Bolivia Diaries: Day 8, Part 4 - Festival in Cochabamba

This diary is part of a series describing my trip to Bolivia to study food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate change. This diary is a photo diary from a festival in Cochabamba, the Festividad de Urkupiña. This week was the big opening day, and we had excellent seats at the parade, which was a magnificent display of traditional Bolivian dancing. This diary covers the dance Caporales.

Caporales represents the Spanish conquistadors. You can see that some of the dancers carry whips. From Wikipedia:

A male caporal dress depicts an old Spanish military guard. Wearing heeled boots bearing large bells known as "cascabeles", a male dancer carries a hat in his left hand and a whip in his right(sometimes). Even some girls will dance in a male role; some may refer to them as "chinas" or "machas". A female caporal dress consists of a minidress with matching panties, skin-color pantyhose, fancy high-heeled shoes, and a round top hat pinned to her hair. The style and colours of the dress are maintained the same for both the men and women of a certain group, but can vary drastically between groups. Men and women usually dance separately in a progressive march style dance. Caporales is a dance where you jump a lot and is very active in this way.

Bolivia Diaries: Day 8, Part 3 - Festival in Cochabamba

This diary is part of a series describing my trip to Bolivia to study food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate change. This diary is a photo diary from a festival in Cochabamba, the Fiesta de Urkupiña. Yesterday was the big opening day, and we had excellent seats at the parade, which was a magnificent display of traditional Bolivian dancing. This diary covers the dances Tinku.

The following pictures are from a dance called Tinku. Wikipedia's got a pretty good description of it, so I think I'll quote them:

Tinku, an Andean tradition, began as a form of ritualistic combat. It is native to the northern region of Potosí in Bolivia. In the language of Quechua, the word “tinku” means encounter. In the language of Aymara it means “physical attack.” During this ritual, men and women from different communities will meet and begin the festivities by drinking and dancing. The women will then form circles and begin chanting while the men proceed to fight each other; rarely the women will join in the fighting as well. Large tinkus are held in Potosí during the first few weeks of May.

Because of the rhythmic way the men throw their fists at each other, and because they stand in a crouched stance going in circles around each other, a dance was formed. This dance, the Festive Tinku, simulates the traditional combat, bearing a warlike rhythm. The differences between the Andean tradition and the dance are the costumes, the role of women, and the fact that the dancers do not actually fight each other. The Festive Tinku has become a cultural dance for all of Bolivia, although it originated in Potosí, like the fight itself.

Notice the inclusion of the Wiphala - the Indigenous Andean flag - in their costumes

Bolivia Diaries: Day 8, Part 2 - Festival in Cochabamba

This diary is part of a series describing my trip to Bolivia to study food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate change. This diary is a photo diary from a festival in Cochabamba, the Fiesta de Urkupiña. Yesterday was the big opening day, and we had excellent seats at the parade, which was a magnificent display of traditional Bolivian dancing. This is the second diary with photos of the Morenada.






The band, with the colors of the Bolivian flag on the sousaphones





































Those are the last of my Morenada pictures. The next post will cover other dances we saw, and my post on street food is also forthcoming.

Bolivia Diaries: Day 8, Part 1 - Festival in Cochabamba

This diary is part of a series describing my trip to Bolivia to study food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate change. This diary is a photo diary from a festival in Cochabamba, the Fiesta de Urkupiña. Today was the big opening day, and we had excellent seats at the parade, which was a magnificent display of traditional Bolivian dancing. This diary covers just one dance, the Morenada.

The Morenada is a traditional dance that some say represents the black slaves working in Bolivia's mines. (Bolivia is a country of incredible mineral wealth, and the mines have been a major part of the country's economy going back at least as far as the Spanish conquest.) The music resembles the clanking of the slaves' chains. I've also read that some of the features on the "morenos" (Africans) faces represent altitude sickness. However, there are other theories on the origins of the dance.

The sexy women in the dance are "Chinas," who I am told represent the mistresses of the Spaniards. The women in bowler hats are "Cholitas," indigenous women. Some of the Cholitas we saw tonight were definitely men in drag.

Unlike American parades, it's not unusual in Bolivia to see dancers passing a can of beer back and forth during the dance - or for members of the crowd to rush into the parade to get a picture with the dancers. At one point, one male dancer stopped in front of a group of drunk 20-something girls and danced for a long time as they looked on and giggled. Finally, someone from the danger's group came back to fetch him.

Enjoy the photos - each set of costumes is more fantastic than the next! This is the first post of several with photos from the parade tonight. I've got a ton of photos of the Morenada, but I also have pictures of Tinku and Caporales, two other dances. We also saw a few more dances after it was too dark to take pictures. Additionally, I took several photos of the food being sold at the festival, which was a mix of the nastiest American junk food and traditional Bolivian street food.