The Tradition of Feria

Yesterday I woke up to a foggy, grey morning, ruining my plans to pump up the new Kanye/Jay-Z album and do laundry.  So I did the next best thing, and put in some time reading Omnivore's Dilemma.  If you haven't read it yet, I recommend it highly. Michael Pollan puts forth a very compelling case for a cause that I was already behind, although now I'm even more convinced-eating local and sustainable and overall being a responsible consumer.  And it's a good read, although I have to read only a little at a time-there is a lot of information to digest...

Anyways, yesterday was  good day at the feria! I was on the phone with a friend around 3 pm when I was inundated with the echoes of horns and percussion-live music coming from the plaza that I had been warned about.  I grumbled to my friend about the seeming chaos of ranchera music, "They just put as many people on stage as will fit, hand them all drums or horns, and see what happens! How can anyone listen to this by choice??" 

But after about 45 minutes of wall-shaking ranchera music, I felt compelled to go see what was going on out there.  This was what I found:

The culprit guilty of shattering my peaceful afternoon-enough amplification for a stadium of 100,000 people...Because in latino culture, everything sounds better turned up so loud it hurts.  And as predicted, a band with at least 16 people hammering away at drums and wailing on trumpets, trombones, and a tuba. 

Once I was there, however, I could see the merit in it all.  The band was good.  And, in contrast to the distorted assault on my ears that reached my patio three blocks away, the music took on a whole different form en vivo.  The band leaders were charismatic, the melody and rhythm blending together to, at least, make sense and even become dance-able...

I was joined by my counterpart, at which point I begged him to go get some good pictures of the band-I was too embarrassed.. He suggested we go up to the top floor of the market building to get a better view.
 

And, yes, those are more Convite dancers down below.  Chatting with Verney (my counterpart) I got a little more insight on the origins of the feria and convite tradition.  This is what he told me.  The feria, celebrating a town's patron saint, is a tradition introduced by the (Catholic) Spanish conquistadors.  They assigned each town a patron saint and mandated that the town put on a week long festival honoring that saint every year.  And thus began Feria. 

But the costumed dancers shuffling back and forth in the plaza for two hours?.... Apparently, this tradition has its origins in the Spanish custom of the Dance of the Conquistador and Dance of the Moors, where participants don elaborate costumes and re-enact the Conquest of the Americas and the Crusades, respectively.  Over the years, it evolved to include the inexplicable latino enthusiasm for our cartoon characters, in what can only be described as a marathon dance session to popular latino music.  Verney was the first person that was able to make the connection and attempt to explain the origins of a custom that has baffled me since I first saw it during training two years ago. 

So customs and traditions introduced by foreign conquerors evolve to incorporate the local interests and ideas, evolving into something almost unrecognizable.  Even the food offered is a hodgepodge of traditional and foreign influences.

Pizza, hot dogs, french fries, and even burritos (Mexico) and pupusas (El Salvador) alongside the dulce tipico, churrasco, fresh corn tortillas, roscas and roasted peanuts.  In front of me in the plaza I could see so many different cultures, I began to wonder-what, then, is Guatemalan culture?  Not unlike the US, Guatemala has been exposed to and influenced by so many different cultures that identifying authentic traditions and culture in a place like Sija proves difficult.

 I shared my thoughts with Verney, who agreed that his culture has become obscure and lost in the face of conquest, injections of US culture, and the rampant racism between ladinos and indigenous, or Mayan, people.  In some parts of Guatemala, the Mayan culture and tradition continue in a less-altered manner, although still representing a hybrid of Spanish and Guatemalan culture. 

Interesting questions, contemplated as I watch the shuffling costumed dancers take their places again, then start a lively choreographed number to the wailing trumpets and pounding bass.  As we change and are changed by the experiences and cultures that we encounter, our traditions evolve to reflect it.  Maintaining any cultural identity in this rapidly globalizing world is a challenge, so I am impressed by the vibrant culture still alive here.