Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Feb 10 (IPS) - For the second year in a row, the Chilean capital is hosting an Andean Carnival held to pay tribute to Mother Earth and celebrate the ancestral traditions of the indigenous peoples of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Argentina and Chile.

”We're holding the Andean Carnival in Santiago as a way of reviving the traditional festivities of the indigenous peoples in northern Chile, which are gradually disappearing,” Paulina Arce, the director of the Identidad Indígena (Indigenous Identity) magazine, told IPS.

Arce is also one of the people responsible for bringing these traditionally rural celebrations to the capital city.

The Carnival will take place Feb. 12 and 13 on a hill known as Cerro Blanco, in the district of Recoleta on the northside of Santiago. The area is home to a large number of Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants, who will be active participants in the activities scheduled.

The Carnival is traditionally held to give thanks to Pachamama -- the name for Mother Earth in the Quechua language -- for everything that she has provided during the previous year. To show their gratitude, those who honour Pachamama must respect nature and live in harmony with those around them.

”Hills are places of power in the Andean culture,” said Arce, explaining the selection of Cerro Blanco as the venue for the festivities.

A total of 300 participants are expected, of all ages and from all social sectors, including Andean indigenous peoples and their descendants and other members of the general public.

The Andean culture has no precise geographical limits, but it developed primarily in the altiplano (high plateau) and Andean foothill regions of present-day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia (where the famous Ororu Carnival is held), and northern Argentina and Chile.

Descendants of the Atacameño, Quechua, Kolla and Aymará indigenous peoples still live in Chile, and some continue to practice traditional farming methods that are closely linked to the cycles of nature and the movements of the stars.

According to the Chilean census, however, the majority of the Aymará who remain in far northern Chile, their original home, are now urban dwellers. Of a total of 48,000 people, two-thirds have emigrated to the cities, while only one-third remain in rural areas, where they work the land on communal or small private farms.

Dating back to pre-colonial times, the Andean Carnival is known in the Aymará language as ”Anata”, a word that means ”play” or ”fun”, and was traditionally held to mark the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the harvest.

The Andean calendar is divided into two main periods. One is ”Jallupacha”, or the rainy season, which begins in November with the Festival of the Dead and ends with the ”thanksgiving” Carnival; the other is ”Awtipacha”, which extends through the rest of the year.

But today, the starting date of the Carnival, and thus the shift from one season to the other, is determined through the same method used for the Carnival celebrations of the Western world: by counting back 40 days from Good Friday, which falls on Mar. 25 this year.

”This celebration is not a challenge to the Catholic faith. On the contrary, most of the Andean cultures underwent a process of religious syncretism after the Spanish arrived in Latin America in the 16th century, which is why it is common to see a mixing of both indigenous and Christian religious elements,” said Arce.

Although the Andean Carnival in Santiago is not an exact replica of the ones held in the places it originated, where it lasts an entire week, the organisers have tried to incorporate the most symbolic rituals.

One of these involves bidding farewell to ”Grandfather José Domingo Carnavalón”, a life-sized rag doll symbolising fertility and happiness, who presides over the festivities on the back of a burro.

The ”grandfather” is festooned with different offerings, in the hopes that these will be multiplied throughout the following year.

In order to attend the Santiago Carnival, participants are expected to pay 1000 pesos (just under two dollars) to cover the costs of the ceremonies, and to bring streamers, confetti, seeds, fruit and money to pin on the ”grandfather”.

Music is an integral part of the festivities, with musicians playing guitars and other traditional stringed instruments, brass horns, and of course the wooden flutes (quenas) and panpipes typically associated with the region.

The last day of the ”Anata” is Temptation Sunday, when the participants play games with water and flour as a way of bidding farewell to happiness, ”which won't come back until next year.”

After dancing all day, the participants gather for the least awaited moment of the celebrations: the burial of Grandfather Carnavalón, which marks the end of the Carnival and the return to the daily grind.

José Segovia, the president of the Chilean indigenous network Coordinadora Nacional Indianista (CONACIN), another of the event's organisers, told IPS that the Carnival has been well received by the public. In his opinion, this is because people are beginning to feel the need to get back in contact with nature.

”Like us, the people who have been drawn to this revival of Andean culture can see the material and spiritual decay of Western culture,” he said.

Several years ago, Segovia added, an Andean cultural movement was founded in Santiago, with different events held throughout the year. It includes four traditional Andean brass bands and a number of dance groups.

The CONACIN leader believes that initiatives like these should be promoted by the Ministry of Education, to help curb the influence of such ”decadent” Western cultural phenomena as rock, punk and hip-hop music.

Segovia pointed to the example of two young Chileans of indigenous descent who are currently being held in Cuzco for defacing the walls of an Incan heritage site with graffiti.

”Indigenous cultures have a great deal to offer the world today, considering the deplorable state the planet is in. The only way to recover the centuries-old wisdom of these peoples is by continuing to celebrate their festivities,” said Arce.

Overpopulation, pollution, global warming and an imminent shortage of freshwater are symptoms of the critical state of relations between human beings and their environment, something that would be inconceivable in traditional indigenous life, she added. (END/2005)