Fiestas Patrias - Week 2

The Fiestas Patrias celebrations came and went a week ago, although the celebrations don’t officially end until the last day of September. I went to three different parades, ate what felt like a thousand empanadas, drank my fair share of chicha (a homemade fermented drink) and ponche (white wine mixed with peaches), and danced the cueca again and again and again. It was wonderful.

The highlight of this second week of festivities was definitely my trip out to the inaugurations of the Ramadas with my host mom’s folklore group. The outskirts of Los Angeles are smattered with small, rural communities known as the campo, or country. During Fiestas Patrias every campo community puts together its own ramada complete with music, food, lots of space for dancing, and palm fronds (ramadas) lining the walls and ceiling. Each year the alcalde, or mayor, goes to five or six different ramadas in the campo communities to cut a ribbon, dance the cueca, drink chicha out of a cacho (a bull horn I think…) and officially inaugurate the Fiestas Patrias celebrations. My host mom’s folklore group, which sings and dances traditional Chilean music, accompanies the mayor on this annual tour to perform and play a cueca while the mayor dances.

Her group has pretty much adopted me as one of their own, and I in turn have become their unofficial photographer, so I got to join them on this adventure around the campos. It was great fun for me to go out to all of these smaller communities and see their different ramada set ups and eat all of the delicious food that they had prepared in honor of the mayor (and which they happily offered to the visiting gringa). The experience again showed Chilean pride and patriotism at its best and kicked off four straight days of celebration, with a bit of rest tossed in. I’m now back in school with only eight more weeks left, if you can believe it! These last two months are gonna fly by, packed with classes, travel, our different community activities, and despedidas, or good-bye parties. Not ready to think about that last one quite yet, though!

Fiestas Patrias - Week 1

September 18th is Chile's Independence Day, and this year they celebrate 199 years of independence from Spain. All of the schools in Los Angeles get this week off for Fiestas Patrias (the celebrations surrounding September 18th), so my school spent all of last week celebrating this huge holiday with the students. It was by far one of the best weeks I've had in Chile due to the full cultural immersion and all out fun I had with my colleagues, students, and greater school community. I filled my belly with delicious Chilean food, wore traditional Chilean dresses, and danced the Chilean national dance (the Cueca) for my hundreds of students and their parents. Each day, starting Tuesday, was devoted to one specific aspect of the celebration, so here's a little recap for ya.

Tuesday - Inauguration of the school Ramada

A Ramada is an official Fiestas Patrias party, decorated with palms and flags and red, white, and blue. All of the students gathered inside our festively decorated gym to watch the school Director dance the Cueca with one of the deans, and after that, pair after pair jumped into the circle to dance the cueca.

I came to school dressed in a traditional, huasa elegante suit, originally worn by the wealthy land-owner type women. I had hoped to just stand on the sidelines and take pictures, but the librarian asked me to dance the cueca and I just couldn't refuse. So dance I did, and thanks to one cueca class taught by one of my colleagues followed by a night of practice with my host mom, I did all right! It was pretty fun to be there dancing a dance that everyone in Chile recognizes as their own, and my students' reactions after were absolutely priceless.

Wednesday - Typical Games

The students and some of their parents gathered outside for all kinds of games typically played during Fiestas Patrias. These included three-legged races, relays, kite-making, and tug-of-war. The teachers all told me that we unfortunately couldn't get a pig to do their favorite game, which also involves some soap. Good thing, I think...

Please note where the kindergardener is in relation to the 5th - 8th graders at the start of the potato sack race. We all agreed he needed a little head start. He won!

Thursday - Typical Food

This day was amazing. The perimeter of the gym was lined with tables, one for each class, and the tables were covered with chilean foods and decorations. The students all got to go around and look at the foods, and after that each class got to go to its respective table and eat up. The gringa teacher, of course, was given food from every table! Deeeelicious!

After the kids all ate their food, cueca dancing of course ensued. I was invited to go dance up on stage ("We have a big surprise for you, kids! Miss Kelly's going to come up and dance the cueca!" This was quite the surprise for me, too, I might add...). After my stellar performance, I was walking around, chatting with the kids and their parents, when these two little third graders in the picture above ran up to me. "Tía, he wants to dance with you!" "No, he wants to dance with you!" "No, he does!" We eventually agreed on dancing the cueca as a trio, and we began dancing inconspicuously among the crowd. Slowly, though, a circle formed around us, and I danced two cuecas with these young gentlemen as everyone cheered us on. Once the second song ended they said, "Tía, we're thirsty!!" and ran off giggling. It was probably one of most precious moments I've had during my time here.

Friday - Final Presentation

Friday morning started off with all the kids in the gym and another "surprise! Let's invite Miss Kelly up on stage to dance the cueca for you all again!" Thanks for the warning, colleagues! This time I was in what's known as a china dress, typically worn by the women who worked for the landowner types. By now I'd gotten the hang of this darn dance and had a great time dancing with these two 8th graders above.

A group of students then performed the traditional dances from all parts of Chile, ranging from the north to Easter Island to the far south. Their outfits were fantastic and their performances were equally as great.

To top it all off, each class ended the week with more chilean food in their classrooms! The head parents of each class did a great job with the decorations, food, and festivities.

This week was filled with a love and pride for all things Chile, and it was wonderful to experience and be a welcomed part of it all. Throughout the week the students constantly asked me what we do to celebrate the 4th of July in the states, and my answers just could not compare to this week of festivities. Granted, when I was first told that we'd be replacing class time with all of these special events, I thought it was a bit ridiculous. But my school community showed me what it means to be chilean and to feel a real sense of patriotism and pride of one's culture. The best part of it all, though, is that there's still a week of celebrating left! Viva Chile!

Spanglish Speakers

Last Saturday Ryan, Katie, and I kicked off our first official Spanglish Speakers meeting. Spanglish Speakers is a mentorship program we started that links some of the fifth graders from Katie’s and my schools with some sophomores and juniors from Ryan’s high school. Ryan’s school, Liceo de Hombres, is the best public high school in Los Angeles, so his students will serve as great role models for Katie’s and my fifth graders, some of whom come from rough backgrounds and all of whom could use a bit more positive attention in their lives.

Our first meeting was a huge success. To start the morning we gave every student a puzzle piece and had them find their groups – or teams – by finding the other pieces of their puzzle. In total we had four teams, each with two high schoolers and two fifth graders. The teams then chose some pretty fantastic names (Team Awesome, The Brave Race, The Crazy Team, and The Princesses for our group of all girls), introduced themselves in English, and made some amazing team posters. After recess and snacktime (two things we didn’t initially plan for but realized quite quickly would be desperately needed), we regrouped and painted our own Spanglish Speakers t-shirts. It was a great Saturday morning filled with both Spanish and English (hence the “Spanglish”) and lots of getting to know each other.

Spanglish Speakers will not only be a beneficial experience for the fifth graders, who get to spend some time with intelligent and positive role models, but also for the high schoolers, who get to serve as leaders and teachers. Community service is still not a very common concept in Chile, so the fact that these high schoolers are dedicating two Saturday mornings a month to come and speak English with some fifth graders is pretty darn impressive. Katie, Ryan, and I worked really hard in the weeks leading up to last Saturday, and we all agreed that it couldn’t have gone any better! We have some pretty exciting ideas for future meetings up our sleeves, too, so stay tuned!