From Servants to Everest

The inspiring story of the Bolivian Cholita Mountain Climbers Continues to Rack-up Awards and Propel the Protagonists to Greater Heights

BY MILAN SIME MARTINIC

Their black hair parted at the nape of their neck falls into the two traditional long braids delicately adorning their weathered faces. From the distance, you can see the billowing hips from their layered and colorful ‘pollera” skirts, their backs packing a bulky cargo wrapped in a blanket of bright aguayo, a hearty cloth of bright colors meant to ward off evil spirits, their legs heavy with wool leggings. They are not soft, but they are feminine, they wear heavy windproof jackets, fleece jackets, mountaineering boots, and hard hats that they carry an elegant dignity against the rugged peaks serrating through the Andean snow.

They are the Bolivian women subject of the film “Cholitas,” winner of the Diable d’Or in the International Festival du Film Alpin des Diablerets in Switzerland, the Cervino Cine Mountain Film Festival in Italy, and the Bilbao Mendi Film Festival.

These climbing cholitas, as Andean women in indigenous dress are referred to in Bolivia, are Aymara women, and their journey is a decades-long quest for respect, equality, and a purpose, a trajectory that inspires women and girls around the world.

In larger Bolivian society Aymara women often carry their babies on their backs, sometimes they carry their merchandise to market or the family’s groceries, but these middle-aged Bolivian indigenous women carry dreams and inspiration. On their backs are tens of pounds of mountain-climbing gear and plenty of strength and liberation. It is a story that overcomes challenges and wrestles identity, pride, and purposes out of decades in jobs as cooks and attendants for tourists, carrying the luggage of the mountaineers up to the point where mountain climbing becomes a magnificent experience.

But these women, Ana Lía Gonzales, Lidia Huayllas, Cecilia Llusco, Dora Magueño, and Elena Quispe, dreamed of being the ones who did the climbing. In a meeting in El Alto, a satellite city to the Bolivian capital of La Paz, they shared their dreams and vision with Luis Canal, Mar Cordero, and Tamara Cabezas of the Leon, Spain NGO Solidarity, Education, Development (SED). The meeting inspired the Spaniards and led to financing for the project from the Junta de Castilla y León, with the end aim of working with local organizations in guaranteeing the right to food for women, children, and girls.

After decades in the trenches of servant work for tourists, the women — who had sustained their strength through the double discrimination of being women and being indigenous cholitas — decided they wanted to become the protagonists of the climbs as a challenge to themselves and to society. That was their dream.

They had begun their first climb toward the end of 2015 in Huayna Potosí, a mountain that lords over El Alto, about 25 km north of La Paz in the Andes’ Cordillera Real. This was the mountain climb that they had left halfway so many times after carrying luggage from other mountaineers.

From there, the group has continued to reach the highest peaks in the country until earlier last year, five of the original 11 women undertook the expedition and documentary — with the help of SED — that took them to the summit of the 22,840-feet Aconcagua Mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes, and the highest peak in South America.

The film, “Cholitas,” by director Jaime Murgiego is the empowerment story of these women and documents them as the first indigenous people to reach the summit and doing it so in their traditional cholita indigenous outfits. They are now Bolivian mountaineering icons and examples of strength and liberation to women all over the world. As their film chalks up awards and recognition, they have their sights on Everest — in skirts.

Title V.O.: Cholitas

Year of Production: 2019

Distributor: Feelsales

Genre: Documental

Rating: All Audiences

Premiere: January 2020

Director: Jaime Murciego, Pablo Iraburu Guión: Jaime Murciego, Pablo Iraburu

Music: Mikel Salas Fotografía: Jaime Murciego

Starring: Ana Lía Gonzales, Cecilia Llusco, Dora Magueño, Elena Quispe, Lidia Huayllas

For more: https://www.20minutos.es/cine/cartelera/pelicula/37196/cholitas/