La Mama Negra Festival

The city of Latacunga, which is situated about two hours south of Quito, holds one of Ecuador's most famous festival, La Mama Negra (The Black Mother). And in case you miss it the first time in September, as we did, they hold an even more rowdy version of the festival again in November. So we put our party hats on and made sure we returned from hiking the Quilotoa loop in time to join the festivities.

They say that the Mama Negra festival originated as a yearly celebration of when the town was spared from the 1742 Cotopaxi Volcano eruption. Their salvation was attributed to the prayers offered to the Virgin of Mercy. This event intertwined with the arrival of black slaves to create the Black Mother. Over the years other Spanish, Inca, and Mayan traditions shaped the festival into what it is today.

The Mama Negra Festival in September is more of a religious festival, whereas the festival we joined in November was partnered with the city's independence day and is more of a giant street party. We attempted to arrive to the parade route early and once we located it, we found that we were not as early as we had hoped. We managed to cross the barriers and walk down the parade route 6 or 7 blocks until we found some empty chairs to rent for a few dollars. The procession itself is comprised of groups of dancers, bands, and people in costumes. However, our rented chairs proved only useful to stand on to see the procession as anyone in the crowd at street level was dancing along with (and often in) the procession.

One unique aspect of this festival is that those in the procession give out candy to children and, unlike festivals in the US, shots of homemade liquor to anyone who appears to be over the age 16. As the parade progressed, individuals would come up to the spectators with jars, casks, bottles, bowls, modified milk cartons, and soup ladles filled with mystery booze (brown, green, blue, and milky white!). In exchange, those in the crowd would share their beer with those handing out shots. In the end, the whole festival is a great excuse to dress up in fun costumes, dance, and drink to excess, all before 11am.

Even as spectators, the party quickly exhausted us and we chose to make our way out of the festivities to rest for the remainder of the afternoon. Unsure of quite how to get out, we ended up making our way back the 7 blocks against the procession (hardly noticed since half of the crowd was in the street anyway) only to find that we were on the wrong side of the barricade. Oh well, we had to party with the locals instead!

We riled up the drunk onlookers with shouts of “Viva Latacunga!” Rich was caught up in a dance with a cross-dresser (men dressed up as women are an important part of the festival as Mama Negra herself is actually an important man from the community who is nominated each year). And both of us experienced on of the oddest parts of the festival. Throughout the parade, groups of men dressed in white would grab spectators, bring them out into the street, dance around them with sticks, and then one of them would spit water or milk on the spectator. This mini-cleansing ceremony would cost the spectator a $1 donation. When we were actually pulled into one of these circles, we discovered that the whole ritual is topped off with a live (hopefully still alive) guinea pig that is shaken all over your body. All in all a great time!