Macha Caporal: bridging gaps, embodying resistance
Abstract
The following article explores the practice and performance of a group (or ‘block’) of Macha Caporal dancers. These women appropriate the costumes, movements, and name of the male character (Macho Caporal) in the Bolivian Caporales dance. Given the demarcated gender structure established in Caporales—represented by the Macho Caporal and Cholita (female character) couple—the appearance of the new role of the Macha Caporal in the dance has led to social questioning about the performances and identities of women who dance as Machas Caporales. Based on ethnographic research undertaken from a gender perspective in 2018 in the city of La Paz (Bolivia), this current article analyses how the performance of Macha Caporal dancers reveals these women’s non-conformity with the discriminatory gender norms present in their wider social contexts. Through the accounts
of these women and their descriptions of the circumstances in which they practice and perform the Caporales, we revealed the conditions in which they dance. This made visible the dynamics of inequality and violence present in the environment of the folkloric entradas (dance parades) in the city of La Paz. Finally, this study examined how the organisation of women into independent blocks and their style of movement could be understood as acts of resistance and political action in a setting characterised by chauvinism and inequality.
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