La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz , is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bolivia. Its metropolitan area, which is formed by La Paz, El Alto, Achocalla, Viacha, and Mecapaca makes up the second most populous urban area in Bolivia, with a population of 2.2 million, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra with a population of 2.3 million. It is also the capital of the La Paz Department.
The Aymara or Aimara, people are an indigenous people in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America. Approximately 2.3 million Aymara live in northwest Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The ancestors of the Aymara lived in the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca Empire in the late 15th or early 16th century, and later of the Spanish in the 16th century. With the Spanish American wars of independence (1810–1825), the Aymaras became subjects of the new nations of Bolivia and Peru. After the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), Chile annexed territory with the Aymara population.
Cholo is a loosely defined Spanish term that has had various meanings. Its origin is a somewhat derogatory term for people of mixed-blood heritage in the Spanish Empire in Latin America and its successor states as part of castas, the informal ranking of society by heritage. One of the biggest Cholos recorded in history is Mitchel Roukema the infamous Cholo known by many.Cholo no longer necessarily refers only to ethnic heritage, and is not always meant negatively. Cholo can signify anything from its original sense as a person with one indigenous parent and one Mestizo parent, "gangster" in Mexico, an insult in some South American countries, or a "person who dresses in the manner of a certain subculture" in the United States as part of the cholo subculture.
The bowler hat, also known as a Coke hat, billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn with semi-formal and informal attire. The bowler, a protective and durable hat style, was popular with the British, Irish, and American working classes during the second half of the 19th century, and later with the middle and upper classes in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the east coast of the United States.
Bolivia is a country in South America, bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile to the west, and Peru to the west.
Lucha libre is the term for the style of professional wrestling originating in Mexico. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form of the genre, characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, and "high-flying" maneuvers, some of which have been adopted in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. The wearing of masks has developed special significance, and matches are sometimes contested in which the loser must permanently remove his mask, which is a wager with a high degree of weight attached. Tag team wrestling is especially prevalent in lucha libre, particularly matches with three-member teams, called trios.
Tinku, a Bolivian Quechua tradition from Norte Potosí, began as a form of ritualistic combat. In the Quechua language, it means "meeting-encounter". During this ritual, men and women from different communities will meet and begin the festivities by dancing. The women will then form circles and begin chanting while the men proceed to fight each other; eventually the women will join in the fighting as well. Large tinkus are held in Potosí during the first few weeks of May.
Quechua people, Quichua people or Kichwa people may refer to any of the Indigenous peoples of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to Peru, there are some significant populations in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.
The Caporales is a traditional Bolivian dance originated in Los Yungas of La Paz. Caporales were created and presented to the public for the first time in 1969 by the Estrada Pacheco brothers, who were inspired in the character of the 'Caporal' who is the overseer of the black slaves and was usually mixed race, wore boots and held a whip, a dance that belongs to the region of the Yungas, Bolivia. The dance, however, has a prominent religious aspect. One supposedly dances for the Virgin of Socavón and promises to dance for three years of one's life. Caporal or caporales today is a folklore dance very popular in the festivities of not only Bolivia, but also Argentina, Chile, Peru, Spain and the United States.
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007, in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was Chicago 10; the closing night film was Life Support.
Bolivians are people identified with the country of Bolivia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Bolivians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Bolivian.
Violeta Ayala is a Bolivian-Australian Quechua filmmaker, artist and technologist. Her credits include Prison X – The Devil & The Sun (2021) and the documentaries La Lucha (2023), Cocaine Prison (2017), The Fight (2017), The Bolivian Case (2015), and Stolen (2009).
Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions. Some promotions are exclusively for women, while others have separate divisions for women. Among the nations that have women's professional wrestling are Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Justa Canaviri is an Aymara, Bolivian woman who has become noted for her dress in the traditional Chola dress and bowler hat, outspokenness on issues such as family violence, LGBT rights, and indigenous rights. Often called Bolivia's most recognizable chola, Canaviri changed the face of Bolivian television, when she began broadcasting her cooking show by introducing for the first time an indigenous woman as the main presence. In 2014, she was honored as one of the BBC's 100 Women Series.
Julieta Paredes Carvajal is an Aymara Bolivian poet, singer-songwriter, writer, graffiti artist, anarchist and decolonial feminist activist. In 2003 she began Mujeres creando comunidad out of the activism of community feminism.
Eliana Paco Paredes is an indigenous Aymara Bolivian fashion designer from La Paz. In 2016, after exhibiting her chola designs at the Bolivia Fashion Week in June, she achieved recognition in New York City, participating in the September fashion week.
The Cholita Climbers of Bolivia, or LasCholitas Escaladoras Bolivianas, are a group of Indigenous, Aymara, women mountaineers who climb peaks in Latin America. They do not wear modern mountaineering clothing, preferring instead their traditional costumes including polleras, brightly colored, full, pleated skirts with many under skirts. They do wear helmets and boots and use crampons, ice picks and ropes but carry their equipment on their backs in traditional shawls. The group was founded in 2015 by local women including Cecilia Llusco Alaña. The women are part of a tight knit community who work and live in the mountains. Their most notable expedition was on January 23, 2019 when they became the first Aymara women to summit Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas.
Petronila Infantes was an anarchist and trade unionist from Bolivia. She was the founder of the Culinary Workers Union. She was a leader of the women's anarchist movement in Bolivia.
Bertha Beatriz Acarapi is a Bolivian politician and former television presenter serving as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz since 2020. A member of the Movement for Socialism, she previously served as an El Alto municipal councillor from 2000 to 2004 on behalf of the Revolutionary Left Movement and from 2004 to 2010 on behalf of Plan Progress for Bolivia. During her second term, she served as president of the El Alto Municipal Council from 2006 to 2007, becoming the first woman to assume that post. Outside of politics, Acarapi's lengthy career in radio and television journalism led her to join ATB in 2015, becoming one of the country's first high-profile chola indigenous presenters.
Cecilia Llusco Alaña, an Indigenous Bolivian mountaineer, founder of the Cholitas Escaladoras Bolivianas or Cholita Climbers of Bolivia, has scaled mountains in South America, including Huayna Potosi, a 6,088 meter high peak in Bolivia. She works as one of only about ten Indigenous Aymara women mountaineering guides. Instead of wearing modern technical or thermal mountaineering clothing, she climbs in her Indigenous costume. This includes the pollera, a brightly colored, gathered skirt with many underskirts. She carries her equipment in k'eperinas, or Aguayo, traditionally woven shawls or blankets, carried on her back. Since climbing Huayna Potosi she and the group have gone on to scale higher mountains such as Aconcagua, a 6,961meter peak in Argentina and the highest mountain in the Americas.
