Story by Scott Woodhams @Life all Out
Photo’s by Bernard Barbour
A bucket list item was to see Cholita’s Wrestling in La Paz.
We had an absolutely amazing cultural evening tonight, just outside La Paz Bolivia!
2 nights a week, local Choritas, get together and fight it out in a ring, located In a seedy part of town.
Choritas was once a derogatory name. It was describing mixed Indigenous cultures.
Recently this group of women have united and formed a wrestling coalition. This helps provide an income to the women who have been disadvantaged in the past, and provides entertainment to tourist and locals.
I even got into the act! One of the male wrestlers picked on me to punch in the face. The last act of the night was a bully male wrestler who started beating up a female wrestler. I became very vocal and boo’d him loudly and gave him the thumbs down.
After the fight, I took a close up picture of him laying on the ground beaten. He jumped out of the ring, grabbed a big box and came at me in my chair! I stood up (6’5″ mind you), him a mere 5’8″, and he stopped in his tracks, eyes wide! Bernard was right behind me for back up!
I advanced toward him, and he ran. The crowd roared laughing, because he was the bad guy.
We had just an absolutely great time! I even lost my voice hollering so much!