“Many children from upper-class families in Zona Sur, Bolivia, are cared for by Indigenous women, most commonly Aymara women. There is a term that circulates in these spaces—‘cholo’—which is often used in a derogatory way to mock Indigenous accents and ways of speaking.
I once spoke with parents at a party who complained that they could barely understand their own children anymore. They joked that they needed subtitles, blaming the influence of the nannies on how their children spoke.
Of course, this is an exaggeration. But it reveals a deeper issue: in many of these parts of Bolivia, Aymara culture is still undervalued and stigmatised—even though there is a law requiring all children to learn Aymara in schools here in La Paz.”
— Maria Borda