Town Anniversary

I got my first taste of a party huallanquino style when the town anniversary rolled around in November (yes, I know this blog post is way over due, please stop judging me). It was a few days long and involved a variety of performances. Here is a sampling:

The most important by far, though, was the Danza de Los Negritos.

My brother Mauricio (in the middle) getting psyched for his big performance.

In this video you can see the primary school students (including Mauricio). You can also see me host-mom, Liz, one row in front of me proudly watching her son.

In this video are the secondary students from my school. This group of my students also included my other brother, Antony. They got to wear a different costume than the younger kids as you might have noticed.

“So, what is this 'Danza de Los Negritos' thing?” you ask. Sorry, I don't know. Right now I'm learning what its like to be the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf, but honestly I'm not being sarcastic (this time). I know its my job to know this kind of stuff, but I don't. Here's as much as I can tell you: Huallanca used to be part of Huánuco, the neighboring department (Peru's version of a state). About 20 years ago, though, they switched to become part of Ancash because there are more mines in this department and consequently more mining money that gets divided up. Mining companies in Peru are legally required to invest some of their profits in projects that benefit the community, an example being that all the chairs and desks in the night school where I work have “Antamina”, the name of the largest mine in Ancash, stamped on them since they were donated by said mine. Anyway, getting extra desks for their schools didn't mean that they were just going to ditch their culture and La Danza de Los Negritos is part of the culture of Huánuco that survived the switch to Ancash. I believe someone told me that it's history has something to do with the end of slavery in Peru (La Danza de Los Negritos would roughly be translated as “The Dance of the Blacks”). So while it might look like its horribly racist (and for all I know it could be), I'm guessing it has more to do with celebrating the end of slavery than perpetuating stereotypes. A different history of race leads to different understandings of it and different standards for what is acceptable, I assume. I'll have to withhold judgment until I know better whats going on (not that my judgment on this means diddly-squat), but I'll update you guys when I find out the whole (hi)story behind the dance.