los días y tenía poco tiempo para ver a mis amigos. Salía poco y trabajaba mucho. Sin embargo, una noche fui a un festival de música en la ciudad y vi a un baterista en el escenario. Fue una conexión inmediata. Bailamos toda la noche… y nos enamoramos. Él me dijo que era alpinista.

Martina: Eventually, Lidia and her first and only boyfriend would get married and move in together. The following year, their first daughter was born.

Lidia: Mi marido trabajaba como guía para los excursionistas que iban hasta el Huayna Potosí. Mientras él salía a escalar, yo me quedaba en casa, en la cocina, como hacían todas las mujeres bolivianas. Pero, poco a poco, comencé a sentir curiosidad por la montaña. Mi marido salía todos los días y yo no quería quedarme atrás. Entonces, tuve una idea… ¿Por qué no escalar el Huayna Potosí, una de las montañas más altas de Bolivia?

Martina: Lidia asked her husband one day if she could join him on Potosí.

Lidia: Él estaba empacando para la mañana siguiente. Yo estaba muy nerviosa, pero después de unos minutos le dije: "¿Puedo ir?". Él respondió: "Sí". ¡Estaba tan emocionada! Corrí a mi habitación y comencé a empacar mi bolso. Pero él me tocó el hombro y me dijo: "No vienes a caminar con los excursionistas, sino a cocinar para ellos".

Martina: It was the early 90s, and at that time in Bolivia, climbing-related jobs belonged to indigenous men. If a cholita wanted to work on Potosí, being a cook was the only option. So, after that night, Lidia became a cook at the base camp.

Lidia: No es fácil ir en contra de estas reglas, así que no le dije nada más a mi esposo. Todos los días durante quince años me ponía mi traje de cholita y cocinaba para los excursionistas. Conocí a gente de todo el mundo. Y, a veces, incluso cocinamos juntos.

Martina: Meanwhile, things were starting to change in Bolivia. In 2005 the first ever indigenous President was elected, Evo Morales. His election sparked a major social movement. As President, Morales fought for more rights for indigenous people. He filled his cabinet with them, including cholitas. The word “cholita” started to shift from a derogatory term to an empowering one. And so cholitas began to wear their clothes with pride, or orgullo.

Lidia: Después de quinientos años de represión y silencio, ahora éramos visibles. Nuestra vestimenta ya no era un problema. Veíamos a las mujeres en la televisión, en las revistas e incluso en el Parlamento. ¡Fue muy emocionante! Ya no tenía por qué esconder mi orgullo de ser cholita.

Martina: One day, Lidia was at home cooking when she got a call from a journalist from the Associated Press. He had met her husband on the mountain earlier that week. He wanted to know why she never climbed the mountain.

Lidia: Le dije que las cholitas no escalamos, solo cocinamos. Después de unos minutos me preguntó: "¿Por qué no hacemos una noticia sobre esto y le mostramos al mundo lo contrario?".

Martina: Lidia laughed. It sounded like a joke.

Lidia: Me reí, yo nunca había visto la nieve, pero él no se rio. Me dijo que quería hacer una historia sobre un grupo de cholitas en el Huayna Potosí como metáfora del ascenso de las cholitas en la sociedad.

Martina: Lidia was hesitant but intrigued by the idea. She was worried about the attention that would come from being in the spotlight. In the end, she decided it was a good opportunity to show off cholita culture. But getting other cholitas on board wasn’t going to be easy.

Lidia: Muchos desconfiaban y se preguntaban: “¿Quién es este periodista? ¿Está diciendo la verdad? ¿Cuáles son sus motivos?”. Algunas de las mujeres también tenían miedo de hacer enojar a los hombres locales por romper los roles tradicionales de género. La gente pensaba que estaba loca. Yo tenía 50 años, nunca había escalado nada cerca de 6000 metros. Sabía que iba a tener que insistir para cambiar la opinión de las demás, pero no iba a descansar hasta lograrlo.

Martina: After some serious pleading, Lidia was able to convince ten other women to join her. They were all cooks on Potosí…but they had never used mountaineering equipment, like crampons. And they weren’t going to have an opportunity to practice before the big climb, which was scheduled for December 2015 — the middle of Bolivia’s summer.

Lidia: El día del ascenso me desperté muy nerviosa. Había convencido a todas estas mujeres para escalar el Huayna Potosí.

Martina: The whole trek would take two days. The first day was a short hike to the base camp where the group spent the night. On the second day, the group woke up at midnight and started the hike to the top. The weather was gorgeous — blue skies and sunny. If all went well, it would take seven hours to reach the summit.

Lidia: Después de unas horas, comencé a frustrarme y estaba muy cansada.

Martina: At age 50, Lidia was the oldest woman on the trip by a decade.

Lidia: ¡No pude más! Me senté, me quité los crampones e incluso puse mi falda en el bolso. Estaba tan cansada. Sin embargo, el grupo siempre estuvo a mi lado. Las otras mujeres me recordaron nuestra misión. Así que me levanté y seguí caminando.

Martina: Lidia had never seen a glacier before tackling Huayna Potosi. She had never even seen snow. But she found she could hardly concentrate on the scenery around her.

Lidia: Mientras más subíamos la montaña, más fuertes eran los vientos y más bajas las temperaturas. Pero yo seguía pensando: “Un paso más, un paso más”.

Martina: The cholitas were proud to be climbing in their traditional dress…but sometimes their long skirts would get caught in their crampons.

Lidia: A medida que subíamos más y más, yo me di cuenta de que estas faldas podrían haber sido una mala idea. Quizás por eso venden ropa especial para senderismo.

Martina: Finally, after 7 hours and 1,400 meters of elevation gain, Lidia and her fellow hikers reached the summit. They were the first cholitas to reach the top in traditional dress.

Lidia: Inmediatamente, el grupo comenzó a gritar. Todas nos abrazamos con alegría. ¡Fue el momento más increíble de mi vida! Me sentí tan satisfecha y tan feliz, pero lo más importante: me sentí libre. Allí arriba en la cima de la montaña podía hacer cualquier cosa. Sentí que mi vida ya no tenía límites. Espero que, cuando la gente escuche mi historia, sienta que nada es imposible… ¡querer es poder!

Martina: After Huayna Potosí, Lidia and the others started calling themselves the Cholita Climbers. And set their sights on even higher summits. They not only climbed the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere – Mount Aconcagua in Argentina but they’ve also ventured to play soccer at high altitudes in freezing temperatures still in their Cholita attire. They’re working to open a school to teach their climbing techniques to other women and promote mountain tourism in Bolivia. For all their accomplishments, they’ve been recognized by the Bolivian legislature!

This story was originally produced by Paige Sutherland, a journalist from Boston, Massachusetts. It was adapted by Tali Goldman, a journalist and writer based in Buenos Aires.

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The Duolingo Spanish podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media. I’m the executive producer, Martina Castro. Gracias por escuchar.

Credits

This episode was produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media.