Caribbean Beat — January/February 2017 (#143)

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Oruro, Bolivia
Long before the modern Carnival, the city of Oruro in the Bolivian Andes
was a centre of religious pilgrimage for indigenous peoples. Officially banned
by Spanish colonisers in the seventeenth century, the annual Itu festival was
continued by indigenous locals under the guise of a Catholic ceremony on the
feast of Candlemas. Today’s Carnival retains these religious elements — and
also reflects the region’s dominant industry, silver mining — paying homage to
the Virgen del Socavón, the Virgin of the Mineshaft, patroness of miners. Dozens
of traditional dances include the Diablada, whose performers wear alarming
devil costumes with bulging eyes.
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