La Vida Es Un Carnival/2 Cultural Experiences

I have a feeling that there many be many “Carnival” posts throughout these two years as there seem to be fiestas every week. I wanted to share three fiesta/ cultural experiences with you.

The first was the 18th birthday party of Jorge, a former English student of the missionaries, which we attended a week ago Friday. While 15 is the big birthday party for girls (quinciñera), 18 is the big birthday party for boys. To start the night, we didn’t even leave the house until 11:30pm and when we arrived they were just starting introductions. The ceremony is a lot like a wedding reception. There is a front table where Jorge and his date sat (Julie, one of the other IWM’s was his date, but just as a friend. She has a Chimbotean boyfriend, who also came to the party, but everyone seemed pretty good-natured about it). Also at the table were Jorge’s parents and godparents. After all the welcomes and introductions there were a series of special dances: Jorge and his mom, godmother, the parents, the godparents, Jorge and Julie, Jorge and every female member of his family, and after about 30-45 min. of these special dances everyone could join in. They served tamales, beef, rice, and maybe something else I can’t remember. For drinks it was pisco sour and then later beer all night long. Since I am not drinking here, for a while I was quite thirsty as there were no non-alcoholic options, but around 2am someone brought out some Inca Cola (a unique soda here that has a yellow color and bubble gum taste) so I enjoyed that. I have definitely noticed that Chimboteans love to drink and no party seems to be complete without it. This also leads to a lot of societal problems with alcoholism, abuse, and vandalism/robbery. The party carried on until 6am but I left around 3:30am. It was a fun, cultural experience and a great night (or morning) of dancing and visiting with friends.


The Saturday after the birthday party, as we were finishing up a late lunch we heard music from a procession going by. This isn’t an abnormal occurrence in Chimbote, but Alex and Juan Carlos (the boyfriends of two of the other IWMs) said something about a bull and ran outside so we followed suit. Coming down the street was a procession of people with a bull at the front held in check by a few men holding ropes tied to the bull, and accompanied by a band marching along with music. There were also a couple of men dressed up in more traditional clothing who had a doll with red paint on its face that they would use to kiss men who weren’t paying attention and get red paint on their face. Juan Carlos got kissed by the doll and we all got a good laugh out of that. In a spontaneous decision we joined along with the procession and were quickly invited up to the front to dance along behind the bull to the music as we went. It was a completely foreign but strangely beautiful moment to be dancing down the street arm in arm with complete strangers, celebrating a feast day I had never heard of (Lord of the Spirits), preparing for a ritual that I could not understand with my background, but feeling with energy and excitement of the people. When we finally arrived at this open court area there was already a crowd gathered of all ages. As the music picked up the opened a few bottles of beer and sprayed them all over the dancing group as well as threw candy and treats for people to grab. A few people even took their children to get pictures with the bull who was pretty tired and angry at this point. Then came the part that PETA would have a field day about: they killed the bull, drank its blood, and cut it up to cook and feed everyone celebrating. This was definitely a new cultural experience for me and I tried to really observe without judgment and see how this was part of the customs and worldview of the people here. But I also didn’t stay long after they started cutting up the bull. Poco a poco. Oh, and to top off the celebration Alex bought us all ice cream from a street vender who was there. So I enjoyed a delicious ice cream cone on a beautiful day with friends, while staring at a dead and bleeding bull and laughing a little to myself that this is my life.

This current weekend has been the feast day of the patron saint of Mollepata, San Jeronimo. Mollepata is little town outside Chimbote and also the name of the Social/Cultural center directly across the street from us. So, while the center is usually host to the fiesta’s of others, this weekend has been huge because it is their very own patron saint celebration. I am actually pretty impressed with the endurance of Chimboteans who have now been partying for over the last 48 hours straight. The first sign that it would be long weekend of celebration was the 5:30am fireworks lit off directly in front of our house Friday morning. Starting Friday evening it has been non-stop music and celebrations. The coolest thing by far thought was the vaca loca and the Castillo. For any/all of you who are pyromaniacs, this would be your dream come true. On Friday night I noticed a large structure tower up from the center of the Mollepata and asked one of my Chimbotean friends what it was. He said it was a Castillo, and they would light it on fire and it had different things it would do. It sounded cool and strange enough to warrant actually going over to the Mollepata for the first time. So around midnight I headed over with Jane (another IWM) and Juan Carlos to watch the display. Well, it took until 1am to light the Castillo, but just after midnight they lit the vaca loca (crazy cow). The vaca loca constructed in the shape of a cow and someone puts it on over their shoulders and when it is lit it sprays out fireworks and sparks all over the place. It would be completely illegal anywhere in the U.S. The vaca loca then runs around all over the place, basically spraying people with fireworks unless you run away. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I’m alive to be writing this blog post.  A quick side note: all ages participate in celebrations here. At every fiesta I have seen babies less than a year old up with their parents until the dawn as well as old grandpas and grandmas probably in their 90s. So, the vaca loca lasted about 10 minutes I would say and everyone had a ball running away (or some towards) the crazy cow that shot out fireworks. After this, I realized that the Castillo was rigged with fireworks as well and super excited to see it lit off. Around 1am the initial spark was lit and it was truly an incredible work of engineering I think. There were multiple levels and the initial spark would travel up each level as the next one was lit off. My words will not be able to begin to describe how amazing this was and unfortunately I don’t have any pictures, so hopefully you have good imaginations. On each level there were different shapes that would spin and turn as they lit off fireworks and colored sparks. There was a banner rigged to fall down with the patron saint, a lit up sign at the top of the Castillo, and a finale of big fireworks and a waterfall of sparks down the whole front. The best ground show of fireworks I’ve ever seen. And we were probably within 30 ft. of the structure. They had another one last night, Saturday, but I had to get up really early this morning to set up for our kick off event for the celebration of St. Francis and the Franciscan order (800 years) so I didn’t stay up to watch that one.

On final cultural experience that happened on my way home today (9/20) about 5:00pm: a drunk man tried to steal my camera which was in my pocket, but I didn’t let him have it. He came up behind Marcelle and I as we were walking and I felt him try to reach in my pocket and grab it but I grabbed it at the same time and yanked it back from his hands as I shouted No! He just kind of looked at us and as we started to quickly walk away he stumbled back the other direction. We’ve been told (and I believe it) that Sunday afternoon and evening are the most dangerous times because the men have been drinking all weekend. But thankfully everything is ok, and I still have my camera.

Peace and Love

Information about Chimbote

In case anyone is interested in reading more about Chimbote, below is the link to the Wikipedia site giving basic information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimbote

Some of the basic stats are that it is on the Pacific Coast, it is Peru's largest fishing port and about 75% of all the fishing industry comes from Chimbote, it has a population of over 300,000, and the weather stays pretty mild between mid 50s - high 80s depending on the season with very little rain fall.

I also found a few facts from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh that has a foundation set up in Chimbote:

Chimbote, Peru, is a desert town of 350,000 people who exist in great poverty under the shadows of fish-processing plants, the chief industry, and a smoke-belching steel mill that operates without benefit of environmental and safety regulations - a perpetual health hazard.

Chimbote is found approximately 250 miles north of Lima, the nation's capital.

Chimbote was at one time a honeymoon resort of 25,000. Now, it is considered one of the most impoverished cities in the country.

South America's third largest country, Peru ranks fourth in population.

Spanish is the official language, with Quechua and Aymara as semi-official languages.