Fiestas de Quito

It seems that every city in Ecuador has their own independence holiday. Quito’s Foundation Day is celebrated on December 6. Each year the Spanish department at our school puts on a huge celebration to showcase the culture, music, and language of the country. I was able to attend the early childhood division’s celebration and it was beyond cute.

On the elementary soccer and recess fields, they arranged the rows of chairs on 3 sides to create a plaza. The early childhood division spans from preschool to Grade 2. Each class was assigned a role to play in what was to be a simulated bull fight. The preschool girls were dressed up as Reinas de Quito (imagine tiny beauty queens with itty bitty sashes and tiaras) and the boys were caballeros, or cowboys, replete with construction paper horses on sticks. The Kindergarten classes were a mixture of street vendors – some sold empanadas, others candy, and others popcorn. Then there were the street sweepers with shortened brooms and dustpans. One by one, all of these classes made their entrance into the plaza to the cheers of the adoring audience.

Next, the Grade 1 and Grade 2 classes, respectively performed a multi-faceted dance that included flamenco dancers, musicians, policeman, and ambulance drivers. All the students in the grade level performed at the same time, filling up the plaza and dancing and singing with their cardboard props.

Finally, it was time for the bullfight. Thankfully, they’ve scaled back the violence for this particular performance. The “bull” (played by a gracious kindergarten dad) galloped back and forth across the plaza wearing a huge plush bull head, complete with nose ring. Now, instead of the stabbing and taunting that goes along with real bullfights, our bull was subjected to vigorous “tickling” with long paper feathers. Two at a time, little pre-K students ran up to the bull (who was on all fours at this point) and tickled his head and back with giant paper feathers. The bull would roll his head around and shake out a back leg, much like a dog enjoying a good backrub. Once the feather ticklers were done, a fresh batch of little kids came out with soft foam rollers and gave the bull a back rub. But all the tickling and back rubbing had an effect on the bull. Because suddenly he was pooping in every corner of the plaza. The poop (all part of the plan, mind you) was really just crumpled up paper balls that the bull tossed from a bag on his hip, all for the sake of giving the aforementioned street sweepers something to do! That’s right, after bull had finished his business, out dashed a dozen little children with brooms and dustpans to clean up the mess.

And then for the finale, all the little street vendors made one more pass around the audience to sell their snacks. The audience, having been primed earlier, were ready with wads of fake dollar bills to buy the popcorn and empanadas. Lastly was one more song and festive dance and then the celebration came to an end.

I was truly impressed by the obvious level of thought, planning and creativity that went into coordinating every aspect of this performance. And seeing the glee on the faces of the bull feather ticklers and back rubbers was definitely an endearing treat. Viva Quito!