{"id":1282,"date":"2025-07-08T20:17:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T20:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2025-07-14T10:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T10:27:12","slug":"challenging-gender-norms-a-bolivian-skateboarding-collective-celebrates-indigenous-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/08\/challenging-gender-norms-a-bolivian-skateboarding-collective-celebrates-indigenous-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging Gender Norms, a Bolivian Skateboarding Collective Celebrates Indigenous Style"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Challenging Gender Norms, a Bolivian Skateboarding Collective Celebrates Indigenous Style\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cholitas-1.gif\"><\/p>\n<p>In Cochabamba, Bolivia, a group of women skateboarders are changing attitudes toward Indigenous traditions one kickflip at a time. Donning customary Quechuan garments like brimmed<em> sombreros <\/em>and colorful <em>polleras<\/em>\u2014wide skirts commonly worn by Andean women\u2014the Imillaskate collective combines a contemporary sport with time-honored <em>cholita <\/em>heritage.<\/p>\n<p>Colossal readers might recognize some of the women of Imillaskate from Celia D. Luna&#8217;s marvelous series of photographs, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2023\/01\/celia-luna-cholitas\/\">Cholitas Bravas<\/a><\/em>. A new short documentary directed by Rebecca Basaure and Mariano Carranza and produced by NOWNESS highlights the group&#8217;s style and dedication to the community. The film traces the stories of members of Imillaskate, the collective&#8217;s mission to construct a skatepark, and their visits to local schools that emphasize self-affirmation and empowerment through skateboarding.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bolivia\u2019s Cholita skaters ImillaSkate fight for gender equality and indigenous pride with clothing\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-99aaBz8w8k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Until fairly recently, Quechuan and Aymara women were derogatorily called \u201ccholitas\u201d and were actively ostracized from society. Known for their long braids, bowler hats, and full skirts\u2014a hybridization of styles resulting from Spanish influence during the&nbsp;Inquisition\u2014the style evolved into a look brimming with Indigenous cultural and lineal pride.<\/p>\n<p>Deys\u012b, an Imillaskate co-founder and award-winning skater, describes how surprised her mother was when she first dressed as a <em>cholita.<\/em> She continues:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Some people in my generation are embarrassed to wear pollera because the pollera highlight your features\u2014your Indigenous features\u2014highlight what we are as Indigenous people, as the daughters of women of polleras. It&#8217;s a part of my family legacy. And without family, I&#8217;m nobody.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The inspiring documentary also touches on gender inequalities in Bolivian society, as Imillaskate members share how important mutual support has been through major life transitions like motherhood and the loss of loved ones. &#8220;We rely on each other, just as others rely on us,&#8221; says another co-founder, Ell\u012b. &#8220;Because we, as Indigenous people\u2014as Quechuas\u2014we have a collective mindset.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NOWNESS creates videos that celebrate art, food, travel, fashion, and more. Watch the entire film on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-99aaBz8w8k&amp;t=1s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a>. You might also enjoy Todd Antony&#8217;s series <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2024\/07\/todd-antony-cholitas-escaladoras\/\">Cholitas Escaladoras<\/a><\/em>, chronicling a group of Quechuan and Aymara mountain climbers in Bolivia.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1983\" height=\"1051\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"a still from a documentary showing Quechuan women skateboarding\" class=\"wp-image-458266 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cholitas-2.jpeg\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"a gif of Quechuan women skateboarding\" class=\"wp-image-458260 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cholitas-2.gif\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1991\" height=\"1045\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"a still from a documentary showing Quechuan women skateboarding\" class=\"wp-image-458265 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cholitas-1.jpeg\"><\/figure>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\">Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2025\/07\/imillaskate-nowness\/\">Challenging Gender Norms, a Bolivian Skateboarding Collective Celebrates Indigenous Style<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\">Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Cochabamba, Bolivia, a group of women skateboarders are changing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.macdolphins.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}