Cultural Links

Oruro: A Parade of Traditions

It is Carnival Saturday in Oruro, Bolivia. Under the blue sky of the high plateau, surrounded by expanses of sand and low ridges, this mining town of 125,000 inhabitants will give itself over from eight in the morning till night to a celebration of music and dance that expresses the rich imagination of its people. Thousands of visitors from other parts of the country and abroad line the steets, throng the squares and avenues, fill temporary bleachers, windows and balconies, festoon the tops of walls and roofs, and perch atop motor vehicles in order to watch the Entrada (March-in) of the Carnival. The companies of celebrants, each with its own costumes and masks, distinctive music and dances, go hopping and dancing for 20 blocks to the church of the Virgin del Socavon (Virgin of the Mineshaft) on the Pie de Gallo (Rooster Foot) ridge.

If there are thousands of spectators, there are as many dancers from the town itself and elsewhere in the country, the most important of them being the Diablos (Devils) and Morenos (Blacks), who field eight of the 40 or 50 dancing companies. Considering that the smallest companies number 30 to 50 persons and the largest 200 to 300, one can roughly estimate how many dancers there are and visualize the magnitude of the spectacle.

First come the cargamentos, a motorcade of vehicles laden with fine embroideries, jewels, gold and silverware, old coins and banknotes, which recall the treasures once offered up in the worship of Inti (the sun) on the Incan Inti Raymi feast day, or the wealth of the Tio (Uncle) who dwells in the mineshafts.

Behind this motorcade comes the company of the Diablos, led by Lucifer and two Satans among a clattering din of reports from rockets and small cannon, and surrounded by five dancing she-devils. The masks of these Diablos sport plaster-of-parts horns, painted lightbulbs for eyes, little mirrors for teeth, and hair from the tails of oxen or horses, and are adorned with toads, snakes and l izards. They are followed by the Angel guarding the Virgen del Socavon, who is carried by the standard bearer. A band brings up the rear of this section, and condors and bears, survivals from ancient totemic rites, walk in and out among the dancers.

Next comes the company of the Incas, representing historical personages from the time of the Conquest: the Inca Huascar, the Spaniards Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, and the priest Vicente de Valverde (who, failing to convert Atahualpa, the last of the Incas, to Christianity, allowed him to be sentenced to death). Just as the Diablos, who on Socavon Square stage the relato (story) of the Seven Deadly Sins in which the Archangel Michael is victorious, the Incas put on a fine theatrical piece, La conquista de los espanoles (The Conquest of the Spaniards), by an anonymous colonial author.

The Tobas, with large tropical feathers on their heads and lances in their hands, present war dances that remind spectators of the jungle tribes conquered by the Inca Yupanqui when he extended his empire eastward.

The Llameros (llama drovers) with their slings call to mind the long llama caravans from the different lands of the Tahuantinsuyo (the lands of the Incan empire), which later carried ores to the ports of Lima and Buenos Aires for shipment to Europe.

The Callahuallas (witch doctors) dance with their bags of herbs and the other materials they use to fight diseases and preserve the health of the body. There are also the Cullahuas, who spin and weave, as well as a host of other companies with intriguing titles: the Chutas, the Cambas, Antahuaras, Potolos, Tincus, Corimaitas, Tollcas, Caporals.

The Morenada, led by the Rey Moreno (Black King) and the Caporal (chief), advance slowly with their heavy costumes, whirling their rattles. According to tradition, they represent for some the black slaves brought over from Africa to stomp grapes for juice, while for others they are the blacks led off in chains to work the mines of Potosi in colonial times. Their richly decorated costumes represent the wealth of the slave owners, the protruding eyes and tongue of their masks convey the black's fatigue and the soroche (altitude sickness) from which he suffered.

The Entrada ends with the entry of all the masked companies into the church to hear a mass in honor of the Virgen del Socavon. Long preparations are needed for participation, apart from organizing companies of dancers in Oruro and their respective branches in other Bolivian towns. When this Carnival was first held, only the miners danced; now they are joined by artisans, butchers, cattle brokers, workers in trade and industry, and professionals of all ages. Rehearsals go on for months, beginning on the first Sunday of November,the First Invitation, with a mass and vows to the Virgin, followed by a five-hour rehearsal every Sunday until the second or Last Invitation. The Entrada takes place the following Saturday.

Carnival and its music, dances, eating and drinking, and challas (offerings) to Pachamama (Mother Earth) continue for a week. At the Despedida (Farewell) on Temptation Sunday, challas are held for the Condor, the Toad, the Viper and other rock formations that are part of the town's myths. The celebration ends with an outing to the countryside for participants and spectators in the Agua de Castilla district, where the Carnival is "buried" until next year.

The challa consists of sprinkling drinks on all things, both fixed and movable, and in adorning them with confetti and streamers so that abundance will come, or that it will continue or increase. This is how the protection of the gods of increase and abundance is invoked, and respect shown to them.

Like other expressions of Bolivian culture, the Oruro Carnival is a blend of indigenous cultural elements and elements imposed by the Christianity of the Spanish conquistadores. On one hand, the Christian Carnival underwent changes when it became part of the American tradition, and in Andean Bolivia it not only changed, but even acquired a different meaning while retaining man' Christian names and rites. On the other hand, the Andean myths and customs were adapted to the nev situation of a conquered world. The result was o. unleash a contest that, in the view of some, will end in mestizaje, or a blending of the two culture forms, and in the view of others, will have no end but go on, ever latent, indefinitely. Andean culture is still a window to the understanding of past anc present, but one that is overlaid with Christiar idioms and forms.

It is now believed that the Oruro Carnival begar in 1789 with the worship of the Virgen del Socavon It is to that time that two similar traditions have been traced of an outlaw who lived in Oruro and who, being mortally wounded, was succored in hi~ dying moments by an unknown woman of "real beauty. She was the Virgen de la Candelaria (Virgin of Candlemas), whom the outlaw had worshipped by lighting candles to her in the cave where he lived. Later, in 1881, the church of the Virgendel Socavon was built on that spot. This was how the Virgen de la Candelaria became the Mamita del Socavon (Beloved Mother of the Mineshaft), and her feast was changed to Carnival Saturday because that was the day on which she had interceded for her votary.

The cult of this Virgin is gradually merging with that of the Devil-or Supay/Tio. It was around 1790 that a company of D'ablos first came to the Carnival. While it is known that the custom of dressing up as a devil is older, it was in those years that it became associated with the Carnival and the worship of the Virgin.

The music and the masks and costumes have also changed. The masks were once of wood, with horns of ox or sheep, and the music was played by musicians playing quenas, tarkas (two kinds of Andean flutes) and phutucas (native bass drums) rather than by a band. The masks covered only the face, not the whole head, and the horns were not removable, but fixed, and were less twisted.

In 1818 a Spanish priest introduced the relato depicting the struggle of the Seven Deadly Sins against Saint Michael. The intent was to counter- according to the author of the relato-the superstitions and myths that persisted in the mines, and to subdue the indigenous deities.

Sometimes declining, sometimes surging in popularity, the Carnival has continued evolving down to the present, in an endless contest-foreshadowed by the ancient myths of the locality and of the entire Andean region-between tradition and novelty or sophistication, between the Catholic and indigenous religions, reflecting the changes that have taken place in Bolivian society.

As a mining town, Oruro pays homage to Supay/ Tio at Carnival-and throughout the year-and this worship is both background and complement to the Oruro Carnival. Supay, the malignant prowler in shadows and caves, inhabits ore-rich hills. The Andeans fear and respect him and must stay on his good side so that he will not become their enemy, for if he does, he will not give them wealth, but seek their ruin instead. Supay goes abroad at night, leading his trains of beasts bearing ores to be spread among the hills. Sometimes he allows men to hear him, and even plays jokes on them. Whoever does not believe in Supay, or makes fun of him, can lose his mind or perish.

Local traditions hold that maleficent beings have existed since the world's earliest beginnings. Some were created by Viracocha and Pachacamac (ancient Andean deities), but others came before them. These beings were gigantic, monstruous, and later, under the rays of the sun, turned to stones and mountains. In other cases they sprang from beneficent sources, or appeared after an age of bonanza. An example is the myth of Supaya, as retold by an aged Aymara Indian of Puno, Peru.

"When the world began, the three were one: the Virgin Mary, her husband Jesus Christ, and their son Supaya....Supaya had much wealth, far too much. His horses and mules wore magnificent shoes, but poor Jesus Christ had to walk in his bare feet...." Two of the names are borrowed, but what is important is the parts played by the personages. The two generations of the family have opposite characteristics: one does good and the other evil, and a struggle arises between them. The myth ends as follows: "In the end the father was vanquished. Today, say others, sometimes God wins and sometimes Supaya....Because of this, every man has something of God and something of Supaya in him. Some more of God and others more of Supaya. When Supaya had finished persecuting his father, when he had vanquished him, all his friends came out and set to feasting, jumping about, drinking, and shouting for joy. That's how the world is now."

I have gone on at some length about this myth of the Aymara country on the Bolivian border of Peru because it is not an isolated case, but only one of many Andean myths that have features in common. Another example is the Huari myth, from which many elements of the Oruro Carnival spring.

Near where Oruro stands, there lived the Urus, who were chiefly fishermen and pastoralists. Huari a giant, lived inside the Uru-uru mountains. He fell in love with Inti Huara, the Dawn, who awakened him every morning. When he attempted to take her in his arms of fire and smoke, Inti buried him inside the hills. To revenge himself, Huari took human form and preached to the Urus against the rule of Inti and Pachacamac. He told them they would grow rich by seeking the metals concealed in the hills. He prompted them to steal the crops of the valley and made them drink chicha (a beerlike beverage made of corn in the Andean highlands, Mexico and Central America) until they became drunkards. The Urus turned to the practice of magic, using toads, vipers and lizards to bring illness and death to the followers of Inti, and they stopped worshipping, became apathetic and reclusive, and set to fighting among themselves.

After a rainfall, a rainbow gave birth to a nusta (Inca princess). She arrived accompanied by the chieftains and sages who had escaped the degeneration of the Urus. Huari would not give up, though, and sent, one after another, a snake, a toad and a lizard, all of monstrous size, to wipe out the people and their crops, but the nusta vanquished them by turning them into stone. The blood of the lizard became a lagoon, and from its mouth there streamed thousands of ants, which the nusta turned into mounds of sand.

Today the nusta is the Virgen del Socaron, in whose honor the Carnival is danced. Huari is Lucifer, the chief of the dance of the Diablos, who in the early days of the Diablada was called Huaricato (representative of Huari). The plagues sent by Huari are depicted on the cancers' masks: vipers, toads and lizards. Other elements of the myth are found in local geography. The sands are there, as is the lagoon-called Cala-Cala-and the petrified remains of the lizard, toad and viper.

Returning to the Supaya myth, we find clear parallels with the Huari myth. In the former, evil triumphs over good, in the latter vice versa. But there is no final ending, and the contest continues to this day. Although, according to the dancers and spectators, the dance of the Diablos is an act of adoration for the Virgin, it can also be a celebration of the triumph of evil over good, and not just in the religious sense.

And so we see that the Oruro Carnival is no isolated phenomenon, but a rich and most complex expression of myths and beliefs in which history and the present have blended to produce one of the most important social and religious events in Bolivia. At the end of the revels, the Carnival is laid to rest, to emerge each year and give expression to a people and their culture.