Fiesta Time

June is the month for fiestas in my neck of Loja, so this post is about my experiences partying it up in my site!

Reina del Canton

My cantón, or county, elected a new queen a few weeks ago in an elaborate ceremony attended by everyone I know in the town and judged by a panel including the vice-prefect of the Province of Loja. My ticket claimed the festivities began at 8 pm, so I foolishly arrived at a few minutes to eight. The stage was set-up and a few people were milling around, but the pageant was definitely not about to begin. I spent the next hour chatting with people I knew as they arrived and took a seat by my host aunts around 9, though the show didn’t begin until 9:30.

The pageant started, as everything with even a hint of officialness does here in Ecuador, with a longwinded speech in which each and every dignitary in attendance (and there were many) was welcomed individually and the virtues of the cantón were pondered at length. Eventually, though, the long-winded MCs couldn’t come up with anything more to say and the contestants made their first appearances. The pageant had three rounds: dancing in headdresses, swimsuit, and evening gown/message. To the right is a group photo of 5 of the 6 contestants decked out in their headdresses. In this phase, the contestants came out one-by-one to intense cheers from their barrios (neighborhoods), walked about doing pageant-y poses, then came out on the catwalk to do a little dance.

Between the first and second rounds of the pageant, a woman sang a variety of traditional Ecuadorian ballads. She was a decent singer and my host aunts informed me that her song selections were good.

The swimsuit competition followed a very old-school format, giving out each girls’ measurements as she posed. I say girls quite seriously, as five of the six contestants were 16 or 17 years old. The pageant rules state, in fact, that contestants must be between the ages of 16 and 25, but the most elderly contestant was an 18-year-old college freshman.

My favorite part of the evening followed the swimsuit competition. An aging, but engaging Uruguayan band called the Iracundos performed a well-rounded set of songs that the audience knew well and to which they could sing -along. The band’s performance was very polished, and while they did feel the need to give a speech, it was beautifully brief.

The atmosphere was upbeat heading into the final round and the contestants did a nice job with their mensajes (messages). One poor contestant forgot hers halfway through, but the audience was indulgent and an MC kindly commented that the stress of being a contestant can be quite a burden. Listening to the mensajes was the first time I heard Ecuadorian Spanish spoken as elegantly as possible, and it was impressive. Though the mensajes were uniformly about why the cantón is charming and why the contestant was so orgullosa (proud) to represent her barrio, the ‘Rs’ rolled out with incredible skill and the timing was fabulous.

As the clock struck 1 am, the judges turned in their cards and the contestants learned their fate. The runners-up were named the Señoritas (Misses) of this and that, while Reina (Queen) was reserved for the winner. The 1st runner up’s barrio felt she had been cheated and ripped off her Srta. Cantón sash when she went to join them in a bit of amusing indignation. This started chatter among my host family about past problems with rigged pageants and judges in assorted pockets. And considering what a big deal the pageant was in the town, I can imagine that happening.

Though the party apparently went well into the wee hours of the morning, I was tuckered –out, much like my host cousin, Santi, at right, and headed home shortly after the Reina was crowned.

Fiesta at the Escuela

A few days later I attended a different variety of fiesta out at the rural school where I teach English. Classes ended very early and families started pouring in at 11 am weighted down with chickens, veggies and herbs to start preparing the feast in honor of the end of an improvement campaign loosely associated with the Centro.

As soon as I arrived, my students eagerly led me to a spare room where the food-of-honor, a whole pig, was awaiting preparation. I tried to feign excitement, but was actually a bit overwhelmed by the tale, head, and faint smell. The only events I’ve attended in the past that featured a whole pig were pig roasts and I understood that this method of preparation required a great amount of time. I was, therefore, surprised to see the pig completely uncooked, but it turned out that this pig was destined for a giant fritada, or pan-frying (see right), a much quicker method of cooking.

The students had prepped a couple of dance routines to perform at the fiesta and I got a number of adorable photos of them at their final dress-rehearsal. They did a traditional dance to a pasillo, a ballad-like Ecuadorian type of music, and some hip-hop to a reggatone song. Watching the computer teacher instruct the little 8-11 year old boys on how to best dance hip-hop was hilarious. She had them looking like quite the group of bad-boys.

Misstaken that this was an afternoon-only fiesta, I’d made plans to go jogging with my host aunts in the early evening, so I had to go just as the habas of cervesas (cases of beers) arrived, but I’m told that like the beauty pageant, this fiesta also danced its way to the wee hours.

Cantonales

In honor of the 80th or so anniversary of the founding of my canton, a series of small fiestas has been going on for the past few days. The highlights were definitely a caballeros (cowboys) show in which one of my host uncles took part and a multi-day arts-and-crafts fair that features beautiful wooden goods and woven items typical of the indigenous tribes of the Sierra, or highlands areas. The fair also features food J I’m in love with the Ecuadorian equivalent of the elephant ear. Rather than large and flat, this sweet, yucca-based dough is formed into little balls, deep fried, then coated with sugar. It’s called huevitos chilenos, or Chilean eggs.