Miss Cholita Pageant

The "Miss Cholita" pageant celebrates a female ideal that is fast disappearing among Bolivian indigenous women. This year, the pageant was shaken by a scandal: the winner had turned out to have been wearing fake braids.

2007 / Ruxandra Guidi / TCF, Bolivia

shortdocs 07

The "Miss Cholita" pageant celebrates a female ideal that is fast disappearing among Bolivian indigenous women. This year, the pageant was shaken by a scandal: the winner had turned out to have been wearing fake braids.

Needless to say, they called for a new pageant two days later, and a new winner was chosen - but the scandal brought up all sorts of female identity questions in the community.

Miss Cholita Pageant was produced for the 2007 TCF ShortDocs Challenge: Dollar Storeys.

produced by

Ruxandra Guidi

Ruxandra Guidi (@HomelandsProd), a native of Caracas, Venezuela, is an independent nonfiction storyteller with almost two decades of experience in public radio, magazines, and multimedia. She was a 2017 Third Coast Radio Resident.

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