The past week leading up to the holidays of Corpus Cristi and Inti Raymi had the streets of Cusco packed with people, food, music, vendors, and so many vibrant colors. On Tuesday I participated in a desfile with my clinic; we dressed in red ponchos and sombreros and joined hoards of other organizations and groups from Cusco in marching up the Avenida del Sol through the main Plaza de Armas. The experience was, in a word, unique. I arrived with a nurse to the Avenida del Sol at 8:30 am and, as is pretty typical of Cusqueñan style, we ended up waiting around for hours before being able to march in the parade at 1 pm. While standing around, however, I got to see tons of other groups go by in elaborate traditional dress, dancing and playing live music as they passed us. One of my favorites was the group behind us: though I think the message was somehow promoting regular gynecological exams, the women were dressed as middle-aged pot-bellied men waving beer around in a silly sort of synchronized choreography.
As the groups slowly made their way through the cobblestone streets of Cuscos center, you couldnt help but be hit with Cuzqueñan pride. Vendors everywhere were selling traditional food, dress, and (along with packets of sunscreen) rainbow ribbons, pins, and flags so everyone could show his pride for the city. What inflated my pride even more than these colorful gestures was just getting to be IN the parade itself. Marching through the Plaza while crowds of Cuzqueñans and tourists lined the route made me feel like I was really getting to be a part of a tradition, as opposed to just standing on the sidelines and watching one.
Corpus Cristi, brought to Peru by the Spanish, is likely one of the most important Catholic holidays celebrated in this country.
On Thursday, the holiday began in the Plaza de Armas as huge effigies of 14 saints were carried out through crowds of people. The procession began with some of the most beautiful organ-accompanied choral music Ive ever heard being projected out from the cathedral, in a way so clear that it felt more like a soundtrack to the moment than anything else. Before the saints are carried out into the streets, an elaborately adorned metal altar carrying what is believed to be the blood of Christ, la carroza, is brought out through the crowds as everyone stands and removes their hats in respect.
What was most interesting to me was that, despite this being quite clearly a Catholic holiday, Cuzqueñans only eat Chiriuchu, a traditional Incan meal meaning "cold food," on this day. I went with some friends to the Plaza San Francisco nearby to discover vendor after vendor selling plates of Chiriuchu for 18 soles- a pretty expensive meal by Peruvian standards. Chiriuchu consists of a serving each of cuy (guinea pig), chicken, sausage, corn, seaweed, a native grain similar to quinua, and toreja- a savory sort of corn bread made with onions. The meal is eaten cold, as the Incas used to travel long distances through the Andes with their food. To eat the dish in the traditional way, you take a little of each component and chew them all together, combining the flavors and textures in your mouth. Although I didn't get to try the whole dish (and am still avoiding cuy like the plague) I did get to eat some toreja and dried corn, both of which I found extremely satisfying.
And then Friday was Inti Raymi, the Incan celebration of the Sun and the winter solstice. The celebrations began at Qoricancha, in the center of Cusco, with music, dancing, and the bringing out of the Inca- a man dressed as the king of the Cusqueñans who addressed the crowds in booming Quechua. It was so crowded that it was hard to see the ornate attire and dances of each group in the ceremony, but we pushed over one another in order to see the splendor. What made the moment just that much more Cuzqueñan was the presence of a dog in the middle of the ceremonial lawn; as dogs are allowed outside during the day, you can find them almost everywhere they "shouldn't be," from inside the medical clinics to, apparently, the center of a sacred Incan ritual. After starting in Qoricancha, the procession made its way to the Plaza de Armas, but 9 friends and I bypassed this step in order to beat the crowds to the final and most important location for Inti Raymi- the ruins of Sacsayhuamán. My friends and I tiredly weaved our way up steep streets and stairs, finally joining the massive pilgrimage up to Sacsayhuamán, which overlooks the city of Cusco (see my last entry). Once at the ruins, we hurriedly found a spot to sit among the high boulders overlooking the amphitheater below. You see, what most tourists do is just pay $80 for seats in the amphitheater to watch what has now become more show than ritual. My group decided to opt for the local-preferred, free option of staking out a spot above the site to watch from above. We arrived at around 10:30 in the morning, and, to our dismay, discovered that the ceremony itself didnt begin until 1:30. While we were glad that we got there early enough to get decent seats among the hoards of people, being under the strong Cuzqueñan sun (even at the day it was furthest from the earth) was not exactly a pleasant or comfortable experience.
Luckily, vendors were EVERYWHERE selling everything from ice cream to popcorn to chicha morada (a drink made of purple corn), keeping us cool, full, and busy. When the ceremony finally began, not only was it nearly impossible to see (due to the vast amount of people sitting on the angled ground in front of us) but the people around us drew more of our attention than the activities below. People were throwing rocks and bottles at each other for blocking the view or for standing up in the front, all while people behind us chanted "sientense! sientense!"- "sit down!" The most anticipated moment of the ceremony was the llama sacrifice, and while we still don't know if the beautifully dressed black llama was actually killed or not, the heart and lungs that the Inca held up were most definitely real (so cool).
No comments:
Post a Comment