The Spirit of Defiance

When Peruvian-born and Miami-based photographer Celia D. Luna learned of a skate crew in Bolivia, run by young women who ride in traditional Indigenous garb, she knew she had to shoot them. The photos are a testament to the power of self-expression.

- LOU BOYD

Born to a single mother in a small rural town in Peru's Ayacucho region, photographer Celia D. Luna grew up immersed in Andean folklore and traditions. Luna's mother, Celia Victoria Morales, taught her young daughter about the vibrancy and strength of their home country, and Luna was inspired by bold colors and bold women. Decades later, living in the U.S. and now the single parent of a daughter of her own, Luna decided to combine those inspirations and shoot striking photography of striking women. "I want to photograph women who are dreamers," she says. "Fighters like my mother, and colorful like my country."

One day in 2020-in Miami, her home since 1996-Luna came across photos on Instagram of a group of young women in Cochabamba, Bolivia, dressed in the kind of colorful fabrics and full lace underskirts she recognized from her own youth. They wore the traditional dress of Indigenous Andean women: bowler hats, pollera skirts (voluminous skirts made of cotton or wool) and lively, handwoven Aguayo wrap shawls, with long braids flowing down their backs. And these women were skateboarders. The photos showed them rolling around town, kickflipping over pavements and doing board grabs on halfpipes, flashing the underskirts of their polleras as they performed their tricks.

Luna knew she had to find these women and shoot them herself. "I just gravitated toward them," she says. "I could see something of myself in them, and I was so intrigued about why they were wearing their traditional clothing while doing sport. I wanted to go and meet them immediately." With the assistance of local guides and business owners in Cochabamba, Luna was able to track down one of the skaters in the pictures and introduced herself to their group. They all agreed to meet up for a photo shoot.