Cueca

Cueca is the national dance here. It seems to be practiced mostly by younger kids, but everyone seems to know it. Erin’s host sister dances cueca and had a show on Saturday in the plaza in downtown Copiapo. Her family invited me to see it and stay over at their house the night before so that we could all go together in the morning. I didn’t realize they wanted us to dress up in the traditional dresses as well. It was fun! A great spiny dress, you know, when you spin it flys out all around you.
So the girls wear these cool spiny dresses, with a ribbon that ties around your waist. The ribbon holds a white handkerchief for pulling out and waving around as part of the some of the steps steps. The guys wear cowboy boots with the spiny things on the heels, black pants and this poncho, blanket like thing over their shoulders. They also have a handkerchief that they put over their shoulder. The dance has a bunch of quick steps that kind of remind me a little of tap dancing but not quite. They move around more and wave their handkerchiefs, it’s really cool. Every Wednesday there’s Cueca Club, and it’s where you can learn cueca. I’ve been invited to next Wedneday’s Cueca Club and I’ve been told I have three months to learn the dance before some huge national celebration where they dance cueca a lot. I was thinking it was their bicentennial anniversary of their independence, but apparently it’s something different? I’m not that sure.
After the show, her parents took us to an asado (BBQ) and there were news cameras filming us. It was kinda weird they were filming us without asking our permission. I later found out I was on the news by one of my students and I thought that was kinda funny because they didn’t even speak to us. I guess it was because we were two gringos in cueca dresses at an asado, so that’s pretty newsworthy…I wonder what they said as the footage rolled by…