Thursday, April 12, 2007

Bolivia: the bleaching of beauty

The Christian Science Monitor published an article yesterday on the emphasis on physical beauty in Bolivia. To wit, the stress is on winning beauty pageants and enrolling in modeling schools. However, part of the article touches on the concept of what is “beautiful” has to do with discarding their indigenous background and culture in order to copy the look of being light-skinned:

“For all the smiles, the pageants do underscore the sadder reality of racial divisions in a country that is split geographically between the more affluent east and the west, inhabited mostly by indigenous groups. In 2004, Miss Bolivia drew controversy for saying that Bolivia was only known as an indigenous country: ‘I'm from the other side of the country,’ she said publicly. ‘We are tall, and we are white people, and we know English.’”

The emphasis one race being inherently better or prettier to another is eerily reminiscent of ex-Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s policy of “blanquismo” in the mid-20th century. Such a notion seems unusual in Bolivia, a country where a vast majority of the population has some indigenous background and an indigenous leader in Evo Morales.

Roque Alvarenga, a makeup artist who coordinates pageants, tries to justify the concept of white equals beautiful:

“Pageants can help export Bolivia tourism to the world, which thinks we are only one type of person, that we are only indigenous.”

Ultimately those that lose the most are not foreigners who supposedly see Bolivia as a country of one race but rather young Bolivians that are made to learn that beauty is only skin deep, especially if one’s skin is of a darker hue.


Links- Christian Science Monitor, Wikipedia, CIA, BBC News

Image- Discover Vancouver (Photo of Miss Bolivia 2006)

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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:57 PM

    uwell.. this is not only true in Bolivia... but all over Latin America... just look at any tv program done in Latin America and all the heroines and "papi chulos" are light skinned. In Peru, where I'm from, where we have a majority of mestizos and indigenous people and even had a indigenous president, we still see the prevalence of racism and self hate. Many times I have wished that my skin, hair and eyes were lighter and my features less "indigenous" looking ...and I can tell you that growing up in Peru had to do something with this.

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  2. Erwin C.7:59 PM

    Your comment reminds me of a news report several years ago on Univision where it was alledged that the producers of Peruvian telenovelas purposefully discriminated against dark-skinned actors/actresses. They would rarely be hired and they would play negative stereotypes in the few cases that they were in novelas.

    This tends to indicate the discrimination against Peruvian 'cholos' which I hope has changed recently.

    It's easier said than done to not feel like one should look less indigenous, but one should hope that little bby little attitudes over race change. Maybe that sounds naive and idealistic but it's better to be hopeful, I suppose.

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  3. Anonymous7:11 AM

    It is true all over latin america. What's interesting in Bolivia is that the majority of tourists in the country visit La Paz, the capital of "indigenous Bolivia..." It seems a bit ridiculous that by representing the light-skinned minority abroad more, that there would be more tourism to the country....

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  4. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Recent studies have shown even in animal behavior beauty is not just in the eyes of the beholder. That said why not just admit European features of light skin women are more desirable and "beautiful" than indiginous features. If you brought one of those beauties from Santa Cruz into the Amazon jungle the indians would be going nuts if they thought they could have a taaste of her.

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