Cholita Chic (2015) Chilean collective of anonymous Andean artists. With photography studies at the Escuela de Foto Arte de Chile and further studies related to directing cinematography, digital image retouching, and photobook editing.

They use illustrated digital photography as support. The group seeks to highlight the popular culture of northern Chile, intertwining the contemporaneity of the modern reflected in Andy Warhol’s “Pop Art” with the chicha culture of the intermediate valleys, the cosmovision of the highlands and the proximity to the neighboring countries: Peru and Bolivia.

One of the main issues is the empowerment of women who live in these sectors, who for years were classified as submissive and dependent. Thus, there is a tireless search for the claim of strength and feminine drive. The adjective “cholita” overlaps the pejorative use that our compatriots have given it for years to racially revile women who wear skirts and braid their long hair.

As a main objective, this group seeks to show Chile and the world what is particular about Andean culture, which not only exists in a traditional and exotic space, but also in an everyday and familiar one, even when this territory was strongly induced to the Chileanization process (1880-1929) after the War of the Pacific (1879-1883).

Beatriz Palma Astroza