Eating Human Hearts and Drinking Grain Gin

Today we visited Tarabuco, a small village Southeast of Sucre for the town festival, Phujllay, which means play in Quechua.

Phujllay has its roots in pre-Hispanic Pukhara fertility festival, akin to our Thanksgiving. The festival begins with a Quechua mass, followed by a chicha and ceibo fuelled parade of folkloric dances, and finally the Pukhara, an altar decorated with flowers, fruits and vegetables, bread and bottles of alcohol and the election of a virgin princess.

Today Phujllay also commemorates the Tarabuceños’ triumph over twice as many Spanish troops in the Battle of Jumbate on March 12, 1816. Stories, and the statue in the town square, have it that the victorious warriors cut open the chests of the Spaniards, ripped out their steaming hearts and ate them in ritual retribution for their abuses.

The ferocity of Tarabuceño culture is apparent insofar as they been able to retain their distinct indigenous identity. Phujllay presents an amazing array of colourful costumes and traditional song and dance. Young men and women from communities across the surrounding countryside come to dance. They are the pride of their pueblos, who will scrimp and save the entire year for the brightest costumes and best instruments.

The Tarabuceño men wear elaborate white shawls embroidered with mirrors, helmets adorned metallic flowers, thick wood sandals with copper spurs that clank as they dance. They jump from one foot to the other, waving a pink silk scarf in one hand. The stomping is raucous and cacophonous, yet strangely harmonious, accompanied by percussion and panpipes.

The women wear wide brimmed hats, blood red, with green and yellow ribbons waving from the edges and coins sewn around the crown. The girls stay in the center of the circle, where they wave white wiphalas. They would often hide their faces behind the flags, as if afraid of the outsiders.

The most fantastic are monteros, leather helmets modeled after and mocking the Spanish soldiers’ costumes. They are adorned with a flowers, pompoms and feathers, like fountains of color. The monteros play huge horns and flutes, up to three meters long, stooping under their weight, then triumphantly throwing their heads skyward.

I can’t do the dancers justice describing them, but hopefully the pictures convey some of the beauty and pride.