Mama Negra Highlights

La Limpieza/ The Cleansing Part 1: These Juacos or witches are praying I am spared from the wrath of nearby Volcano Cotopaxi. If, like me, you've lost all notion of "personal space," it's really quite a nice blessing. Also pretty Catholic, despite the antlers and facepaint.

La Limpieza/ The Cleansing Part 2: This man spit-sprays sugercane alcohol all over me. As the Juacos leave, it's customary to give them change as a sign of gratitude for the cleansing (and presumably to help offset the cost of spraying several thousand people with alcohol).

Here's a brief recap the Mama Negra (literally "Black Mama") festival in Latacunga, which was by far the weirdest Saturday of my life. I also recommend reading Chandra's full account of Saturday's festivities here.

La Mama Negra herself.

As mentioned previously, no one knows exactly where this huge carnival-esque phenomenon originates. My googling and informal interviews indicate that Mama Negra is a combination of things:

- A ritual to ensure Latacunga isn't flattened by Volcano Cotopaxi... again.
- A reenactment of the first time local indigenous people saw Black slaves, who the Spanish brought to work in nearby mines.
- A celebration of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1492.

It's like Carnival meets Where the Wild Things Are.

Mama Negra kicks off with an enormous parade that lasts several hours. Pretty much every man, woman and child in a 100-mile radius marches, plays in a band, dances, or performs as a character. There are lots of men in dresses. And it's interactive-- the crowd does not merely watch, but participates.

Alcohol is central. Everyone in the crowd can expect to receive at least one spontaneous "cleansing" (see my experience above). Characters also approach you and shove bottles of cane alcohol in your face, which means "drink." Turning down alcohol at Mama Negra is considered rude and contrary to the spirit of the festival.

Volcano Cotopaxi

Mama Negra is ambiguously religious. Throughout the parade, men carry these enormous altars with whole roasted pigs, bottles of alcohol, other assorted dead animals... and, a picture of the Virgin Mary.

Mama Negra might be an overtly racist, disgusting interpretation of "blackness." The central spectacle of the parade is the appearance of "Mama Negra" herself-- a white male in blackface and women's clothing, spraying milk onto the crowd from her "breast." Other central characters in the parade include The Moorish King, The White Angel, and some swamp monsters (see photo of me, some fellow Fulbrighters, and a few characters above).

Lenin Moreno, the Vice-President of Ecuador. Sitting in the crowd. Love it.

So, now you know about Mama Negra, kind of. If you found this post hard to follow, and aren't sure what to make of this festival, I'm right there with you.