mejor una chola . . .

So i've been spotting a sticker lately on buses and mototaxis:

"Mejor una chola conocida que una gringa con sida".

First, a translation:
"Better a known chola than a gringa with AIDS" . . . if that rhymed, anyhow.

Where chola refers to peruvians that are ethnically . . . peruvian. like the guy in the hat in the previous post. The ethnic groups here, as denoted by Peruvians, are:

cholos: indigenous incan/mayan descendant peoples (mostly from the sierras or mountain ranges . . . the jungle indigenous peoples are just referred as "de la selva").

--From what I can tell, "cholo" can be quite derogatory. But the newspaper publishes the word every day, so it's it seems to be also just descriptive. Mostly it's derogatory in that some peruvians are racist, and darker-skinned "cholos" get prejudiced against, i.e. can't get into nice clubs, etc. - so the way these people get treated is derogatory rather than the word itself being un-pc.

chinos: asians (yes, no matter where from).
negros: blacks
gringos: depending on who you ask, may or not include europeans.
blancos: whiteys.

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Anyone know where this new public-transport-sticker idea comes from? Not so sensible, or, well, productive.

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which brings up another point, about addressing people by their appearance alone. that, and the reaction to anti-cholo-ism. that is, bricheros (spelling, anyone?). in this space soon . . .