Festival of San Ignacio de Moxos
By Dave Skinner, [email protected], Le Jardin Ombragé, Tallahassee, www.gingersrus.com
Every July in the remote village of San Ignacio de Moxos in Bolivia is held one of the largest and most ancient festivals in the Amazonian lowlands of Bolivia. The region is the traditional territory of the Mojeño Indians, and the people of San Ignacio still speak a local indigenous dialect called ignaciano, and maintain a culture that is unique to this area of Bolivia. The festival is known locally as La Ichapekene Piesta Ignaciana.
The festival is officially kicked off on July 22nd by daily parading the statue of San Ignacio the patron saint. The real festivities begin at 4:00 AM on July 30 with a procession of macheteros marching through the village, visiting homes, and returning to the Jesuit Mission with their collections of small statues and icons representing the patron saint. The macheteros are local youths dressed in white costumes with macaw feather headdresses. The din of the Mission bells, fireworks, and loud music announce the procession. The festival is a curious mix of pagan indigenous costumes, music, and chanting underlying the religious significance of the town’s patron saint. Some of the village elders wear wooden masks—masks adorned with fireworks shooting up from their heads—as they run through the startled crowds. They are called achus and are supposed to represent the Spaniards that came to the region after the Jesuit mission was established in 1689.
Throughout the day groups of performers parade wearing ornate costumes representing the pre-Columbian religious beliefs of the inhabitants of the region. There are jaguars, the animal most universally revered by the indigenous people of South America. Also, fish people parade representing the legend of the formation of nearby Laguna Isiere in which a young boy named Isodoro became a human sacrifice to the water spirit Jichi. Others include representations of deer, rams, and bulls, as well as a dance representing the sun and the moon. Many people dress in colorful costumes with large macaw-feather headdresses when attending.
On July 31—after more than 24 hours of drinking, eating and whatever else—the macheteros, still dressed in their colorful costumes, come to the restored Jesuit mission to repent and perhaps pray for protection at the event that is to follow. The grand finale of the fiesta is a “bull teasing” event (called the jocheo) where bulls are teased into attacking the participants, but no bulls are actually hurt or killed. Most years, the only injured are the drunken spectators or participants who get in the way of the bulls.
I am indebted to Paul Bell who visited the festival in 2012 and provided these photos. You can read more about it on his travel blog at https://notesfromcamelidcountry.net/category/san-ignacio-de-moxos.