Viva San Jacinto

My weekend pretty much rocked and left me sleep deprived. It was the central weekend of a two-week long celebration for my town´s patron saint, San Jacinto. Boy, did they go way out for this guy. There was a band, or sometimes 3 different bands, parading around town all week long. Thanks to them, late night festivities, and the constant bombardment of bombaderos, or firecrackers that sound like gunfire and scare the living tso tso out of me, I haven´t been getting much sleep lately.

On Friday night there was a Marinera and Tondero competition in my town. Those are traditional regional dances that I had seen briefly but never fully appreciated until I was blown away by the competitors that night. Highly influenced by the Spanish colonizers, Marinera is a very fun and flirty dance. Dressed in ultra-feminine gowns and fervently waving a little white handkerchief, the women tempt their partner with intricate, quick footwork, sensuous hip movements, and mischievous glances. Also waving a white handkerchief, the meticulously dressed men playfully attempt to charm the women. I fell in love with the dance, and relished the competitive atmosphere. Most of the dancers were from out-of-town. Listening to their parents and dance instructors whistling and rooting them on by shouting, “Eso, eso, eso….” reminded me of my childhood dance competitions. Competitions are great because the adrenaline rush heightens the performance of the dancers, and you can tell they´re feeling the love from the audience. Some of the dancers were about 5-years old and just double the size of their hats. I spent the majority of my time taking pictures, which was a challenge because of the constant movement. However, my new best friend in town pushed us through the throng of onlookers and in front of the front row, which is where I spent my time filling up my memory stick.

She also managed to get me in basically the front row of the best show in the world: Burning of the Castillos. At first, I thought it was going to be a repeat of New Year´s where “burning” meant creating a normal orange fire of the uncontrollable bonfire type. However, when I walked into the plaza on Saturday night I saw 3 huge structures that were at least 4 or 5 stories tall made of reeds and a material that burns in various colors that sparks – not burns – in various impressive ways. As it moved along the carefully choreographed pattern, the white, green, red or blue spark slowly moved along the flammable material. Then just as I was thinking that the spark had died, these spinning things would start going crazy, spewing colored sparks everywhere. Even though I started in the 3rd row of the show, eventually I was in the 1st row, thanks to the fact that everyone in the first 2 rows ran away to avoid getting burned. Being the super courageous woman I am, I stayed for the love of photography (that was a joke). I took really great pictures and somehow managed to not get burned at the same time! It was the most amazing pyrotechnic show of my life, and not just because I was in the hazard zone. Sometimes words would start burning (“Viva San Jacinto”), or the cord connecting the three Castillos would light up the length of the plaza and send sparks flying downwards or upwards or in vertical circles or in horizontal circles, or shoot up various types of fireworks – you know, the 4th of July type that get sent hundreds of feet up into the air – in carefully timed succession. What really impressed me is that none of this used any sort of electronic, high-tech equipment. It was just thanks to the genius creativity of whoever made those giants in the next town over.

OK, now it´s time to talk about more sacrilegious things I´ve seen. At this rate, after 2 years, I´ll be able to make my “Top 10 Most Sacrilegious Church Moments” and have hundreds of moments to choose from. Anyway, so there was this competition between bands before the Burning of the Castillos. The bands, which could have been your average American marching band complete with drums and brass instruments, competed facing each other in the entrance of the Church. The only reason why this was eventful enough to report in my Blog is that one band thought it would be entertaining to have two girls in jewled hot bras and beaded thongs dancing and shaking their booties as they played. Naked butts shaking in front of Church. Hmmm…I couldn´t not say something about how ridiculous I thought that was, so I double-checked with my new best friend whether she thought it was abhorrent as well. Yes, she said. They´re not from here, but the people from here think it´s really disrespectful. Whew, I´m not this ultra-conservative weirdo.

Currently, there is a group of people dressed in Carnival-esque masks and costumes running around town with their own marching band (that has a wonderful jazz saxophone player!). They´re called “diablicos.” Some of them are dressed like devils, some like women. The only one who doesn´t wear a mask is this little boy that doesn´t smile -- he looks like he´s had a troubled childhood, in fact -- dressed in a white angel costume with wings. Anyway, after the sweatiest, most claustrophobia-inducing mass this Sunday, where kids and parents kept on pushing and shoving us poor church-goers who came late standing uncomfortably in a throng in the back of Church, we went to watch the diablicos. They were in the plaza with their band doing some crazy devil dance that involves a lot of hopping on one leg, and for one of the devils, hysterically laughing in a sadistic way. Unfortunately, I caught their attention when I took pictures of them. Being the mischievous a••holes they are, one of the devils started to pretend to use his cane to pull me into the center. At first, I laughed along and shooed them away. Then they chanted to me the theme campaign song of ex-Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori (obviously, and oddly enough, he is Japanese). It goes like this: “Chino, chino (double-time now) chino, chino, chino.” That´s when I started to get a little annoyed. It´s kind of creepy to have a masked devil chanting “chino” at you amidst a crowd of Peruvian onlookers. To make matters even creepier, he started to bust through the crowd in front of me to really pull me into the center. I wailed in a meek and friendly way, “NOOO” and moved away without losing my temper. I mean, everyone was looking at me, so I couldn´t say, “BACK OFF, YOU FREAK,” which is what I really wanted to say. Regardless, I was irritated and a little confused about the whole ritual.

Today, the diablicos are marching around town again. They stopped in front of the Municipality, where I was waiting to talk to my counterpart on the second floor. I watched them from the window along with other employees. Despite my best efforts, they caught sight of me. So I hid, but kept on watching from a little corner. Then, I turned around and there he was, the stuff of nightmares, looking for me. Ah, you freak, go away!! Now that he had entered my workplace deliberately looking to annoy me, I had no problems running from him into the typist´s office, shutting the door and squatting so he wouldn´t see me through the window. I didn´t get up until someone told me he left. It amused the Municipality employees, who were laughing -- with me, not at me -- so I wasn´t as bothered as I could have been. However, if I encounter that loser again, and he tries to do his stupid devil dance and drag me into the center with his stupid cane, I swear I am going to knee him in the frickin´ groin.

I´ll be putting up pictures soon. They should be good ones. You have to see some of this stuff to understand what I´m talking about.

Oh, and HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!! I was so busy this weekend, I didn´t mind missing one of my favorite celebrations with my family. Go year of the Dog. My mom told me that my aunt told her that she read in the newspaper (of course) that Boars will find a new boyfriend this year. I told that to my host family and one of the sisters said, "Maybe to someone from town." Nope, not a chance, sorry. I joked to her that if that happened, they would post the news in the community´s newsletter.