Latin American Music Review

Wibbelsman, Michelle.
Encuentros: Dances of the Inti Raymi in Cotacachi, Ecuador
Latin American Music Review - Volume 26, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2005, pp. 195-226

University of Texas Press

Michelle Wibbelsman - Encuentros: Dances of the Inti Raymi in Cotacachi, Ecuador - Latin American Music Review 26:2 Latin American Music Review 26.2 (2005) 195-226 Encuentros: Dances of the Inti Raymi in Cotacachi, Ecuador Michelle Wibbelsman A human wall, fifteen men across in dozens of rows deep, advances in a slow trot toward the main square of Cotacachi, La Plaza de la Matriz. They are the San Juan dancers of the upper- and lower-moiety coalitions of local indigenous communities who have come to compete with one another in the toma de la plaza (the taking of the square) during the summer Inti Raymi festivities. The thundering of the synchronized dance step as boots pound against the pavement and the collective whistling announce the strength and aggression of the sanjuanes, as the dancers are known in honor of Saint John the Baptist, whose feast day is celebrated on this occasion, 24 June. They seek to test their vigor and their endurance in a ritual battle for the ultimate prize of symbolically winning the square. The dancers wear goatskin chaps (zamarros); tall, broad-rimmed, black, stiff cardboard hats; boots or shoes (instead of alpargatas ); and sunglasses. Many of them are completely outfitted in camouflage. As they trot to the music of the twin flutes, they wave leather whips (aciales) and chant in unison, "jari, jari, jarikuna . . . churay, churay, carajo" (men, men, [we are] men, put it there, put it there, carajo ). These precise, albeit...