Cholita Mona Lisa: Bolivian Artist Gives Famed Portrait Indigenous Makeover

Claudia Callizaya, 32, a Bolivian painter known as Claudina, works on cholita-style Mona Lisa painting, at the El Alto Public University, in El Alto, Bolivia May 21, 2022. Picture taken May 21, 2022. (Reuters)

High in Bolivia's Andean mountains, surrounded by small thatched roofed houses and sheep, Claudia Callizaya, 32, makes the final brushstroke to her newest piece of art: a take on the "Mona Lisa" as a local indigenous cholita woman.

Her adaptation has the same steady gaze as in Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece portrait and a similar nose. But on her head is the traditional bowler hat of Bolivia's cholitas and she is wrapped in a colorful Andean shawl.