"Sadistic Cholas" — Olga Rodriguez-Ulloa's book on the reclaiming of a racial stereotype in contemporary Peru

On June 16, 2026, University of Texas Press published the academic monograph Sadistic Cholas: Transfeminist Provocations in Contemporary Peru by American scholar Olga Rodriguez-Ulloa. The book examines the history of the racial stereotype of the chola in Peru and analyses how contemporary artists, activists, and queer performers are reclaiming this figure as a tool of resistance.

The word chola in Peru was historically used as a derogatory term for women of mixed indigenous and African ancestry. During the colonial period, the term fixed upon them the image of a “promiscuous heathen” — dangerous, uncontrollable, existing outside accepted social norms. Despite its degrading origins, in contemporary Peru the word has been claimed by those against whom it was originally directed. Singers, artists, writers, and queer performers transform the figure of the “angry chola” into a form of political speech and grassroots activism.

The book traces this transformation through music, the visual arts, literature, and the organisational work of community groups. The author analyses how the reclaiming of the stereotype from within — by Black women and transfeminist activists — becomes simultaneously a form of self-defence, revenge, and a politics of care, pursued without the aim of physical violence.

Olga Rodriguez-Ulloa is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Latino Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She received her doctorate in Latin American and Iberian Cultures from Columbia University in 2014. Her research interests encompass race theory, feminist theory, Indigenous Andean studies, Afro-Latinx culture, visual arts, and popular music. She previously co-edited the volume Punk! Las Américas Edition (Intellect Books, 2021).

Transfeminism is a strand of feminism that insists on the inclusion of trans women in feminist discourse and recognises the interconnection of different forms of oppression. In the context of Peru, where deep racial and class inequality persists, a transfeminist reading of the reclaiming of racial stereotypes offers a specific angle on the colonial legacy and its present-day consequences.