las fiestas patronales- week long civic parties that are a mixture of the sacred and profane, celebrating a town's patron saint
el chinamo- temporary party shack, made of wood, palm and featuring loud music(s), and drinking
la montada de toros- bullriding, like a rodeo except less organized and more dangerous
las bombas- fireworks
The Fiestas to celebrate patron Saint Michael the Archangel began early in San Miguelito, on the Saturday before the actual festival with a dance on the cancha, the indoor basketball court. It was sort of like a weird, middle school dance with drinking.
On Sunday, there was a hipica, a parade of horses, that went throughout the town. There was a great mix of your regular work-a-day horses and giant, beautiful Spanish stallions. Anthropologists have commented that we often relegate past elements of daily life to our festivals. For the wealthy, professional Managuans who come to hipicas to dress up like cowboys and girls or in most parts of the states when we have horses in parades, there's an element of nostalgia at play. Yet for most people, in a place like San Miguel, horses are an incredibly important part of daily life and hipicos are a celebration of that.
On Monday, music and bombas began going off at early and late hours.
On Tuesday, school ended for the week after first period, because the students needed to clean their classrooms before break and they needed to have a teacher's meeting on Wednesday so that the Fiestas could be appropriately enjoyed on Thursday and Friday. In the afternoon, my host mom said something about how people were climbing trees to get prizes.
At night, my host family held a surprise party for my host mom in one of the chinamos on top of the hill. This started off somewhat poorly since Nicaraguans are not very timely when it comes to party arrivals and the surprise element was rather lackluster since only about a third of the invited guests had showed up when my host mom did. The night soon improved, however, and her friends got very rowdy, dancing with gusto in the chinamo until we made our way home at 12 am while they chanted "Viva las mujeres! Viva" (Long Live the Women!)
On Wednesday and Thursday, there were two parades featuring a small marching band and Catholics carrying statues of saints. One parade was for the patron saint, St. Michael Arcangel, and one was to celebrate a newly finished, and very cute park dedicated to Saint Joseph.
On Thursday, there was a running of the bulls in the street. I didn't actually partake in or view this, because I could hear that it was moving around rather quickly and it was far to hot to go chase it. Also, it's not entirely clear to me how having cows run wild in the streets is much different than a regular Thursday, since I would estimate that 95% percent of traffic jams in the Rio San Juan are caused by the movement of large domesticated animals. In the afternoon, I went to go watch a montada de toros featuring tweens riding calves with being chased by teen-aged boys who taunted the cows, and eventually it progressed to bigger bulls and riders. I cringed a lot and felt worried that people were going to get injured. There were 3 more days of bull riding after this. At night, my sitemate and I went to a chinamo. It was a weird time. We came home early.
On Friday, I decided to help my counterpart in Las Palomas with English. It was a good time because it was wholesome and not related to the Fiestas Patronales.
On Saturday, I missed a concert by Gustavo Leyton, "El Rey del Chinamo" to go kayaking down the Rio San Juan. I do not regret this decision.
To recreate a Nicaraguan 2013 Fiestas Patronales event in your home, play these songs on repeat as loudly as possible and drunk cheap beer or rum. If possible, turn on a strobe light and create other auditory distractions. If you feel overwhelmed, you're doing it right.
Gloria Estefan feat. Pitbull- Wepa
Los Charros de Lumaco- Ando de Borrachera
Los Caminantes- Maria Elena
Los Borgias- La gente esta borracha
Los Karkis-Machuca el Chile
And inevitably, some Palo de Mayo from the Atlantic Coast makes an appearance.
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