Heroes del Brillo - Federico Estol

There are 3000 shoe shiners who go out into the streets of La Paz and El Alto suburbs each day in search of clients. They are of all ages and in recent years have become a social phenomenon in the Bolivian capital. What characterizes this tribe is the use of ski masks so they will not be recognized by those around them. They confront the discrimination they face through these masks; in their neighbourhoods no one knows that they work as shoe shiners, at school they hide this fact, and even their own families believe they have a different job when they head down to the center of the city from El Alto. Today this group makes its living primarily from selling the photobook and postcards of the project more than from being shoeshiners. This casts light on the possibilites of art in transforming discrimination into a sign of struggle and survival that could ultimately help promote social integration.