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With their pleated skirts, fringe shawls and bowler hats perched on their heads,

the Chilean women are a common sight in Bolivia.

But life hasn't been easy for them.

For many years, these indigenous women were treated as second-class

citizens. It's only in recent times that they've turned that around and gone from outcasts

to icons, which for me as a visitor to their country was a real pleasure to see. I found them warm

and inspiring and hope you enjoy listening to their stories as much as I did.

It's Sunday afternoon and there's a crowd gathering to see the Cholita rustlers.

The excitement is mounting in this huge warehouse in El Altau.

You can probably hear the crowd.

We've got the tourists in the front on bright green and orange and white plastic chairs filling up the rows, looking excited, but they're not quite sure what's going to happen.

And then we've got the locals on the stalls at the back.

And we've got someone in the ring hyping up the audience.

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Jane Chambers, and in this edition of assignment, I've come to

Bolivia to find out how the Cholita women went from outcasts to icons and what that tells us about

how the country is changing. Cholitas are indigenous Amara and Ketua women, who are the largest two

communities from this Latin American country's indigenous peoples.

Until recently, Tolita was used as a derogatory term to talk about their distinctive traditional

clothing, items like layered skirt, shawls and bowler hats. They originally came from the

countryside and living communities dotted around the Andean highlands, but many of them

...