WWE: Bolivian Style

Sitting about 1600 feet above and looking down on La Paz, Bolivia, is the city of El Alto.

El Alto was once a suburb of La Paz, but the population of El Alto has now surpassed that of La Paz and it is the fastest growing city in Bolivia. Interestingly, El Alto began as the more affordable suburb of La Paz where most of the rural indigenous people moved during the urbanization trend which began in the 1950’s and the population continued to swell from there.  As a result, El Alto is the largest city in all of Latin America with a primarily indigenous population – 76% Aymara, 9% Quechua, 15% Mestizo, and less than .1% descendents of European settlers. 

Since the population of El Alto tends to have more traditional influences, I was intrigued to learn about Cholitas Wrestling.

Every Sunday night, in a gymnasium in El Alto, a few hundred locals gather to watch the Bolivian version of WWE. Although tourists attend, the vast majority of the crowd is locals – men, women, and children.

Technically, the word “Cholita” comes from the word chola which is the Aymara word for a person of both Indian and Spanish descent. However, nowadays a cholo or chola refers to anyone with indigenous blood.

The night I attended, there were about 6 matches and each one began with the wrestlers entering the arena to “Eye of the Tiger” – it certainly set the mood! The costumes were great fun as was watching the (sometimes poorly) choreographed head butts and throws.

 It was especially fun when the ref would get involved as part of the match!

But the real highlight of Cholitas wrestling is the women. Dressed in traditional Andean clothes (complete with several layers of skirts, wool socks, and sweaters), they enter the ring to wrestle the costumed men or other “cholitas.”

Although the American-style entertainment influences were obvious, the Bolivian sensibilities still shone through. Whenever one of the women would land on the mat without her skirt fully covering her upper thighs, her opponent would pause in the “very heated” moment to move her skirt to a more respectable position. Charming! 

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