In February 2027, Chola in a Choke Hold: Reimagining Indigenous Futures through Bolivian Lucha Libre will be available from University of Pennsylvania Press!
Chola in a Choke Hold grapples with understandings of indigeneity and their gendered aspects through an ethnographic investigation of women’s involvement in the world of Bolivian lucha libre. Performing as characters known as “Cholitas Luchadoras,” these women don costumes associated with urban Indigenous dress and engage in feats of athleticism and entertainment, but not without controversy. Anthropologist Nell Haynes examines how and why the Bolivian women who engage in this genre of wrestling entertainment divide public opinion, with some viewing the characters as empowering and others regarding them as offensive racial stereotypes. Haynes contends that the luchadoras promote the idea that a global- and future-oriented notion of Indigenousness is as “real” and “authentic” as a notion of indigeneity rooted in the past and tradition. In promoting this idea publicly, luchadoras both create the possibility of this future, and they do the work of helping to bring it into being.
Chola in a Choke Hold grapples with understandings of indigeneity and their gendered aspects through an ethnographic investigation of women’s involvement in the world of Bolivian lucha libre. Performing as characters known as “Cholitas Luchadoras,” these women don costumes associated with urban Indigenous dress and engage in feats of athleticism and entertainment, but not without controversy. Anthropologist Nell Haynes examines how and why the Bolivian women who engage in this genre of wrestling entertainment divide public opinion, with some viewing the characters as empowering and others regarding them as offensive racial stereotypes. Haynes contends that the luchadoras promote the idea that a global- and future-oriented notion of Indigenousness is as “real” and “authentic” as a notion of indigeneity rooted in the past and tradition. In promoting this idea publicly, luchadoras both create the possibility of this future, and they do the work of helping to bring it into being.
RSS Feed
