Ciudad Heroica...TACNA!

Hello and happy spring from Tacna! Time continues to fly down here, and the past couple months have been full of activities so I wanted to take a few minutes to fill you all in on a few of them. Just about a month ago (Aug 28th) we celebrated Fiestas de Tacna, the 81st anniversary of the day Tacna was reincorporated into Peru after 50ish years of "captivity" under Chilean rule. Tacna is known for being one of the most patriotic cities in Peru because of this temporary period as part of Chile and its fight to be reincorporated. Its nickname, la ciudad heroica (the heroic city) comes from this too. I have to say Tacna Day was much more exciting than the national holiday, Fiestas Patrias, that we celebrated at the end of July. The entire month of August was spent preparing parades and reenactments, listening to the Tacna polka (where the title of this post comes from), learning and singing the Hymn of Tacna every Monday morning after the national anthem, and bearing maroon and gold ribbons or bougainvilla pins (the colors/flower of Tacna). It was a lot of fun seeing the whole city get so involved in celebrating this day, especially at the end of the month for the culmination of all the activities. The last week of August I went to a huge Peruvian food festival, two concerts (Olga Tañon, a Puerto Rican singer, and reggaeton super star Daddy Yankee!), helped direct our choir in a presentation of Tacna songs at the municipal theater, and watched all the activities at school on August 27th. All the preschool and primary kids dressed up as traditional Tacneñan señoras and caballeros to process down the street, the streets were decorated with traditional alfombras (literally carpets, but they're actually designs made out of colored sawdust, kind of like sand art), and the secondary kids marched around the streets of Habitat military style for their annual marching contest. It was a little weird to see them all marching around like that, but impressive to see our playful and mischievous students so disciplined and serious...at least for a few minutes.
On the 28th we headed uptown to see all the alfombras and watch the official procession of the flag. The story goes that during the years of Tacna's captivity, the people weren't allowed to sing their national anthem, wave a Peruvian flag, or show any kind of loyalty to Peru. But they begged the Chileans enough that they allowed the women of Tacna to make a Peruvian flag and process with it one day a year, in complete silence. So the women of Tacna got together and made the hugest Peruvian flag anyone had ever seen, just to stick it to the Chileans, and they processed around Tacna in silence every year until the Chileans left. Now, 81 years later, they still process with the very same giant flag, and all kinds of people are invited to join the procession. The streets were absolutely packed with people following the flag, throwing bougainvilla petals and yelling "Viva Tacna! Viva Perú!" It was pretty cool to see, and the culmination of a really fun weekend. The celebration ended with a lunch at Seamus's host family's house of Tacna's typical dish, picante a la tacneña (a stew-like concoction with potatoes, hot peppers, and huata-cow stomach! yum! i usually try to swallow those bits whole so i don't have to chew or taste them) and maraqueta bread. All in all a fun and full month of August.
Oh and sidenote about the Daddy Yankee concert that I mentioned earlier...that was a huge deal that he came here, because big name performers NEVER come to Tacna. But the people here went crazy for him, and the venue (a huge outdoor amphitheater) was absolutely packed. Some people paid up to 300 soles ($100, which is a lot here) to sit up front in the vip section. I was actually dead set against going until the last minute because I don't particularly like reggaeton music, I didn't want to pay for it, and I knew he wasn't going to start his show until after midnight, but in the end all of our friends went and I had nothing else to do so we made it a community event and ended up having so much fun. I still don't like reggaeton, but I knew more of his songs than I thought just from hearing them all the time when we go out, so it was a lot of fun just dancing around and making fun of his not so profound lyrics with all of our friends.
Alright friends that's all for now. Here are a few pics of the Tacna Day festivities, and you can check my facebook account in the next few days for a massive photo update because I just uploaded picture highlights from the whole time I've been here. Enjoy, and I hope to hear from you all soon!
Un abrazo muy fuerte,
Mo

Gabriel and Brigitte, two of my 4 year old preschool students, all dressed up for Tacna Day. If that doesn't tug at your heartstrings, I don't know what does.

Cara, Gabe, Cokey (Cara's host uncle), Seamus and our good friend Giuly watching the procession of the flag.

The giant Peruvian flag processing down the street (above).

All of us with our friends Martin, Edith and Giuly checking out the alfombras in town.

The whole crew at the Daddy Yankee concert.