Diane: In my mind the label for January 6th is "Three Kings Day". I have been in predominantly Catholic countries where there are parades and festivities on this day. But here in Cuenca, they celebrate "Day of the Innocents". It had been foretold that a child born around this date would cause the downfall of King Herod. So the King ordered the slaughter of all infant male children born around that date.
Raúl, our Spanish teacher at the Abraham Lincoln Center, told us the story several months ago. At first, I thought it was a Bible story or a moral parable and asked what one was supposed to learn from such a horrid story. But it turns out that many (most?) people consider it historically correct. I was not familiar with this story and still don't think I got it quite right.
In Cuenca, evening celebrations include a parade, hoardes of young men cross-dressing as women, a few young women cross-dressing as men, and some kind of contest. I am not sure what this has to do with the King Herod slaughter, but it sounded like a lot of fun, so I kept my ears open for more details.
I heard from a few Cuencanos that during the afternoon, the local children dramatize the slaughter in full costume. One person said there would be a lot of skyrockets just before it was to begin. If we followed the noise, we would find it. Another said that it would take place in the central plaza around 1pm. The newspaper said there would be a procession starting at TM and Calliope's high school around noon that would wind around to Mother's Park, where an event would be held.
I have a rule of thumb here in Ecuador, when logistical details are a bit sketchy or divergent. If I get the same info from at least two sources, who have nothing to do with one another, then there is a fair likelihood that the info is fundamentally sound. If I only hear/read it from one source, I generally don't change my plans to accommodate the information. In this case, where no two versions coincided, I decided to go have a good lunch. Afterwards, Calliope, TM, and I wandered in a roundabout fashion through town toward our apartment. We neither heard skyrockets, nor saw a procession, nor stumbled upon any outdoor productions. I did notice that adjacent to Mother's Park, workers were constructing a bandstand. They thought it was for a show that was to start around 6:30.
Although all my sources agreed that the evening festivities would take place on Gran Columbia between San Blas plaza and the central plaza, a temporary bandstand located next to Mother's Park was too hard to ignore. Another rule of thumb is that direct evidence is better than hearsay. A temporary bandstand shouts celebration, so I decided to return in the early evening.
In the evening, large groups of young men dressed as young women in Catholic school uniforms. There were also groups dressed as clowns, goblins, and scary creatures of the night.
There was music coming from many directions. At the head of the parade, three men dressed as women-clowns lead the way on their motorcycles.
The parade participants had fun with the crowd. A group dressed as the Cuencan soccer team came around giving autographs, whether requested or not. Clowns ran up and down the street interacting with the crowd.
TM's friend, Joe, was in the parade as part of a large group from his University, entitled "Chinese invasion". The theme was in reference to the proliferation of small Chinese-owned shops selling cheap Chinese imports. The costumes, however, bore no resemblance to the theme - just to the title. There were large Chinese dragons, samurai, geishas, sumo wrestlers, and karate practitioners.
Not only were the costumes interesting visually, but they also showed a confusion of Chinese and Japanese culture including bits of both. I took lots of pictures to give to Joe, only to find out later that there were two groups with the identical costume motif and the identical cultural confusion!! Either one group copied the other or the local costume shops rent the same costumes. Ironically, TM says the costume shops are Chinese-owned.
Early on in the evening, a group of young men dressed as Cholas came parading down the street. Everybody's definition of a Chola is a little bit different, but here's one attempt - a working-class, Cuencan women in traditional dress. Suddenly they veered off to the right and swarmed in our direction. We stepped out of the way as they charged a young woman about a foot away from us. She backed into a wall and they all jumped her and started a humping motion. I couldn't really tell what they were yelling, but it felt like an attack. The woman standing next to me rolled up the newspaper she was holding and started beating one of them on the head and chastising them. Eventually they backed off. Within 2 minutes, they went off after another young woman across the street.
I still don't know exactly what was going on, but to me it looked like a dry run for a gang rape. Even worse, it turned out that this group was a collection of students from TM and Calliope's class and grade! These were the same young men who had served us snacks, played guitar and sang for us, and hosted various competetive games at the class Christmas party just a couple of weeks earlier.
We saw the same gang-rape scenario, repeated by many groups, many times over the next hour. Even with the parade, the dozens of talented acts on the bandstands, and the festive ambience, this soured the whole event for Tom and me. I was also a bit afraid that Calliope might be a target, since they were definitely going after young women her age. We left immediately after seeing what we thought was the "Chinese Invasion".
TM had stayed home through all this, but after hearing that his friends were out dressed in costume, he wanted to join in. There wasn't much time, but both TM and Calliope wanted to go out dressed as the opposite gender. Swapping each other's clothes, it was a great last-minute effort.
Calliope tried to master the male teenage I-don't-care slouch. TM was evidently rather convincing, because many on the street thought he was a woman. With all the mob-fake-attacks going on, TM also felt a hint of the fear that women feel on a dark street at night, when a group of strange men approach. It was quite the role-play evening with young men dressed as young women whistling excitedly at young women and/or young men dressed as young women. Interestingly, there were very few young women dressed as young men. Many aspects of the evening were self-orchestrated by the teenagers/young-adults. At an age when they are exploring their sexual identities, this celebration allowed young people to experiment a bit in a public setting.
I am considering writing a letter to the editor taking a stand against the attack-mob activity, but I am hesitant. I can hear the charge of cultural imperialism ringing in my ears as I rail against another culture's method of merry-making. Not that I have a problem pointing out unacceptable behavior, be it culturally based or not. Also, I don't know if my Spanish is good enough to come off sounding reasonably intelligent. We'll see...
No comments:
Post a Comment