So the Cunen feria, in honor of la Virgin de la Candelaria (a very imposing but kind figure in our Catholic church) officially ends tonight after 2 and a half weeks of celebration. Here’s a rundown of the events that were held:
First Saturday and Sunday: town-wide lunch of traditional caldo and start of the baile folklórico de venados
Second Saturday: crowning of Cunen’s indigenous queen (she was elected on January 1st)
Sunday: children’s parade (part 1) in the morning, Señorita Cunen candidates’ parade in the afternoon (they were driven through town on “floats,” aka pick-ups decorated with balloons and such and decked out with an armchair and umbrella for the girl), and the Señorita Cunen competition at night. All I can say is that it is completely unfair that I am not allowed to wear tank tops when these girls were strutting around practically naked all night! I left early because it didn’t end until around 1am, but the winner was my host dad’s candidate for the organization Share Guatemala.
Monday: children’s parade (part 2) in the morning, some super expensive dance in the evening that I didn’t attend (who pays a Q50 cover charge outside of Antigua??)
Tuesday: marimba band all day, quemado del castillo – an incredible “castle” constructed of fireworks that were set off in a 10-minute domino effect!) – y de los toritos – “bulls” also constructed of fireworks, but set off while dancing around with a man inside. You would think that sounds dangerous, but he was probably the safest, as the fireworks got extremely close to the crowd and even burned a small mark into my friend Jenny’s coat!
Wednesday (the actual day of feria): not 1, but 2 convites dancing through town all day into the evening. One of them was followed around by the “internationally”-famous marimba band Los Conejos, who provided an excellent atmosphere for dancing all night!
Thursday: women’s convite during the day, a dance at night that I didn’t attend due to still being tired from the night before and then working all day!
Friday: another women’s convite that I got to watch from Jenny’s roof and during which I got a shout-out (“nuestra amigo de Nueva York!”) from that day’s marimba band, Miguel Angel Tzul :)
Saturday: not part of feria, but I went to a wedding with my host family and danced and drank quite a bit, which I’m pretty sure the whole town knows about by now…
Tuesday: another quema de toritos to celebrate the week-anniversary of the feria
Today: the last day of the dancing venados and assorted friends (including the monos). While I’ll be okay without marginally creepy deer and monkeys in the streets, their accompanying cheery marimba music will definitely be missed!
Some photos:
my sitemates and I with some of the many dancing monos (we’re still not sure who has been behind all those masks, but they know we love taking photos with them!)
Some photos:
my sitemates and I with some of the many dancing monos (we’re still not sure who has been behind all those masks, but they know we love taking photos with them!)
Los Internacionales Conejos singing up a storm
my host mom and I at the wedding
Now that feria is over, life is (unfortunately!) moving on. I was in the department capitol of Quiché for a few days working on a really interesting education/literacy program with Save the Children, I started and plan to complete this week my community surveys for Peace Corps, and will make jam with a women’s group on Friday to see if they want to start a small business with it. And all next week I will be in Antigua for my training group’s Reconnect and Spanish classes. Life is pretty good :)
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