La Feria

Last week was fair week in San Cristóbal Verapaz, which is one of the two biggest celebrations of the year. A week of parades, dances, music . . . and oh yes, fireworks . . . led up to Saint Christopher's day, July 25, which was the climax of all activity.

I started the week off with a Sunday trip to an evangelical church in a small village called El Rancho, where I had been invited to a service by the pastor. I took the morning to walk around the village and enjoy the beautiful mountain air. It reminds me a lot of Colorado--clear blue skies, mountians with towering pine trees, the smell of wood-burning fires--if you just ignore the palm trees.

Traditional Pokom House

My pew-mate at church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The week of events started on Monday with the parade for all of the elementary school kids in the municipality of San Cristóbal. This includes all of the aldeas (villages) in the hills. Some students traveled for 2 hours to come march in the parade!

They were cute, but I ended up following a different parade, a procession of dancers accompanied by a marimba trio who split off from the main parade and carved their own path through the town. (It turns out that it is quite common to have two, or even three, parades going on at the same time during fair week in San Cristóbal. In such a small town, one can even get trapped in a "bermuda triangle" of parades from which it is impossible to escape until they all end).

I followed the procession to the Barrio of San Cristóbal (there are several different "barrios" or neighborhoods in the Town of San Cristóbal, one of which is itself called Barrio San Cristóbal). I saw them perform the "Baile del Venado," which is actually a medley of 5 or so different bailes which lasts for around two hours. They invited me for lunch (picture me surrounded by 35 drunk sweaty men speaking a language I can't understand), and I proceeded to come back to the barrio every day that week. They danced every day, accompanying an array of other traditions, such as sacrificing--and sharing the meat of--a bull (I had to bring a pineapple in exchange for my share of meat), marching through the streets with various patron saints, lots of eating, drinking aguardiente . . . and oh yes fireworks. I went from morning to night with cotton in my ears (no such thing as ear plugs here) because I never knew when someone would light a bomb right next to me, or start a set of fireworks. The bombs are actually very useful. They're the San Cristóbal version of twitter--you can hear from anywhere in town exactly where the procession is at any given time. I never had to ask anyone where the procession was going that day. I'd just wake up, get dressed, and follow the bombs.

Marimba Trio accompanied by deer dancers in the parade

Baile del Venado in the Barrio San Cristóbal

Don Cupertino, looking ultra-hip with my sunglasses on

Vicktor and me dancing to a marimba corrido on the last night of the fair week

Me trying to distribute the correct photo of each one of the venado dancers. This proved impossible to do; photo prints are pretty expensive there so they were so excited that they grabbed them right out of my hands. Here, I'm trying, in vain, to restore order.

El Diablo, preparing to dance around while his "wings" are aflame.

No such thing as "liability" in Guatemala

I was very lucky to be invited to all of these amazing, and somewhat exclusive events. San Cristóbal is rich with color, culture, sights, sounds, and sabór. This is my final week here, and I'll be busy finishing the theater workshops I've been teaching in the aldeas around San Cristóbal. Next week off to Tactic for their fair week, then to Chamelco and finally a little R & R on the Caribbean coast before returning back to the states.

San Cristóbal Verapaz

After a few days of speaking Spanish, I was beginning to improve and words were starting to come back to me. I felt incredibly proud of my progress until I arrived in San Cristóbal, where everyone speaks Pokomchí. I'm now back to square one as far as not understanding anything that's going on! I'm not sure what Navajo is like, but Pokomchí is probably as difficult and as foreign. Lots of glottal stops and letters I can't pronounce. For example, to say "how are you?" instead of a simplified ¿Cómo estás?, in Pokomchí, it takes about 5 minutes to spit out "nic wach, sukna ac'ux?"  Luckily, though many people here communicate in Pokomchí, most of them do also speak Spanish so at least I can communicate.

 Cathedral in the Central Park

 Flower vendors on market day

 Gazebo in the Central park

During my first weekend in San Cristóbal, I was lucky enough to experience the Rixk'un Kak Koj (or "Queen of the Hill") parade and competition, which is sort of like a "Miss America" for indigenous women in San Cristóbal. I was invited to a traditional lunch, where the various "queens" from all parts of Guatemala were invited to take part in the competition. The contestants were judged based on their ability to prepare traditional food (apparently judged beforehand), their mastery of the Pokomchí language, their dancing, and their ability to answer impromptu questions. Fortunately, there was no swimsuit portion of the pageant.

Eating traditional chicken soup and tamales.

Here you can see the queens to my right.

Here the queens and "nietas" (there was also a Little Miss Sunshine sort of competition for girls under 10) from around the country participate in the Son de Marimba dance.

The Baile del Venado, or "deer dance" was performed by a group of young men from Suchitepequez, in the southwest of Guatemala. Like many of the musicians and dancers, they were invited to perform in San Cristóbal for this pageant.

Here, one of the contestants leads the group in her interpretation of the Son de Arpa dance

 

The queen is chosen after three hours of competition and shows. Here she is crowned by last year's queen, and they then proceed to dance together down the stage.

This week I've been busy volunteering for the community center and trying to find musical contacts. Preparations for the fair keep building, and I'll see what is in store for me next weekend! I've now survived both a cold and food poisoning, and I'm hoping that does it as far as getting sick for the trip.

La Llegada

Though this was my third time arriving in Guatemala, it was the first time I was able to see Guatemala City sprawling below me as the plane approached La Aurora airport; four years ago I arrived in Antigua by van, and two years ago we had flown in at night. Guatemala City is surprisingly large. Not as overwhelming as flying into Los Angeles or Mexico City, but still impressive. While the latter settlements cover every square inch with buildings, Guatemala City's tropical surroundings frame the numerous buildings (and hide the many shacks crowding the hills around the city).

My plane touched down in Guatemala City at 7:15 a.m. so I arrived in Antigua by 8:00 a.m. and was forcefully reminded how much I love that place. Early on a Sunday morning, the central park was already filled with tourists, Kaqchikel women selling their goods, and families resting on the park benches before church. The town exudes love and peace. I challenge George Bush and Hugo Chavez to walk down Antigua's cobblestone-clad streets, stroll among the brilliant pastel colonial buildings and majestic ruins, and not end up holding hands and reconciling their differences.

I had a productive and relaxing three days in Antigua. During my stay I managed to pass through all my favorite spots and got to say a brief hello to old friends (José at Café Flor, lunch with Manuela, and Alvaro at Café No Sé, Mike, where were you?!).

I was also fortunate to meet Johann and Edvin, a historian and a musician respectively, who guided me through Casa K'ojom, a Museum dedicated to Mayan music.

Johann, art historian (dinner at Café Flor)

Edvin, Kaqchikel musician

The "Chin Chin," a rattle made of dried fruit.

Turtle Shells

I was a little bit nervous for my trip to Guatemala City on Tuesday to meet with Alfonso Arrivillaga Cortés and Matthias Stockli, who work with the Center for Folkloric Studies at the University of San Carlos. At first, my taxi driver couldn't find the address, so I asked him to drop me a the Howard Johnson hotel where I would figure things out from there. Luckily, I was only a few blocks from the office, and I enjoyed a wonderful meeting with them at CEFOL's offices, which are located on the same site as the City's botanical gardens.

After three great days in Antigua, it's on to San Cristóbal Verapaz, where I will be settling for a month to work with the Pokomchí Community Education Center and meeting musicians!