Morenadas

It's Morenada season now in Huancayo. This is one of the round of dances that happen every year. This one is my favourite. As far as I can make out it remembers the time when the Spanish brought black slaves from Africa to Peru and made them slave drivers of the local population. The men (and at least one woman) dress up in black face masks, jackets and big leather boots and dance around the streets being menacing with whips.

Here is Michael practising his whipping skills



and here I am getting ready to take part. What me miss out on spending time with drunk men and their whips? No way !



Did you notice Rocio and Michael lurking at the edge?

Here I am with cousin Jose a local policeman




Here I am with my mask on and the requisite bottle of Peruvian beer.




So after a day of disorganisation and much beer drinking by all except me and Michael. I finally got something like the right costume together. That's Leather boots, jodhpurs, shirt and tie, Blazer, formal hat with feathers in, Headscarf to cover the hat and all important large whip and black mask. First order of the day was of course formal beer drinking and then marching/dancing/menacing our way into the main fiesta area. This is when I found out the disadvantages of wearing a thick leather mask with a very small mouth hole and trying to dance and menace at high altitude. It was hot, sweaty and very hard to breath but you do what you can.
In the fiesta was a band of trumpeters and drums to play for us as we danced and whipped the ground. I really love this music about all other Peruvian traditional music. It is wild and fierce and suits the slave drivers perfectly. Push the play button to hear a small extract.




I really would love to be playing the music next time. Then we had more beer and the whipping contests started. I'm not sure when I agreed to take part in this bit but a colleague in a mask grabbed me as partner and we lined up with the rest to take our turns fighting with the whips accompanied by the trumpet band. I must say it was exciting and painful and even though we were only playing (some of the other really went for it and had to be separated) I was glad when it was over.I got out of the way as quickly as I could and went over to the band to remove my mask and try to breathe, to be received with a special round of applause when they noticed that I'm a gringo!
Then, after more beer and menacing the crowd we danced back,uphill, to almost outside our house for the climbing contest, and more beer.
The men had put up a huge pole in the street with fruit and beer at the very top. This was much taller than the two story houses around and quite thin. There was much noise and beer and trumpeting and a few men tried to climb the pole for the beer. It was getting quite dark and raining by this time but one man did get to the top, threw fruit down onto the crowd and dropped a beer crate onto the head of a woman below who was not paying attention. I have asked several people since how the woman is but no-one knows, she must be alright I guess. More formal drinking and informal drinking and dancing and whipping and general chaos after this but I snuck off to sit inside away from the rain.

Here are Bob and Danny inside with whips and beer. Bob hopes to take his whip back to Europe with him, also his machete. Good luck Bob.



I believe there is a video of my whipping contest somewhere but I don't have a copy yet.