It's not Miss America?

I hate the Miss America pageant - I saw it a few times when I was little, mostly at family gatherings - while at age 7 a lot of ridiculously done-up women prancing around in bikinis saying they want to stop world hunger is entertaining, now that I have some perspective on what these things entail, they make me question what the world is coming to. These women are supposed to represent “American culture,” right? What a joke.

In La Paz, they have “Miss Cholita Paceña”. A little explanation of the terms might help. A “cholita” is one of the women that I’ve described briefly before – they are indigenous women who wear bowler hats, shawls, long braids, and very elaborate skirts. “Paceña” is the word that refers to people native to La Paz – if you think about the etymology it makes sense as a derivative of “Paz”, because it’s basically like saying “Chicagoan” or “New Yorker”. Instead of being judged on a bikini, a formal gown, whatever, these women are being judged on their traditional chola clothing, their participation in the local markets, and their knowledge of the history of La Paz and the Aymara language.

For those of you who read Spanish, the article is here http://www.eldiario.net/noticias/nt070706/5_01nal.php, and for those of you who don’t, I’m going to translate some of (what I think are) the highlights.

They choose contestants for the contest “Cholita Paceña 2007.”

“19 cholitas were registered to participate in the election, the same that will represent the distinct markets and public and private institutions located in the district...there will be the participation of three musical groups, a Folklore Ballet and a fashion show of cholitas that will display beautiful mantas (shawls), polleras (skirts), and hats made by artisans.”

“Cholitas of age 18 to 22 are able to participate in the event, they ought to be residents of their neighborhood, gremailes (artisans?), trabajadoras de hogar (workers of the home), and representatives of the markets, joined locales and associations of the macro-districts.
The participants ought to present themselves in the clothing typical of the Chola Paceña (skirt, shawl and hat), furthermore they ought to have general knowledge about the anniversary of La Paz and knowledge of the aymara language.”

“The subalcaldía Max Paredes will carry out the Second Contest of Student Bands and Plato Típico (Typical Foods)…All the vendors of the markets, popular eateries and others related to this activity are able to enroll…For this year the participants will be able to present, optionally, any of the three following dishes: sajta according to the variety, chairo paceño and fricasé (I don’t know what those are.)”