Tocagón Boda

domingo, 21 de marzo del 2010

Blanca, Victor, and Luis of FEDICE picked us up at 9:30 a.m. for the wedding of Sebastión’s hijo (son), which was to begin at 10:00 a.m. Sebastión is a community leader in Tocagón, a nearby indigenous community, and works closely with FEDICE. We were a little late, but they had reserved seats for us just behind and to the right of the bridal couple, two attendants, and four parents. The wedding is called a matrimonia or boda. Indeed, there was a sign that said, “Bienvenidos a nuestro matrimonia,” or “Welcome to our wedding.”

The ceremony was in Quichua, so we didn’t understand a word, but could deduce what was happening most of the time. There was a straw mat (representing la cama, or the bed) in front of the altar, which the couple knelt upon during part of the ceremony. As far as I could tell, there were two ministers. The first said several things about la cama - I know that much. Wish I knew what he said. Throughout his portion of the ceremony, he said things that caused people to laugh or snicker. I found it interesting that the entire wedding party never cracked a smile, though. To them, this appeared to be serious business, and so it was.

All young women present came and stood at the front of the church. Then the bridal couple stood and the young women bestowed their blessings on the bride. The young men were then summoned to the front of the church and bestowed their blessings upon the groom.

The young women blessing the bride (or novia).

At one point, the groom stood on the left, between his parents, with all three facing to the right side of the church, toward the bride and her parents, who were in turn facing the groom and his parents. The bride and groom each embraced their own mother and father and shed tears. I’m sure it was a symbol of leaving one life behind and embarking on another. It was very touching. Families seem closer knit down here than in the U.S. That may be because they don’t generally scatter as far and wide.

Next, there was some music, before the second minister took over. He performed the actual nuptials. He didn’t tell any funny anecdotes, like the first minister did. The happy couple (I assume they were happy) and their two attendants gathered around the altar as the wedding was performed. This was when they knelt on the straw mat (la cama) for part of the time. Also, two young girls showered the bridal couple with rose petals at various points.

Bridal couple kneeling before the altar.

When the “knot was tied”, there was more music and singing. This time it was performed by a women’s group, and was traditional Quichua in nature.

After the music, the couple processed out of the church, being showered with rose petals the entire way, and were followed by the rest of us. They didn’t stop at the church entrance and get into a limousine. They kept walking, all the way to the home of the novio (groom), where the first part of the reception took place. And they were showered with rose petals the whole way, a distance of at least half a mile. We followed by car a few minutes later and I couldn’t believe how festive the road looked with so many rose petals strewn along its cobblestone and dirt surface.

The church's aisle covered in rose petals.

Entrance to wedding feast. Toilet paper can be decorative, too.

There was a large tent set up next to la casa del novio (actually, his parents’ home), where guests sat, both inside and out. The novio y novia, con sus padres (with their parents), sat at the head of the tent, behind a table that held an enormous cake and many hors d’oeuvres (extremeses) of fruits and vegetables, plus cups of punch.

Reception tent with people starting to gather.

A view from near the reception. Strawberries and corn in the foreground.

Guests would bring regalos (gifts) to el novio y la novia from time to time. Some regalos were wrapped, and others were not. Among those that were not wrapped were many cases of 2-liter bottles of soft drinks, and trays and trays of eggs. Oh, and we saw a few live chickens carried in by their feet, as well as cooked chickens and guinea pigs. We had never seen those types of wedding gifts in the states and probably never will.

Victor, Glenn, Marilyn, y Blanca.

We conjectured that part of the foodstuffs that were given, were certainly being used for the wedding feast. And a feast it was. I had always heard the term, “wedding feast”, but failed to appreciate its true meaning. First, soup was brought to everyone. The cocina (kitchen) was about 100 yards away from el novio y la novia, so they served the food by forming human chains and passing it from one pair of hands to the next. It was very efficient. After the sopa (soup), came pan (bread). After the pan, came giant dishes of hominy, and a mystery meat that was quite tasty. I figured that was the main course. But I was wrong. Next, there were plates of rice with half a chicken. And I do mean half a chicken on each plate. Finally, came the delicacy – plates of papas (potatoes), each with half a roasted guinea pig. There was also a soupy mixture based on maize (corn). (I think it’s called yamor, because there’s a festival here by that name. Our hotel has festival posters, which depict the corn-based beverage or soup.) The first helpings of the soup were served in individual bowls. If one wanted more, they simply dipped their bowl into any one of a number of buckets of the stuff.

Bucket refills of yamor.

They also served soft drinks and some sort of liquor, I think. The way they served the drinks was interesting, too. Someone would come by with a 2-liter bottle (of a soft drink), or a pail (of what I assumed was liquor), and one cup. They would offer a drink. If one didn’t decline, the cup would be filled and its contents had to be drunk before anyone else could partake. I thought this was about as inefficient as the food service was efficient. Of course, it cut down on the plastic cups. People back home would probably gasp at the unsanitary nature of the procedure. We ate most of the food and drank some Coke. Five days later we were not sick.

A treat - guinea pig and potatoes.

There was music throughout the reception. A group of traditional musicians would play for a while, then they played CDs. They alternated that way throughout the day. We, of course, liked the live musicians better than the CDs.

We had to leave about 3:00 p.m. (after five hours), because Blanca, Luis, and Victor had to drive the two hours back to Quito. But the boda wasn’t over by a far cry. The wedding reception was at la casa del novio now, but would shortly be moved to la casa de la novia. There would be more food and more entertainment. I hoped the bridal couple would have a chance to at least walk around. To this point, they had been sitting for three hours.

It was raining when we left, and pretty chilly. But it was sunny and warm when got to Otavalo. The distance is no more than 10 miles. But the change in elevation is probably 500 to 1,000 ft.

The first part of the video clip we’ve included was taken by accident. We got a new camera just before leaving the states and didn’t have time to experiment with all of its functions. While taking pictures of the band, Marilyn accidentally changed the setting to video. After we figured out why we couldn’t take pictures anymore, we took an intentional video of the inside of the tent. Notice the elaborate pasteles de boda (wedding cake). To my disappointment, it hadn’t been cut after three hours.

--Glenn Hebert