Latin America Professional Award Shortlist

Cecilia is the founder of the first group of cholita climbers, a group of indigenous Aymara women climbers. When she was eight years old, Cecilia went to Huayna Potosi in the Bolivian Andes for the first time. She saw the mountain, white with snow, and asked: ‘Why can’t I climb it? How does it feel to be up there?’ In 2015, as a grown woman, her childhood dream became reality, when she said: ‘Why can’t we women climb to the top of mountains — with our clothes — and share a message of empowerment?’