How are the presentations going?
Elena Quispe: This time very well. The documentary was recorded between 2018 and 2019 under the direction of Madrid Jaime Murciego and Pamplona Pablo Iraburu. In 2019 the five protagonists of the film were in Bilbao and the following year two members traveled to Madrid to start a presentation tour, but we had to return with a single session for a pandemic.

We are now very happy to be able to present the film in Europe. We're getting to know some cities and we're living really nice experiences. We're very pleased because a lot of people have asked us to come and talk about this. This film is a milestone. We wanted to show that we do not have to limit ourselves to the exclusion suffered by the indigenous women of the Aimara and the peasants. When we set an objective we achieved it and in that way we are conquering the summits. We are not ashamed of our origin and we are shown how we are. We are proud of our identity.

Cecilia Llusco: For us, it is a pride to wear the false pot of indigenous peasant women. We speak to aimara and we are not ashamed. We can go up the mountains and we're showing that the skirts don't bother us. Some have criticized us for going like this and others say it was not going to rain or snow because of us. They don't like women doing the same thing as men. However, we have covered our ears and moved on.

In 2015, you created the first group of txolites. How was that principle?
Llusco: The members of the Txolita group belong to different peoples. We all met because we worked around tourism. Our first summit was Huayna Potosi, 6,088 meters high. El Alto is the highest mountain near our place of residence. We were eleven women and we got it all. So we decided we had to go on and we've done it. From here we climb Acotan (6,050 m), Parinacota (6,350 m), Pomarape (6,650 m), Illimani (6,462 m) and Argentinian Aconcagua (6,960 m), the highest peak in South America.

They fight exclusion. What is that exclusion like?
Quispe: Before, there was a great machismo in our peoples and we wanted to fight it. Pollen women could not study in high school, work in some companies, in banks or in the administration. We were not welcome. That’s why we said “enough.” We wanted to claim that it is enough in the face of violence and femicide. Now things are changing little by little, and you can see women polleras in many places. Now we can do a lot of things.

Llusco: The first life was very sad for women. We couldn't play football, for example, and I really like it. They told us that “you have to be cooking, cleaning and helping the mother,” and this situation has given us more strength to work in the group of chicks, because we have to end exclusion.

Some of us have been criticized because cholite is usually told to unmarried young women, but we tell them that we like the name and that we can be what we want.

What do the men of your environment tell you?
Llusco: Our husbands helped us from the very beginning. They said to us, “You are strong, you are peasants, you are walking long hours up and down the hills and you can get the highest mountain in South America, why not?”

Quispe: That is what we have done and now we will continue to fulfill our dreams. So we tell them that in order to stay with them and take care of their house, we have to go to the mountain and they do.

What do you find in the cimas?
Llusco: It's very nice to be there. We really enjoyed the freedom and silence that feels there, the clean air, the good view... I really like the mountain and there I could always live. I don't want to be in the city. I have always been a cargo carrier for tourists, and now it has been very nice to form a group of women to get the mountains together.

What is the impact of your initiative, in your opinion?
Quispe: Thanks to the work of the cholitas collective, some women are being liberated. It is very important, for example, that children grow up believing that they can fulfill their dreams. For us it is very rewarding. In the group, there's a professor who is the idea that they're transmitting to boys and girls and boys: that we have the opportunity to fulfill our dreams. Like them, we want to convey this message to all the people of the world. We send our message to everyone.

Llusco: Here we have been thanked in Europe for this example. We are now empowering a lot and we see small changes taking place. In Bolivia, it can be seen that these ideas are expanding a bit.
Many people have kept their mouths open when they know what we are getting. When we watch the film, they tell us that we are brave women and that we represent Aymara indigenous women. We are very proud, because we are demonstrating on behalf of our women and all the women of the world that we are brave, strong and that we do not set limits.

What is your goal now?
Quispe: We are preparing an expedition with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm to conquer the 8,848 meters high Everest, the highest mountain in the world. For us to reach the ceiling of the world carrying our identity is a pride. We want to bring our polleras and the Bolivian flag. We love Bolivia, although we have never received the support of our
Gobierno.Con the help of God we would like in 2025 to make another documentary that would be nice: ‘Cholitas in Everest’. For that we have to keep working hard, but dreaming costs nothing.

How are they raising money?
Llusco: There's more than a group of cholites. We are a colectivo.Es good that there are several groups of cholitas.

One team prepares an expedition to Everest, and another team is working for the first time for another ochomil. Insurance is very expensive and without that companies don't want to subsidize, so we're raising money.
We think of dreams “and why not all the eighties?” It would be a pleasure for us to meet the women who have risen to all the eighties in the world. It would be very gratifying to meet this great woman, Edurne Pasaban. I would like to meet her and talk to her and congratulate her.

Quispe: In our group, for example, we're raising money to go to Everest through Instagram. Some companies also help us. We have a budget of half a million dollars to go to it, and we're only going to go to four little hacks, or maybe one more if we get enough money.

So far we are receiving the help of many people from Europe, the United States, Chile and Peru and we are progressing gradually.

What is the ritual that you do before you go up to the mountain?
Quispe: When we climb a mountain we always go with respect. Our grandparents always tell us that Pachamama (Mother Earth) is what gives us food and that Achachil (the protective spirits) is the mountains. We must ask them for permission and protection. That is why we always carry alcohol and coca leaves and before climbing a mountain we ask them permission to climb it without difficulty or problem. It's like paying something. It's as if we're settling a debt to the mountain.

Do we treat nature badly?
Llusco: We are very bad and we continually pollute the environment. We always say that we should not throw rubbish on the mountain, for example. In Bolivia, we often find a lot of dirt because we're badly used to it. Here in Europe, what I have seen is that the streets and places are very clean, and that rubbish is thrown into well-differentiated trash cans. When I come back from a trip to Bolivia, I always tell them how they act in other countries, how they take care of the environment and how they don't leave trash on the street. We are very bad. I'm against throwing trash on the mountain and when I see something I take it, even if I carry a heavy lump on my back. We can all do something for the environment.

In our rituals, for example, during the months of January and August we offer Pachamama fire fires, and we try to burn little wood, but not plastics or clothing, precisely to not contaminate the air.

Now, as a result of climate change, it's noticeable that in our mountains there's much less snow, and this also has a lot to do with our work, because we're high mountain drivers. If there is no snow, what will happen to us? I cry when I see him.

How do you use coca leaves?
Quispe: Before we begin to climb the mountain, we place about six leaves on the ground, covered with a pedestal so as not to take the air, and we ask for permission from Achachile and Pachamama. They're a marriage. Pachamama is the mother, who gives us food. In addition, we chew the leaves because coca medicine is very good to prevent diseases of high altitude and abdominal pain.

How important is ritual for you?
Llusco: Sometimes we make mistakes. If you go without faith, the mountain doesn't take you well. I, for example, didn't reach the top of the Aconcagua and I had to come back. Maybe I got it wrong and I didn't get the deal right. Maybe that's why he didn't give me permission to go up. All of this is OK in the movie, because it's a really good message: in life, everything can't be the top. I'm always the first in all things and I like to win, but in the one then I had to turn it around. It was very difficult, I was very sad. Failure has not loved anything and now I have learned what it feels and why my clients are angry when they fail to achieve the goal. The unstepped lap was a difficult decision, but my colleagues told me they were going to make the summit on behalf of the entire team. I didn't want to hurt them, I didn't want to be selfish, and that's why I went down. We have to help each other. The chicks were supposed to reach the top and I didn't want to be an obstacle. I was happy enjoying the landscape and also thought “the mountain will always be there”. Soon I went with another group and I got it. It was a group of nine women from all over the world, a nice experience.

How is the transmission of Aymara culture today?
Llusco: We are breaking many stereotypes, fortunately, and many women polleras are seen in positions previously unthinkable in some administrations and services.

It is very nice to have our customs and not forget them. Now there are more young girls who want to come to the mountain and have to learn all this. My daughter, for example, has a lot of faith. He's 20 years old, and since I was 13, I've been climbing with me. She also goes with the poller, like me. He started climbing with his father from a young age and also on the ice, and now he wants to come to an ochomil. One day the opportunity will come.

Quispe: Aimara is a language taught in school along with Spanish, but it is difficult to write. It has a certain presence in the media. There are women polleras who dialogue in different media and we are very proud.