El Desfile
After taking the last load to the new house, I went with my camera and computer to watch the annual parade (desfile) through San Martin and to then go to an internet café with my computer. I followed the loudspeakers to see what the happenings were all about. Lots of people were gathered in the square listening to the governor give his big pompous speech about new construction, working on the water availability, how great the new ambulances and fire trucks are, yada yada yada. He went on for 45 minutes! Then a band played and they all marched over to the parade route. And then more waiting. The parade was supposed to start at 7:00pm, but, holding to true Argentine tradition, didn’t start until close to 8:00. While I was standing waiting, doing some people watching, I noticed that for the whole block of people surrounding me, I was the tallest one! Granted I was standing on the curb, but so was everyone else, and as far as I could see, all I could see was the tops of heads. At least it made me laugh to myself.
So I started wondering why the hell this parade was taking so long to get started and I looked down the parade route and finally saw people coming! So I waited. And waited. This was the slowest parade I have ever seen! Finally the leaders made their way to where I was…and I realized why the parade was so slow. The Rey and Reina (king and queen) of the parade were at least in their 70s, leading the parade on foot! And their whole court of people moseyed behind them. It was like the great escape of the grey hairs! I think they invited the whole retirement community to join the parade. Then followed the old men’s lawn bowling club. It was quit a sight! Following the more “mature” section were many school children and sports teams and ethnic dancers and then the town’s new ambulances and fire trucks and military with their tanks and trucks. There was even a flyover by an old single-seater airplane, Wright Brothers Style.
Toward the end of the parade were gauchos riding their horses representing the different provinces of Argentina. This was really neat to see. My favorite were the ones from Salta. They had on bright red ponchos and huge hair-on-hide full chaps – guardamontes (saddle guards that flair out to the side). They were turned out very beautifully. I’m glad that I got to witness this whole event, it was a huge display of the culture.
trumpet boys, the fat one in the middle was making faces, it was really funny
The VIP section, watching the parade
No comments:
Post a Comment