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

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Aug 16, 2011 at 14:30:22 PM PDT


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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.

Previous diaries can be seen here:

Day 1, Part 1: The El Alto Market
Day 2: Meetings with Bolivian NGOs
Day 3: Agriculture in Chicani, A La Paz Suburb
Day 4: Coffee!
Day 5: Yungas
Day 6: Yungas to Santiago de Okola
Day 7: Santiago de Okola
Day 8, Part 1: Festival in Cochabamba - Morenada
Day 8, Part 2: Festival in Cochabamba - Morenada
Day 8, Part 3: Festival in Cochabamba - Tinku

You can also find diaries from my 2010 trip to Bolivia here.

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

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You gotta wonder what kind of dances (4.00 / 3)
Bolivians did BEFORE the Spanish conquest! So many are based on things that happened during and after the conquest.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

Festividad de Urkupiña (4.00 / 2)
Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña

I looked this up because I started wondering if this parade was an all-day affair. Sure enough - 16 hours!


yup (4.00 / 2)
we saw acts 28-34 or so and then left. I really wanted to see the Diablada but that was not going to be on for another 13 more acts. I did get to see the Waca Waca (if that's how it's spelled), a dance about the introduction of the cow to the Andes by the Spanish. A few people in the dance dress as cows. It's pretty cool. It was too dark for pictures by then though :(

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

[ Parent ]
left (4.00 / 2)
Spectators who stay for the whole thing compete for the title of "Miss Iron Pants"?

I'm interested to remember how much publicity is given to Mardi Gras and Chinese New Year while, at least in the U.S., we receive no notice of Andean celebrations. The world needs more information about indigenous festivals!


[ Parent ]
Agreed! (4.00 / 2)
Bolivian dance is AWESOME. I had never heard of it til last trip to Bolivia when we ran into a festival by accident while driving back to the hotel one day. It's simply INCREDIBLE.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

[ Parent ]
I think the reason why is that (4.00 / 2)
there aren't many Bolivians living in the USA. Chinese New Year we celebrate because there was enough chinese in parts of the US to make a celebration big enough for other people to notice. Mardi Gras is popular because of so many people down in Louisianna, I think mostly in New Orleans. Celebrating it in other parts of the country is a relatively new thing I think. I don't remember anyone celebrating Mardi Gras in Portland when I was growing up. Nowadays, though, Mardi Gras all over the place. Mostly promoted by bars and liquor companies.

Cinco de Mayo is popular because the bars make a lot of money off of it. It's my understanding that it's not as big of a holiday in Mexico as it is with the gringos up here in the USA. I think the same is true with St. Patrick's Day. More popular here than in Ireland, and a big money maker here, both for bars and for charities. Been a long time since I've not seen a bar or other establishment without MD shamrocks showing how much people have donated. And who can forget the dollar bills pinned to the bar ceiling that get donated to charity on St. Patty's Day.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.


[ Parent ]
Growing up in Southern California (4.00 / 2)
in the 1960s all I really remember about Mexican culture days was the Fiesta de San Francisco de Asís, where the local TV news always covered the blessing of the animals at the Olvera St. church. And the mayor always had a mariachi band play at ribbon cuttings at various places in LA.

I didn't learn about holidays until I took Spanish in the seventh grade. I think the actual big holidays are Christmas, the Fiesta of Guadalupe, the Día de los Muertos, and I bet lots of local ones.

Cinco de Mayo is when Safeway puts mangos on sale at 3 for $1. Used to be 4 for $1. We always can a big batch of mango chutney!


[ Parent ]
useful spanish words I've learned (4.00 / 2)
abono - soil amendment
gallinasa - chicken bedding

It's amazing how ag-focused my Spanish vocabulary is.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman


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