02 Case Study: ImillaSkate Collective by Claire Amaya

(Close)

Blending traditional Bolivian polleras with Western skateboards, ImillaSkate subverts colonial binaries of modernity and tradition, reclaiming public spaces through an embodied performance of Indigenous pride and gendered resistance.

Based in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the all-female collective was founded in 2019 by skaters seeking a space to share their practice outside of a male-dominated environment (Pibas con Pelotas, 2022). Their name, Imilla, means “young girl” in Aymara and Quechua, Bolivia’s two most widely spoken languages. The country has one of the highest Indigenous populations in Latin America, with almost half from Indigenous backgrounds (Dörr, 2022).

Members wear polleras, traditional coloured skirts worn by the cholitas (“indigenous women of the Andean highlands”) along with Bombín bowler hats and braided hair (Markelova, 2024). Originally imposed by Spanish colonisers in the 16th century, the polleras have become a symbol of “both ancestral pride and stigma among Bolivians”, as cholitas were discriminated against for being considered lower-class, often denied entry to public spaces (Merotto, 2024).

By skating in the pollera, ImillaSkate reclaims it as “an aesthetic of defiance”, recontextualising it in a public, urban space (Merotto, 2024) and subverting past stigmas (Babinski, 2022), a visible act of decolonial resistance that redefines femininity.

Historical Context

In Faldas y Polleras, Marcia Stephenson outlines how, from the 1920s to 1950s, Bolivia’s dominant feminist movement was led by upper-class women, excluding Indigenous, Black, and Chola women and promoting a homogenised ideal of white womanhood (1997, pp. 17–18). Following the Chaco War (1932–1935), feminist factions splintered along class lines as both groups sought “to push, redefine, or reconstitute the boundary between the public and the private, the political and the personal, the 'natural' and the 'artificial” (p. 19), yet operated under separate agendas.

The pollera became a symbol of the convergence of struggle and working-class women’s movement, embodying a refusal to be “domesticated by hegemonic discourse”. Reclaiming what once oppressed them, they challenged their exclusion from “the public sphere” (p. 20), creating subaltern cultural spaces through speeches, plays, and readings (p. 21).

As cholas were stereotyped as unhygienic, promiscuous, and lower-class servants, the pollera came to mark “the intersection between race and the chola’s natural pathology” (p. 27). In 1935, police enforced humiliating sanitation procedures, stripping women of their garments and exposing them to the eroticised and repugnant gaze of male authorities. This affirmed the “supposed innate sensuality of the working-class woman” (p. 28), justifying the violations she endured in both public/domestic spaces and excluding her from the national ideal of women as mothers and wives.

Wearing the pollera woven according to Andean practices, the chola resists assimilation and “reaffirms her Aymara identity”. Stripping thus became “an explicit attempt to erase her Indigenous identity” (p. 28). Rejecting imposed heteronormative roles, Indigenous women often cohabited and took on “masculine” labour (p. 30). Therefore, the pollera emerged as “a symbol of resistance and refusal to adapt to the hegemonic culture of the nation imagined by the elites” (p. 31).

Collective Practice

Honouring this heritage and following in the footsteps of their ancestors, Daniela Santiváñez founded the ImillaSkate collective with a group of girls to share a practice they loved, while also bringing their roots and “ancestral garments” to a contemporary setting. The pollera is associated with the countryside, with ignorant people without resources,” Santiváñez told National Geographic, “we want people to understand that there is nothing wrong with wearing a pollera—we have them in our roots. If anything, we need to feel proud” (Ramón, 2022).

The members skate wearing the pollera and while practising or competing in local tournaments, using this embodied performance “as a natural vehicle to empower women and push their message of inclusion and acceptance of diversity” (Dörr, 2022). Along with delivering skateboarding lessons to younger children, the collective also imparts workshops at the Rafael Refuge women’s shelter in Cochabamba, using skateboarding as a way “to connect with others and talk about empowerment and resilience” (Noriega, 2022). After gaining global visibility through social media, press, and a Nowness documentary, the collective aims to open a community centre and skatepark in Cochabamba.

Embracing skateboarding’s core philosophy (falling and getting back), they carry its Californian origins (which trace back to Native Hawaiian surfboards) into new contexts, transcending cultural boundaries and identities (Smithsonian Institution, n.d.). The collective fosters “a creative space for exploration and expression”, using skateboarding as a “vehicle for inclusion and change”. From its Hawaiian roots, skateboarding has become a globalised industry “adopted across age groups, genders, and nationalities”. As stated by an ImillaSkate member: “Skating culture has no borders. Each community has its own essence, but there is a point at which they merge into one. We’re all human” (Merotto, 2024).

Theoretical Frameworks & Analysis

The ImillaSkate collective’s practice is an active example of decolonisation as expounded by Bolivian theorist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui in Ch’ixinakax utxiwa. Cusicanqui argues that there is a possibility for an “Indigenous hegemony” in the contemporary world (2012, p. 95), despite colonial efforts to dominate and retain their “monopoly on power” (p. 98). Elites acknowledged the need “for recognition and political participation of indigenous social movements” by identifying them as the “original people”, which in turn reduced them to “stereotypes of the noble savage and as guardians of nature” (p. 99). This exclusion from contemporary discourse not only resulted in indigenous people becoming a “multicultural adornment for neoliberalism” but also ignored a “multicolored and acculturated population” living in cosmopolitan spaces. Cusicanqui proposes the decolonial, Aymara notion of chi’xi (“something that is and is not at the same time”) to counter this - a hybrid co-existence of cultural differences that “antagonize and complement each other” (p. 105), where modernity can be entered and left “as if it were a theatre” (p. 106). This is manifested through the collective’s hybrid practice, which combines global skateboarding practice with Indigenous Bolivian identity, reclaiming Indigenous female aesthetics and exemplifying self-definition in the face of internalised colonial structures.

It also draws from Diana Taylor’s performance theory in The Archive and the Repertoire, based on the function of performances as “vital acts of transfer transmitting social knowledge, memory, and a sense of identity” (2003, p. 2). Embodied practices offer a “methodological lens”, giving them an ontological/epistemological quality as they reflect “cultural and historical specificity” (p. 3). Drawing from performance theorists such as Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, Taylor proposes moving away from a “Western logocentrism” that favours writing over embodied performances/knowledge (p. 8). She argues that performance, as an “embodied praxis and episteme,” can help redefine Latin American studies (p. 17), as it moves between “national and transnational spaces and economies” (p. 27). As globalisation brings “the center and the periphery” to “occupy the same space” (p. 233), performances not only participate but also serve as places “for intercultural inquiry” (p. 234). The skating performance of the collective, therefore, becomes embodied resistance: moving across gendered and ethnic boundaries.

The practice also acts as a form of agonism as expounded by Chantal Mouffe in Agonistics. As capitalism has established a hegemony rooted in the subjugation/control of affects and the “desire for the acquisition of goods” (2013, p. 68), any counter-hegemonic practices must engage in this terrain of producing “new subjectivities” and worlds (p. 66). The hegemonic struggle, therefore, consists in attempts to “create a different form of articulation among public spaces” and offering "alternatives to the current political order” (p. 69). As a consequence, critical art practices must help create a “multiplicity of sites” to question the dominant hegemony, subverting the “existing configuration of power”(p. 70) - in this case, prior misconceptions of female and Indigenous identities in Bolivia.

Critical Evaluation

Through their practice, the ImillaSkate collective has constituted an active empowerment of Indigenous women within public spaces, both local and global. Since 2019, the collective has gained international recognition, further developing the agonistic and decolonial nature of its movement. Their embodied performance of skate also operates as a transmission of new knowledge, accompanied by the pedagogical impact imparted through their involvement with the community and local women’s centre, as well as ambitions to open their own community space.

However, as highlighted by Cusicanqui, gaining visibility on a global stage also carries the risk of fetishisation of the Indigenous identity, as their performance is reduced to purely aesthetic qualities and not appreciated for its epistemological or ontological significance. This dependence on external media platforms transforms it into a spectacle, defined by Guy Debord as “a social relationship between people that is mediated by images” (1994, p. 12), accompanied by a potential for cooptation or tokenism that limits structural impact. There is also the challenge of infrastructure barriers, as the collective solely relies on funding to grow, with each member working full-time outside their collective involvement. This interrogates the long-term sustainability of the project, balancing media growth with community impact and future development.

Nevertheless, ImillaSkate’s innovative hybridity serves to subvert colonial narratives while reaffirming their local identity, creating an Indigenous hegemony within a global, contemporary landscape. Their embodied performance catalyses community belonging and reframes the sullied history and stereotypes associated with chola women in Bolivia. Yet, for this visibility to yield long-term change, it must be accompanied by structural support (ie, skate schools, educational programs, sustainable community centres) that empower future generations beyond embodied representation. As the collective continues to navigate local activism and global recognition, its practice stands as a potent form of resistance and Indigenous agency.

Reading List

Babinski, T. (2022) Imilla Skate, Cirque du Soleil Blog, 29 September. Available at: https://blog.cirquedusoleil.com/women-of-imilla-skate (Accessed: 28 July 2025).

Buil, A. (2022) Meet the cholita skateboarders breaking down stereotypes in Bolivia, Euronews, 7 February. Available at: https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/02/07/meet-the-cholita-skateboarders-breaking-down-stereotypes-in-bolivia (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Cusicanqui, S.R. (2012) Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: A reflection on decolonizing practices and discourses. The South Atlantic Quarterly, 111(1), pp. 95–109. doi:10.1215/00382876-1472612.

Dörr, L. (2022) ImillaSkate: an Indigenous Bolivian skateboard collective – photo essay, The Guardian, 8 February. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/feb/08/imillaskate-an-indigenous-bolivian-skateboard-collective-photo-essay (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Luna, C. D. (2023) ImillaSkate: Bolivian skateboard crew, Red Bull. Available at: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/theredbulletin/imillaskate-bolivian-skateboard-crew (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Markelova, K. (2024) Bolivia: Cochabamba’s rebel women skateboarders, UNESCO Courier, 20 June. Available at: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/bolivia-cochabambas-rebel-women-skateboarders (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Merotto, T. (2023) How Imilla Skate celebrates skateboarding’s Indigenous past and present, Smithsonian Folklife, 27 June. Available at: https://festival.si.edu/blog/indigenous-skateboarding-culture (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Mouffe, C. (2013). Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically, Verso. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=5177080.

Noriega, C. (2024) Whatever happened to ... the Bolivian women who skateboard in Indigenous garb?, NPR, 2 September. Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/09/02/g-s1-20283/skateboard-bolivia-indigenous-women (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Pibas con Pelotas (2022) Skate feminista y con pollera, Página/12, 1 February. Available at: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/398753-skate-feminista-y-con-pollera (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Ramón, P. (2022) These Bolivian skateboarders use Indigenous attire to battle discrimination, National Geographic, 2 February. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/these-bolivian-skateboarders-use-indigenous-attire-to-battle-discrimination (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Smithsonian Institution (n.d.) Skateboards: A history of design, identity, and innovation. Available at: https://www.si.edu/spotlight/skateboards (Accessed: 23 July 2025).

Stephenson, M. (1997). Faldas y Polleras: Las ideologías de la feminidad y la conquista de nuevos espacios públicos en Bolivia (1920-1950). Chasqui, 26(1), pp.17–33.

Taylor, D. (2003). The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, Duke University Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1167937.

(Return to Writing)