El Alto and Aymara Mansions

The City of El Alto was part of the city of La Paz until the year 1987, since then it is an independent and autonomous city.  Thanks to this division El Alto started growing and expanding very rapidly, along with the massive waves of immigration from the rural area and the new socialist government came a big economic growth.  This sudden growth made it possible for new designs and structures to be build all over El Alto, it was in this big construction wave that Arquitect Freddy Mamani became well know and sought after for building the amazing structures that we now call Andean mansion or Cholets (mixture between the word Cholo and Chalet).  Although the city of El Alto has become more and more modern they have kept their roots and traditions very strong and this can be seen in the rich mixture between the ancient and the modern of the designs of these buildings.  Very colorful, bright and unique amazing buildings now decorate the city of El Alto.   Another important artist that has become very well known is Mamani Mamani, local painter that makes these very colorful and bright, yet deeply local and traditional designs for his paintings.  He has painted a few facades over the city but his biggest project is the WHIPALA COMPLEX, a total of 6 big apartment buildings that have the whole façade painted by Mamani Mamani, the structure is so massive that you can actually see it from the planes when landing or taking off from the El Alto Airport.