Hungry Boy and Girl Get Chased

The girl sitting on the steps holds her baby Alpaca. She dressed traditionally --- flat-hat topped with a colorful square tapestry of red and yellow and blue, fine looping threads on top of a crimson background, her dress -- knee-high, concentric rings to divide seperate storyboards of flowers that race around her waist like movie-reels

from her waist to her knees.

She asks for a photograph with each of the tourists unloading from the bus. She asks me, she chooses one of the steps of the sprawling staircase to walk across, asks anybody sitting down. It costs 50 centavos to take a photo with her and her Alpaca. 

After she leaves a boy comes walking across that same step with his shoe-shine kit, a rounded, pudgy face, a striped wool shirt, jeans with a bib. Looks to be ten years old. He passes by the rest without saying a word, only crouching down and inspecting the shine of their shoes.

And then he stops at me, sets down his wooden box with a foot pedestal mounted on top. He tells me my shoes are dirty, he reaches to give them a wash. 

-Our conversation:

"Where are you from" (him in English)

"Have you ever been to Buenos Aires" (Him in Spanish)

"yes, why"

"it is the capital of... um... um"

He seems to have fogotten what country Buenos Aires is the capital of, and at the same time I wonder why he has asked me that question, if maybe this could be a chance to teach him a Geography lesson. If that can be of more help to him than paying him for a shoeshine. 

As the child stutters a 20-something man approaches from behind (also a shoeshiner). The man tells the boy to leave from his turf, smacks him lightly on the face, grabs at his belt. The child backs away two steps, the man fake punches. At this moment a police officer appears from the corner of church I sit in front of. The 20-something man dashes away into a crowd, the boy runs in the other direction and rendezvouses with the girl with the Alpaca. They make eye contact, stare in the direction of the police officer storming after them, hesitate, sprint out of view around the other side of the church.

Amaru!

I had the chance to see the band Amaru, which is comprised of singers/musicians who all dwell in the Cusco area. The band puts a new spin on a traditional form of music that has been played in this part of the Andes for hundreds of years. The show that I went to was apparantly the last show before they were to break up, but people have told me that this is not the first time that they have talked about breaking up and nor will it be the last. This show took place on Friday, June 10th. It turns out they had impromtu shows on Saturday, Sunday and Monday as well. Jakiera, the lead singer, said they have been planning their break-up in order to travel their separate ways through South America in order to collaborate and play new forms of music. 

Also, an interesting note about their band name: It was taken from a revered Inca mythological creature that was said to have the body of a snake, head of a Llama, and the tail of a fish. Amaru is also the family name for the lineages of the first Inca emperors. 

Inti Raymi Parades in Full-Swing (all day every day for three weeks straight)

Members of a dance studio get together to perform 

on Thursday, June 16. 

In the weeks leading up to Inti Raymi, there are parades and dances basically all day long every day. Every day the parades are filled with different sorts of participants. For example, on Friday, June 10, there was an all day long parade of grade-school aged children (see earlier video-post in this blog) from different schools in the Cusco area. Another day's parade was for University students from various programs. Another day's parade was created for members of various workplaces to get together and dance. Each group of participants usually gets together daily in order to practice. People generally start practicing about a month before their parade takes place. People take this very seriously. The photos in this post are comprised of a combination of children from the parade for grade-school children that took place on June 10 and of the parade for university students that took place on June 17th. These are just descriptions of 2 days of festivities that last for over 3 weeks. 

PLAZA DE LAS ARMAS

Plaza de Las Armas is the main plaza in Cusco, Peru. It is also where most of Cusco's parades and important gatherings take place. It is thus the location where festivities for Inti Raymi and Corpis Cristi take place. Most photographs and videos that I post this blog in relation to these holidays were shot in La Plaza de las Armas

It is also the most popular plaza for tourists who are getting on and off of buses, going for strolls, taking pictures. In general just doing tourist-like things. Due to the high volume of tourists there are also numerous vendors who stroll circles around the plaza on foot selling various items that can be bought in every street-corner in the touristy part of Cusco (image sunglasses, alpaca hats, hand carved gourds, dolls, sunglasses, cigarettes, people selling their paintings, young boys selling shoe-shines). And somebody every minute stops to ask me to buy because I am obviously a gringo with my beard and light skin and alpaca sweater with a a design of Alpacas knit across it.

There are stray dogs that approach you sitting on a bench to curl around your feet that are a good idea not to touch because of the diseases they carry, so I make a compromise and pet them with the sole of my feet. There is on dog that is grey, missing tufts of hair, with one wayward bobbing eye that I see every day, that travels from person to person like the vendors do.

All that I want to do is sit on a bench and people watch, or read or write. But the persistance of one person after another asking me to buy something I don't need, distracting me from my tasks, seeking me out for my gringo-ness, speaking only in bad English because they assume I don't know a word of Spanish because with a gringo this is likely the case, that some people's persistence leads them to shove their paintings in my face and ask repeatidly why I don't want to buy, telling me that he hasn't had a sale all day and therefore hasn't been able to eat.

Children dressed as Las Chunchas

From another of the every-day parades during the 3 weeks leading up to Inti Raymi (the festival of the sun). I shot this video on 6/11/11. This day-long parade (not kidding, 9am-6pm) was one of children from all of the middle schools in Cusco. Each group (numbering between 20 and 40 students) had a unique dress and a unique dance. These costumes and dances are reflective of some of the most important themes of the Inca holiday of Inti Raymi. For example, members of this group of dancers are dressed like Chunchas. Chunchas are an ancient lineage of people who are said to have successfully resisted Inca control during the 15th century by retreating into the highlands at the present-day Bolivian border. The masks represent their anonymity while hiding in the highlands, their whips represent maltreatment towards them by the Incas, and the Llama they have draped around their shoulders represents their most important means of sustenance (clothing and food).

Celebrate! (sort of) President Elect Humala (almost)

March through Cuscu, Peru shortly after hearing of
Ollanto Humala's probable victory over far-right
Keiko Fujimori..

On Sunday June 4th Peruvians went to the polls in a run-off election in order to vote between far-right Keiki Fujimori and far-left Ollanto Humala. In the first round of presidential elections the two more moderate candidates split the vote and were eliminated from the next round. I won't go into much detail about dynamics between these 2 candidates or the particulars of their individual politics because this information can be found through a simple internet search, but here is a brief background on both of the candidates for president:

Keiko Fujimori's father, Alberto Fujimori, was Peruvian president from 1990 to 2000, at which time he had to flee office due to a corruption scandal (again, important stuff to know but too much to go into detail b/c this info is available in other places if you are interested. For more info on this search for: vladavideos). Her father is currently serving a 20 year jail sentence for corruption and human rights abuses. The majority of Keiko Fujimori's political advisors are repeats from her father's regime. Many Peruvians were afraid that her government would be prone to the same types of corruption and human rights abuses that her father's was. Click here ->http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/world/americas/28peru.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=keiko%20fujimori&st=cse for a NY Times spotlight on Keiko Fujimori.

President elect Ollanto Humala also has a controversial history in Peruvian politics. He is an ex-military commander who was also accused of human rights abuses during the struggle against the Shining Path terrorist group. In the past he has had strong ties with Venezuelan president Chavez, once making statements about his intention to push for similar reforms in Peru that Chavez has brought to Venezuela. Within the last few years, due to widespread public disagreement of this methodology, Humala has cut his ties with Chavez and has reached out to past Brazilian president Lula Da Silva (a more moderate liberal). Despite Humala's backtracking, many Peruvians do not buy into his sudden political changes. Many believe that he is just waiting to get into office in order to advocate reforms similar to those that Chavez has advocated for Venezuela. People are also very weary of dictatorial tendencies.  and click here -> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/world/americas/06peru.html?scp=1&sq=humala&st=cse for information on Humala's background and his narrow victory over Fujimori.

Humala received the majority of votes from the rural areas of Peru while Fujimori swept most of Lima. As Cusco was one of Humala's strongholds he obviously received a vast majority of the vote here (between 75 percent and 80 percent). As seen in the above video, moments after the initial national vote was tallied on the night of the elections Humala supporters took to the streets in a march that wound in confusing spirals and circles through the streets of Cusco, ending at the gates of Humala's campaign headquarters. Despite the initial tally which at this time reported that he had won by nearly 5 percent, the next day the margin had lowered to 1 percent. I bring this fact up in order to highlight that at the moment that this march occured it was still not conclusive that Humala had won.

I shot this video at the start of the march before it built up too much steam. Regardless the passion of these Cusceñans is evident as Humala is their hometown hero.

May 22, day of arrival in Cusco

I arrived in Cusco, unintentionally, at the perfect time. This weekend in May marks the start of an epic month of parades and festivals which lead up to Cusco's most important holiday, Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun). The  parade on this day was dedicated to The Day of Pachamama, honoring the earth goddess. The parade was comprised of about 20 different groups of people and each group represented a particular community within or around Cusco. Also, each community has its own costume and dance that has been carried down through countless generations of tradition.

The vast majority of people in the Cusco area are descendants of the Inca and hold close to the culture and customs of their ancestors.