Huacunacuy, Killing Games

While I was up at our project site we got to talking about traditions because this is the beginning of Carnaval in this part of the world. Really it is all of the fun stuff that precedes Carnaval. Carnaval is a bacchanalian sort of a deal here and all of the babies born nine months later in November are automatically legitimate and at that time of year, they sell little breads with plastic baby faces glued on them. It is a time when the dances and all of the activities have a sexual connotation. Kids chase each other around and flirt like crazy and play (jugar) which means throw water, colored talcum powder, spray colored foam and or string at each other… All in good fun and not just the kids. A lot of adults do it too. When we lived here, we got invited to a barbecue at the lake. They dunked the girls three times each and really wrecked our clothing. Luckily, we knew what to expect.

Well, that is not all; there is a certain tendency to violence in all of it. Over in the town of Mara, near our project they have a tradition. One of our summer students from there told us about it. It is called the Huacunacuy which is loosely translated, cry baby. The men from the village meet up in a valley and there they hurl rocks at each other with slings. They do this on the two Thursdays before the beginning of Carnaval. The young women help by passing rocks to the fighters in this mock battle.

Well, he told us that last year, one of the boys from his town, Mara, got mixed up and lost in the fog. When it cleared, he was surrounded by boys from the other village and they attacked him. They beat him severely enough that he died. They beat him to death!

All of this stuff is about fertility and the like. It is really ghastly that this sort of stuff happens today. That is my Peru though.