Acción 4

This is a video documentation of an 'acción' performed at the entrance of a mall in La Paz, Bolivia. When women dressed in traditional indigenous Aymara clothing approach to white women to offer them Mujeres Creando's pink ribbons, some of those women do not know how to react - some of them think that the indigenous women are selling something, or begging, and some of them ignore their indigenous peers. Collecting opinions of the mall's female costumers, it is clear that some of them even question the fact that indigenous women can be at the door of the mall, 'invading their space,' where they should not be allowed. On the other side, the indigenous women who participate in the acción mention that they sensed that some women felt repulsion against them. With this acción, Mujeres Creando exposed the racism that exists between women of the same country. This exposure of racism against indigenous people brings to the fore a question about visibility, and what people choose to see. By going to the mall in their indigenous clothes, or 'chola clothes,' Mujeres Creando highlights the fact that racism is also embodied in a specific way of dressing, and that 'dressing like a chola' is an act of political transvestism, a gesture that demands us to see that which has been invisibilized.

Mujeres Creando is a feminist anarchist movement created in 1990 in La Paz, Bolivia. It is comprised of women of different cultural, social, and ethnic origins, and explores creativity as an instrument of resistance and social participation. The three women who founded this communitarian proposal (Maria Galindo, Julieta Paredes, and Monica Mendoza) worked together to recover the public space that the patriarchal system appropriated. In this sense, the group does not only struggle for women's rights or issues that affect women, but also against other problems that affect society. The ways of expression of Mujeres Creando are graffiti, creativity, ongoing public debates, and acciones, along with a constant presence in the streets to reclaim a voice and participation in the public sphere. Since its beginnings, the group has been part of international gatherings, dialoguing with different feminist tendencies and thus being able to build its ideological identity within the autonomous feminism, in contrast and in connection with global struggles. In April 2001, due to ethical and political disagreements, there was a division in the group, which brought the necessity to differentiate names. In spite of this divergence, Maria Galindo continues working with Mujeres Creando in Bolivia.