It takes about a year of training for a Cholita to become a luchadora (fighter). A fighter can be anywhere between 16 and 70 years old and earns about US$20-25 for one fight. Although the fight is scripted, the moves and falls are real. Sometimes wrestlers are seriously injured and have to spend days in the hospital at their own expense. So most Cholitas have other jobs, aside from their wrestling careers.

Cholita dress and culture

Unlike the WWF women wrestlers who wear tight, revealing garments, the Cholitas prefer to wear the same costume inside the ring that they wear outside. Though this garb was enforced upon the Aymara population by the Spanish in the 18th century, as a way of caste classification, the distinctive pollera dress is now a symbol of the Aymara identity, and the Cholitas take pride in it. Wrestling in a ladylike dress is also a statement: women do not have to compromise on their identity to compete with men.