Finding Cholita

Interpretations of Culture in the New Millennium

by Billie Jean Isbell

Finding Cholita is fictionalized ethnography of the Ayacucho region of Peru covering a thirty-year period from the 1970s to today. It is a story of human tragedy resulting from the region's long history of discrimination, class oppression, and then the rise and fall of the communist organization Shining Path. The story's narrator, American anthropologist Dr. Alice Woodsley, attempts to locate her goddaughter, Cholita, who is known to have joined Shining Path and to have murdered her biological father, who fathered her through rape. Searching for Cholita, Woodsley devotes herself to documenting the stories of the countless Andean peasant women who were raped by soldiers, often going beyond witnessing as she helps the women relieve the pain of their sexual horror.

Genres: Anthropology

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[evesav]

not rating it because I had to read it for class but it was fine. the story was compelling just not my writing style

[Anna]

I had the author as an anthropology professor during my undergraduate years at Cornell. She always seemed very distant and even depressed during lectures. However, several times she wove in fascinating stories from her personal experiences living in a small indigenous village in the Andes for several years as a graduate student and coming back every summer thereafter. By the end of the semester I had become somewhat attached to the residents of this village through her vivid storytelling.

On the last day of class, she said with almost no emotion in her voice, "that village was destroyed by Shining Path and the residents all killed." Then she slowly left the stage, leaning against her cane, again looking like a sad shell of a person.

Finding Cholita may be historical fiction, but it is based on very real experiences.