La Fiesta de Choquekilka

A week and a half before we leave Ollantaytambo, the town threw its biggest party of the year. The party is in honor of the patron saint of Ollanta, named Señor Choquekilka. He´s the protector of the town, the wise being who helps assure that the crops are abundant and the people are happy. Each town has its own saint, and the saints are celebrated on different days in different ways. Ollanta looks forward to its celebration each year. We had heard a lot about the fiesta a long time before it arrived. It´s a four-day celebration, with lots of music and dancing by dance troupes. They set up stages and bleachers in the plaza, and the normally tranquil town square is turned into a noisy, music-filled square, full of parades of dancers and processions with people carrying Señor Choquekilka in and out of the church.

The entire celebration is a mixture of Christian and Indigenous beliefs. El Señor is an indigenous, pre-Spaniard deity, but he is also none other than Jesus. This mixture of cultures and beliefs is evident everywhere through the Andes. Everyone agrees that the Spaniards were horrible, and the pre-Spanish culture is treasured, but at the same time, Catholicism is the main religion. Everything is a balance.

Most of the dance troops wore masks and costumes. The masks made it all about the group, not about the individuals. The bands would play and the dancers would dance. The dances lasted fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, a half hour.

On Sunday, our friend Ruth was in a dance troupe that was performing in Urubamba, a town about a half-hour ride up the valley. We went to see her.

The final night of the fiesta was especially exciting. All the dance troupes, all the musicians, and I think everybody in Ollantaytambo left town in the late afternoon, and went across the river to a still smaller town to set up food and drink places by the riverside, to play music, to dance, and to celebrate the celebration.  We went there with Karina, a friend from the hotel. It was as if everybody was finally relieved of all the tension of the fiesta, and now it was all about being happy. The place was filled with joy and happiness. Everybody was eating and drinking, but I didn´t see anybody buying or selling anything. There was an abundance to share. We drank some beer and some chicha, and shared some food that Karina´s mom had cooked. Everybody was giving, laughing, and smiling. To get to the party place, we had to cross a little footbridge over the river. It´s prohibited for cars to drive over the bridge, because it´s so rickety. Today, though, there was a steady procession of cars. We walked.

There was a competition to see who could grab the corn. They tied a corncob up to some ropes, then they pulled strings to make it jump up and down. Guys (and some girls) on horses would gallop at full speed and try to grab it as they sped by. Whoever was able to grab it got a chicken. If nobody could get it, the guys with masks would push each other and leap up for it.

A good time was had by all at the biggest party of the year.