Aymara people are an indigenous ethnic group from the Andes and Altiplano regions, which include Bolivia, Peru and Chile. Their flag is known as the Wiphala, a bright assortment of squares quilted together in diagonal stripes and that showcase the seven colours of the rainbow. Don’t ever mistake it for the gay pride flag. It is the Aymarans who have grown and chewed coca plants for centuries, also using the leaves for traditional medicinal purposes as well as ritual offerings to the sun god Inti and Pachamama (mother earth).
Most notably, the Aymara women in urban La Paz wear bowler hats that somehow sit perfectly on their heads and never seem to fall off, even though they aren’t attached. The story goes that a shipment of bowler hats where sent from Europe to Bolivia via Peru in the 1920s to be used by the British workers constructing the railroads. However, the hats were too small and thus distributed to the locals who, along with the colourful aguayo cloth, a big blouse, embroidered long skirts and boots, have adopted it as an ethnic symbol. In fact, hats in general tend to identify indigenous women as being part of a particular ethnic group or village and sometimes even their status.
Most of indigenous women also seem to put their hair into two plaits and add pompoms to their hair-ties. The more extravagant the pompom, the more beautiful the woman/girl seems to be.
Quechua (pronounced as kichwa) is the collective term for several indigenous groups in South America, basically from the old Inka Empire, and also the language formally spoken by the Inkas. Many urban Quechua women also wear bowlers hat as an ethnic symbol, however outside of La Paz, the monteras (the quechua word for a traditional hat) vary incredibly. Just wearing a hat seems to be an ethnic symbol enough.
In Peru, we found the indigenous women to wear what seemed like fabric bowls on their heads, which they fill with fresh flowers and use a sanq’apa, a woven strap, around their faces to keep the bowls from falling off. In other places, the women were seen to be wearing flat, embroidered hats that completely shade their heads and necks.
The quechua men also have a traditional hat which tends to be the chullo, a woollen beanie that is knitted with earflaps. In other parts, quechua men wear decorated felted sombreros. It all depends on their place of origin and with where exactly they want to be associated. Everything is mostly hand woven by the women and extremely bright, and quite frankly, it’s a beautiful way of identification.
Despite their beautiful clothing and cloths however, the life of an indigenous woman in Bolivia, and Peru for that matter, is to the unaccustomed westerner quite unhygienic. Both the men and the women are seen to be urinating in the public streets of La Paz and close to Arequipa in Peru, we even saw a woman squat by the edge of the road and do a number two.
Due to the high attitude, more specifically forceful winds and heavy exposure to the sun's rays, the women’s faces tend to be very worn and weather-beaten. It is very difficult to determine their age and we saw what seemed like women too old to be carry tiny children on their backs, but you just never know. Yet when we saw them smile or laugh, their faces lit up and matched the beauty of their clothing. They truly are extraordinary women. We saw them working side by side with men doing road work, we saw them ploughing the fields or selling in the streets, and for some reason, it was they who always seemed to be carrying the heavy load. Again, they are extraordinary women!
No comments:
Post a Comment