156 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital

and Regional Foodways in the United States, ed. L.K. Bro\V11 & K. Mussell,
CHAPTER6
113-126.
40. As a fieldworker, 1 have gotten eaught up in the system with families 1
worked with and was reminded of my obligation with the offer of a fried plantain
The Festival Parade: Framing of
and the sharing of a beer with a kiosko hostess. On giving and gifts whieh appear
voluntary, disinterested, and spontaneous but are in faet obligatory and
Cultural Identities
interested, see Maree1 Mauss, The Gifl (New York: Ballantine, 1967).
41. See Jansen, "The Esoterie-Exoterie F aetor."

Por la tórrida Columbia Along the torrid Columbia Road

un cortzjo se divisa A eortege is devised
con macetas y mantones With flower pots and shawls
va despertando sonrisas A wakening smiles
1987 Spanish Floae

During the Festival, the kioskos, the performing stages, and the sur-
rounding activity about them defined and confirmed the Adams Morgan
neighborhood as the Latino barrio. The milling about of the crowds
within this space conveyed a sense of communitas, or existential
spontaneous bonding among the participants. 2 Sunday aftemoon, this
ocean of people would give way down the middle of Columbia Road in
anticipation of the Festival' s most dramatic event-the parade. (See
figure 30.) In contrast to the diffused and all-pervasive dancing, visiting,
casual promenading, and general carousing, the parade unified Festival
action in time and space, commanding the attention of the crowds. With
spectacular decorations and costumes, vibrant rhythms and flowing
choreographies, floats and marchers proceeded down Columbia Road.
Paraders created floats by decorating cars, pick-up trucks, stake trucks,
or flatbed trailers. Marchers included flag bearers, banner carriers,
dramatic troupes, bands, clowns, and comparsas (camival troupes with
music and dance).

157
158 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade 159

Figure 30. The Festival parade takes over Columbia Road. Photo by Rick
Reinhard

An aura of glorified heritage and national pride, reminiscent ofLatin

American civic festivals, or fiestas patrias, and of most civic or ethnic
processions in the United States, hove red over the parade. 3 The repetitive
use of typical parade paraphernalia including national flags and
emblems, regional costumes and agricultural produce (see figure 31), and
the representation of historic landmarks, heroes and royalty, and histo-
rical dramas reinforced this romanticized nationalism. (See figure 32.)
The great spectacle of the parade fulfilled all the expectations of the
organizers by projecting the national identities of the immigrants to the
outside host society, showing that the immigrants' heritage was, as Pedro
Luján described, "a culture that is older than one hundred years."4 They Figure 31. Tropical bananas decorate a Costa Rican float. Photo by
stated who they were by representing who they were not with imagined Nancy Shia
heroes and monuments of ancient times or with romanticized portrayals
of contemporary indigenous or regional cultures. It is in the "back
regions" of the parade where another dynamic internal to the community
unfolded. In the back regions, Festival participants conceived and
159
160 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade
161
organized individual parade units, and here parade imagery took on new the dynamic interaction between imagery and performance in an effort
meanings as immigrants utilized religious, mythical, and historical Latin to understand the patterning of new identities.
American celebration elements to define their place and identity in the To represent the national category, 1 chose to study "'Folklore': Mi
American experience and consciousness. The front and back regions of bella Guatemala," to give an example of how social, sports, and church
this cultural performance refiected, interpreted, and influenced the groups came together to organize a national representation and how they
formation of identity in this emerging Latino community.5 chose to portray it. The second section, "Peace in Central America: Ven-
ceremos," examines a series of solidarity units developed by changing
Images Front Line Floats Comparsa coalitions of solidarity groups. 1 then focus on the fioat of the 1987
Bearers
Mexican parade unit," The Mammoth Hunters," because it showed me
Flags & x x x
how individual creativity and vision play out within the generic parade
National Insignia
Costumes x x
unit forms. In each case, national groups organized the parade units. I try
x
Produce x x to show how the groups dealt with and resolved intergroup differences to
Souvenirs x x x represent themselves to other people from their home regions and
Buildings x countries, to other Latinos from different regions and countries, and to
Monuments x x the americanos or host-country audience.
Heroes x x
Children x '''FOLKLORE': MI BELLA GUATEMALA"s
Queens x x
Historical & Social x In this section, 1 examine a national parade unit that brought together
Drama different social groups and classes from within a country to represent
themselves as a nation in the parade. This parade unit category closely
Figure 32. Occurrence oftypical imagery within parade units resembles the Latin Americanjiesta patronal festival category and is the
most prevalent in the Latino Festival. 1 willlook at the parade units of
In this chapter, I will examine two dominant categories of parade the Guatemalan community, which has participated in the parade since
units: national collaborative representations, which 1will call "national," the Festival began, but will focus primarily on the 1986 parade unit.
and Third World solidarity enactments, which 1 will call "solidarity." 1 Doña Lucita Sigüenza gained legendary fame in the cornmunity
will also examine in detail one parade unit that intrigued me. At first through her persistence in representing Guatemala in the parade as part
glance it was an ordinary national entry, but on closer inspection, it of a group or alone. Usually an ad hoc group of Guatemalans including
revealed a personal statement couched within the generic national display Doña Lucita, the local Guatemalan import store Casa Guatemala, and a
representing to the host society a glorious cultural heritage much older Guatemalan soccer club organized the Guatemalan parade units. These
than could be boasted by the United States. Through the analysis ofthese units resembled most ofthe national parade units that organized around
parade units, 1 will analyze different parade forms and examine the national ethnicity and relied on patriotic symbols and themes. The floats
relationship between the extent and complexity of the parade unit and generally depicted pre-Columbian myths and monuments from a history
stability ofthe sponsoring organizations. 1 will address the expression of the organizers adopted as their own ancient cultural heritage but rejected
group aesthetics and the creation of a parade aesthetic. And 1 will explore as their own racial ancestry. Folkloric troupes presented regional
costumes and dances from ethnic groups and social classes to which most
participants never belonged and which most participants rejected as part
162 Creating a Latino Identity in the Nation 's Capital
of their own history. Souvenirs, flags, and patriotic emblems glorified a
nationalism many had only come to feel as expatriates or exiles. Float
designers combined these archetypical representations from items at hand
to create "a treat for the eyes."9
These nationalistic parade units were modeled after those displayed
in Latin Americanfiestas patronales. Infiestas patronales, parade units
conform to the nationalistic spirit of these civil ceremonies, but are
motivated more by local civic pride than a national allegiance. lo In the
Festival, a personal "patriotic feeling," rather than a formal national
identity, fostered pride in the local D.C. community. In the D.C. commu-
nity itself, the different national groups had not fully institutionalized
their national identities. Nevertheless, in the Festival, the national parade
units were applauded and cheered by their own national groups. II The
organizers of these national units exploited the nationalism while
collaborating with the broader agenda of the parade organizers. This
agenda, similar to that of the fiestas patronales, had local political
objectives. For the D.C. Festival organizers, the principal objective was
official recognition of a unified, multiethnic community with, in the
words of Pedro Luján, one of its founders, "a culture more than one
hundred years old," as opposed to the perceived shorter and poorer
cultural history of the United States. For the Festival organizers, the
parade of national ethnic units unified under a pan-ethnic nationalist
aesthetic and led by city officials and community dignitaries confirmed
the community's status and authority in the city. However, underlying
this vision of harmony, individuals and groups struggled between and
within groups for dominance. One year a group in solidarity with the
women of Guatemala organized a second parade unit. This second unit
belongs to the Third World solidarity parade category to be discussed
later (also see Chapter 4).
Most of the national groups sponsoring parade units were very
loosely formed, relying on networks formed through the church or
through social clubs. Ofien the organizers of parade units, activities, and
kioskos for the Festival would form social groups based on the Festival
experience. Many of these social clubs existed only for the Festival.
National soccer clubs provided national Festival groups with support.
Active throughout the year, they provided continuity and offered access
The Festival Parade 163
to extensive community networks. l2 The Guatemalan parade unit orga-
nizers were no exception. Like other national groups in the community,
their stability as an organized group fluctuated. Nevertheless, Guatemala
was invariably represented in the parade, at the very least by Doña Lucita
Sigüenza, costumed in regional dress and proudly carrying the Guatema-
lan flag.
The solitary flag bearer was the minimal national representation. On
the other end of the spectrum, groups of people would come together to
design several floats around mythical or historical national themes. They
organized national folk drama troupes, national folkloric dance groups,
and national costumed comparsas to accompany the floats. Between these
two extremes, the Guatemalan contingency consolidated its cultural
identity into a car float in 1987 that looked like a national shrine. A
young girl in regional costume sat on the car surrounded by souvenirs,
tourist crafts, tropical products, and other exports or "offerings" of the
country, transforming the car into a motorized national "shrine"
embodying Guatemala's "riqueza y colorido" (richness and color).
In 1986, Guatemalans organized one of their most extensive and
inclusive parade units. Different groups including the soccer club, Casa
Guatemala, and Doña Lucita Sigüenza designed a seven-element unit
based on three themes-Guatemala's colonial heritage, its natural
resources, and the life ofthe pueblo, or country people. A float illustrated
each theme: a colonial town, a volcano, and an enramada (thatched
shelter) typically built for fiestas. A folk drama group, marchers, and a
costumed comparsa paraded in front of and between the floats. (See
figure 33.)
A group of little boys dressed in their blue and white soccer
uniforms, the colors of Guatemala, led the unit. Each carried a large blue
letter that formed a banner proclaiming "Guatemala." Behind them, two
women flag bearers with the U.S. and Guatemalan flags led the rest of
the young soccer team. In the wake of this team, a float represented the
town of Chichicastenango, which is said to be symbolic of today' s
Guatemala. l3 Chichicastenango is a mecca of tourism, famous for its
traditional architecture and crafts. The Chichicastenango float displayed
the three basic town elements of colonial Latin America-the church, the
plaza, and the market. (See figure 35.) The float designers used a tourist
164 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital
poster and a postcard bought from Casa Guatemala as models for this
fioat. The front of the truck pulling the fioat was wrapped in the white
and blue national fiag displaying its quetzal emblem, the national bird,
circled by a laurel wreath. 14 Above the cabin loomed the backside of the
fa~ade ofthe Cathedral ofChichicastenango. A statueofthe VirginMary
stood on the threshold ofthe church doors. The Virgin Mary was used in
lieu of the town's patron saint because no one had a statue of Saint
Thomas. Outside, on either side ofthe doors, stood the novios, the ludian
bride and groom in regional costume. The back half of the fioat featured
the marketplace. Young children costumed in a variety of regional outfits
sat around the edges on grass clippings, holding baskets of vegetables
and fruits and live chickens. The reddened lips and cheeks on the girls
and the mustaches painted on the boys indicated that these represented
adult mestizo market vendors. Live palms and bamboos, other potted
plants, and colorful textiles set apart tlle market space.
Back Parade Direction
CJ--n ~
r~
comparsa enramada volcano moros & church
floal floa! Hoal cristIanos
mar1<e!
LEGEND
III walklng
~ carouslng or dancing
~ choreographe<J
Figure 33. Diagram of 1986 Guatema1an unit
OIder soccer team members representing characters in a moros y
cristianos folk drama surrounded the Chichicastenango town fioat,
accompanied by two aduIts playing a drum and waist-marimba. 15 Their
costumes consisted of crepe paper wigs, blue and white pinstriped pants,
toweI capes, and sandals. Their moros y cristianos masks were the only
elements identifying them with the traditional Spanish drama found in
fiestas throughout the Americas. The team borrowed the toweIs and
masks from Casa Guatemala, which sold them as typicaI Guatemalan
The Festival Parade 165
souvenirs. Designer Ricardo de la Palma' s Guatemalan landscape scenes
decorated the towels. Worn as royal capes ofrich fabric, they depicted the
essence of Guatemala-village scenes, beaches, quetzales, and tropical
plants. The soccer team had great fun carousing in these droll costumes
that brought together a colonial drama with national tourist imagery. The
crowds recognized and enjoyed this bricolage of elements.
Even the best of parades have their problems. Following the moros
y cristianos was a "volcano," a paintcd, lumpy, conical cardboard
structure wrapped around a pick-up truck. The legend, inscribed in blue
lettering on white bunting wrapped across the front of the truck, read:
"Tu naturaleza es tan bella como tu Guatemala" (Your nature is as
beautiful as your Guatemala). Laurel leaves encircled this inscription,
evoking the emblem on the national fiag. From the moment the fioat
arrived at the assembling site for the parade, the crowds laughed at the
crudely designed, brown-wrapping-paper volcano. Their mirth increased
when the fire department fireproofed it with fire retardant spray. As the
fioat passed before the judge's stand, a Guatemalan youth, notorious for
Front
his drunken revelries, emerged from the center of the volcano like a
Statue of Liberty saluting the judges with a can of Budweiser. Not only
/I! was the "volcano" problematic in representing Guatemala' s natural
beauty, but the youth's drunken salute to the judges dimmed the loftier
banner
plaza &
floa!
flags significance of the whole parade unit.
The last fioat in the series showed an enramada where the pueblo,
here best translated as "country folk," would play the marimba, dance,
eat, and drink during celebratory occasions. The beer-drinking, marimba-
playing group on this fioat produced an authentic re-enactment of"living
tradition."16 Doña Lucita Sigüenza and her less-than-sober companion
danced under the enramada to the traditional tunes ofthe marimba from
the beginning to the end of the parade. The closing comparsa comple-
mented both the enramada and the "market." Doña Lucita's comadres
from her church, some of the soccer players' mothers and sisters, and a
few of the fathers paraded and danced, wearing an assortment of regional
outfits.
The attempt to portray Guatemalan town and village life, cultural
and naturallandscapes, establishment and pueblo traditions, and insti-
tutions urged me to more closely examine the internal dynamics of the
166 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade 167

organizers. Similar to other national groups organizing parade units, the hierarchic relationship between the establishment church, the country
church and soccer club provided the organizational base, with the soccer and Indian pueblo, and the more urban mestizo marketplace was clearly
club as the primary organizer. In general, the soccer club members were established by the spatial relationships of the European Virgin, the
middle class. The club conceived the theme, the mothers designed Indian novios, and the mestizo vendors. 19 (See figure 34 and 35.)
costumes, bartered with Casa Guatemala for the loan of crafts, and
prepared meals during the float construction. The fathers, many car- High
penters and house painters among them, obtained the material s and, with Float Front
the help of the team and their friends, built and painted the floats. patron saint Parade
Daughters and girlfriends became club madrinas (maids of honor), Front ..
queens, and princesses. "n ovios"=
Sorne of the soccer club families were also members of the Church
=vendors
of the Sacred Heart Latino congregation. 17 Through church, these fami-
Low
líes carne in contact with other Guatemalans in the community. The
principal individuals in this second group were Doña Lucita Sigüenza
Figure 34. Vertical relationships between float elements
and the owners of the Guatemala House. Although the soccer club had
the authority and control over the unit, Doña Lucita and her comadres
The float's thematic drama re-ordered the colonial hierarchy so familiar
dominated the performance in the parade.
to Latin Americans. TraditionalIy, injiestas de costumbres andjiestas
The authority and status of the soccer club were clearly stated with
patronales, the patron saint plays a central role. Taking the image from
the junior soccer team uniformed in the colors of Guatemala as the front
its sanctuary and bringing it into the street among the people symboli-
lineo The Chichicastenango and the enramada floats juxtaposed opposing
calIy suspends hierarchies and establishes an atmosphere for commu-
social classes with the dominant class associated with the establishment
nitas. 20 On the float, the Virgin's presence at the cathedral door evoked
represented by the church, the mestizo middleman represented by the
the spirit of a ji esta patronal. According to the organizers, the Virgin
market vendors, and the Indian country folk represented by the novios
was placed on the threshold of the "cathedral" doors to give the church
and by the enramada. Each float and in particular in the first one, the
fac;ade authenticity. By positioning her on the threshold receiving the
town of Chichicastenango float, symbolicalIy framed the complex Latin
novios, the float designers also conveyed a colonial institution (repre-
American value system that still influenced social relations in Washing-
sented by the Virgin) embracing Guatemala' s Indian culture. This action,
ton's Latino community.
representative of a mestizaje or cultural syncretism, spatialIy presented
The Chichicastenango float created an impression of place, space,
both cultures on an equal standing, even if the Indian novios had not yet
and action. Through the church fac;ade and reinforced by the costumes of
gotten through the door. Does the lower spatial placement of the mestizo
the novios, a real town was identified. At the same time, the church
or acculturated market vendors mean glorification ofthe Indian over the
entrance suggested the plaza space before it. The market completed the
mestizo, the pure over the mixed? With its majority Indian population,
basic spatial design for a town. A scene taken from a postcard, it repli-
this may make sense in Guatemala.
cated the iconic nature of the postcard to personifY the whole country.18
By only loosely and ambiguously linking the Guatemalan national
As Robert Smith has done in his seminal work on Peruvianjiestas
heritage and identity to mestizaje, best translated here as "the Euro-
patronales in The Art of Festival,ó I will now describe the dynamic
peanization of the indigenous," this representation of a multicultural
interaction between imagery and performance in this parade unit. The
168 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade 169

society spoke to the syncretic experience of the other Latino groups at the
Festival. Its authoritarian, Hispano-dominant character, the comerstone
of Latin American reality, and the ambiguity of class and race were
common to all. However, the details of the syncretic cultural history
within each country are unique. 21 The different Latino ethnic and
national groups at the Festival related easily to this type offloat but also
recognized it as specifically Guatemalan. The same argument carried
with the other national floats, where the synthesis of elements essentially
spoke to a Hispano-dominant syncretic experience, and yet each was
unique. Variations ofien depended on shifis of emphasis between
Hispano, African, and indigenous cultures. 22
The "market" reflected another form of multiethnic dynamic, that
between the different indigenous groups within Guatemala. The multi-
plicity ofmestizo subcultures was represented by the different traditional
costumes worn by the market vendors. While their dress differentiated
the market vendors from the other groups represented in this parade unit, Figure 35. The Guatemalan float representing the church and plaza ofthe town
the market vendors' occupation assigned them the role of cultural medi- of Chichicastenango. Photo by David Bossennan
ators between the different groups, and between these groups and the
outside world. These multicultural messages were reinforced by the
closing comparsa with its regional costumes.
Folk drama and dance troupes traditionally honor the patron saint's
presence injiestas. Performing individual s are usually fulfilling a manda
(a ritual pledge) given to the saint. In the Festival parade, the representa-
tion of moros y cristianos in the Guatemalan parade unit was connected
more with the immigrant experience ofthe D.C. Latino community than
withjiesta customs. The D.C. morosy cristianos, members ofthe soccer
team, were not bound by pledges to perform for a patron saint. In fact,
they cavorted rather than performed. They were not bound by any
dramatic script-neither the battle between Islamic Moors and Christian
Spaniards, nor the New World battle between pagan Indians and
Christian Spaniards were presented. Not only did these moros y
cristianos leave out those stories, but they eliminated the antagonistic
roles that normally sustained the drama by acting together as the team
that they indeed were. A modem tourist display adapted to a new reality
replaced the colonization drama, and the soccer team players united to Figure 36. Doña Lucita Sigüenza dances with her partner on the "Enramada"
proclaim their singular Latino identity. float. Photo by Olivia Cadaval
170 Creating a Latino Identity in the Nation 's Capital
As I suggested earlier, a subtle rivalry existed between the enra-
mada and the Chichicastenango floats. Both competed to define a
national identity. Each wrapped the national flag across the front oftheir
trucks. The enramada further accentuated its claim to national identity
by spiraling blue and white crepe ribbons around the enramada posts,
and hanging Guatemalan hats and drinking gourds from the enramada
rafters. The more fundamental contrast was between the institutions
represented. The Chichicastenango float claimed the church, the enra-
mada the pueblo, the people. Doña Lucita's performance, dancing under
the enramada, much as she had danced in her village duringfiestas and
as Latinos danced in the streets of Adams Morgan during the Latino
Festival, counteracted the more formal, staged tableau around the church,
shifting the center of action and attention from the church to the
enramada. (See figure 36.)
The closing comparsa augmented the power of the enramada float.
The marchers represented multiethnic indigenous populations who are
"of the street" and marched on the street out si de the church, outside the
official institutions. They proudly wore their attire because they held the
street during thisfiesta time, and they had the power. The costumed men
and women were not necessarily dressed in their own home region' s
attire but represented the different regions personifying "Mi Bella
Guatemala," while at the same time emphasizing their identities as
Guatemalans and as Latinos in the multiethnicity of Washington. By
presenting what they were not, they stated who they were.
I will now examine a series ofparade units on the opposite side of
the political spectrum from the Guatemalan. This series of parade units
produced by coalitions oflocal and intemational groups in solidarity with
Latin American revolutionary struggles, unlike the Guatemalan case,
publicly challenged the official canons of the parade and transgressed the
codes of"apolitical" and "in good taste." These parade units were more
representative ofthe abandonment of carnival than the formality offiesta
patronales.
The Festival Parade 171
"PEACE IN CENTRAL AMERICA: VENCEREMOS"
[WE SHALL OVERCOME]23
I will examine in this section a series of presentations organized by
coalitions of solidarity groups with Third World perspectives. Rere, there
was no single organizing group, but cross-group alliances would form
depending on the current intemational polítical crisis and intragroup
relations. I will examine solidarity parade units over the years from 1978
to 1987, elaborating on the 1983 representation in this series.
Groups in solidarity with Latin American struggles against
dictatorships wanted to dramatically portray social injustice in home
countries and in the Washington Latino community. They organized a
series ofparade performance s mocking, exploiting, inverting, exaggerat-
ing, and playing with polítical personages and events, national symbols,
cultural archetypes, and with the established parade aesthetic. Among the
significant historical events which fueled these solidarity groups and
these parade units were the 1961 Cuban Revolution and the coming to
power ofFidel Castro, General Pinochet's 1973 coup d'état on Salvador
Allende's Chilean govemment, the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution and
Sandinista triumph over Somoza's regime, and the 1980 official decla-
ration of civil war in El Salvador. For sorne segments ofthe Washington
Latino community, these events had beco me markers in the contemporary
Latin American social drama, where countries were being tom apart by
internal political insurgencies aggravated by the United States. (See
figure 37.) Solidarity groups perceived American imperialism as
superseding Latín American colonialism, perpetrating the chasm between
the ruling classes and the pueblo and provoking the exodus of political
and economic exiles, sorne to the D.C. Latino community. In Washing-
ton, the tension between these marginal groups with Third WorId
perspectives and the old guard leadership that controlled the Festival
created its own ideological conflicts in the Latino community.
In the late 1970s, increasing migrations from South and Central
America of people displaced by these ideological and military conflicts
swelled the ranks of the solidarity groups and their supporters and
sympathizers. Strengthened and revitalized, the solidarity groups in-
creased the scope and frequency of their demonstrations and other actions
in support of and solidarity with the revolutionary struggles then taking
place. A Third World perspective took hold, solidarity between the
various national groups in D. C. increased, and renewed confidence and
172 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital
Figure 37. María Stella Daballcens charges "Unc1e Sam" in the 1980 Chilean
comparsa. Photo by Olivia Cadava1
enthusiasm led to creative enactments of solidarity within the parade.
The Cuban Revolution was consolidated long before the Festival started,
and did not figure prominently in the Festival or the parade. 24 But t~e
Chilean, Nicaraguan, and Salvadoran conflicts served as thematlc
anchor s for a series of provocative parade displays and performances.
These solidarity groups shared a common pool of images and symbo~s
used to convey their revolutionary messages through sorne form of pubbc
arto Most of these images and symbols carne from the international
solidarity and revolutionary movements and were immediately recogniz-
able by the public, but the D. C. solidarity groups modified old ones and
created new ones to fit their new messages.
The series of solidarity parade units ranged from a simple bearing of
a flag or banner to elaborate pageantry. Throughout the years, solidarity
groups played off each other's previous representations and perfor-
mances, using their common stock of constantly reiterated, refined, and
renewed images and symbols. With the growth of the D.C. Salvadoran
population in the 1980s, solidarity with El Salvador units, too~ fr~nt
stage. I center the following discussion on the 1983 set of sohdanty
The Festival Parade 173
parade units, in which representations of the Salvadoran conflict domi-
nated. This was the second year of Rivera' s term as Festival president.
However, first I will briefly review earlier Salvadoran displays in this
series and examine the interactions between national solidarity groups.
In 1977, the Salvadoran parade unit still reflected a typical national
ethnic parade aesthetic with a float featuring a tourist postcard vo1cano
accompanied by afolklórico comparsa featuring stylized folk dance. In
1979, Salvadorans supported the parade unit organized by Casa Nica, a
Nicaraguan solidarity group, by bearing the flag ofthe Frente Sandinista
para la Liberación Nacional (FSLN), the Nicaraguan Sandinista Front.
It was not until1980 that Salvadorans first presented contemporary social
drama on their own float. This float depicted a tugurio, a typical shack
common to the rural villages and urban working-class neighborhoods of
El Salvador, with a campesino (peasant) family at its doorstep repre-
sented by a young boy with a painted mustache and three life-size rag
dolls. The float artists had spray-painted the names "María, Ana, and
Carmen," along with "Halt to the Repression" and "We Demand
Water and Light," on the back of the shack. Mayan figures decorated
the sides ofthe tugurio, adding a touch ofthat ethnic float aesthetic that
delights in idealizing an indigenous past.
The newly formed committee in solidarity with the people of Chile
joined the Salvadorans in this performance. Early on the day of the
parade, the Salvadorans were still trying to find an appropriate vehicle
for their cardboard house when the Chileans arrived with a comparsa and
a yet-to-be decorated truck. The Chileans offered their truck for the
tugurio float, solving the Salvadorans' dilemma. The Chilean comparsa
joined the parade unit and followed behind the collaborative float. The
comparsa consisted of Chileans costumed in plain campesino dress
taunting their assailant, María Stella Dabancens, a Chilean community
activist and long-time organizer, dressed in military uniform and
carrying a wooden rifle and gun. The campesinos danced and shouted
"Viva Chile Libre" (Long Live Free Chile). The comparsa's objective
was to counteract the typical, colorful, folkloric processions presented by
the Chilean Embassy each year and to educate the public about the
Chilean dictatorship as seen from the solidarity perspective.
According to one of the organizers, the tugurio was intended to
confront the Latino community with the ravages perpetrated by the
Salvadoran army on the pueblo, symbolized by the family and the shack.
In this sense, "pueblo" was both "people" and "village." Secondly, it was
174 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade 175

intended to dramatize the poor living conditions suffered by many
Salvadorans in El Salvador. 25
The Salvadoran audience reacted in different ways. Sorne were upset,
saying, "This is not worthy ofrepresenting the Republic ofEI Salvador."
Others applauded the portrayal of the poor living conditions found not
only in the home country but also in the Washington barrio. 26 The
Chilean comparsa following in its wake confused and heightened the
effect ofthe Salvadoran float. Dabancens recalled, "El pueblo, the people
in the streets, began to shout 'Kill that evil militar' and the crowds joined
in solidarity with the comparsa."27 Most Chileans remembered the
Chilean performance as being separate and distinct from the Salvadoran
float. Yet Enrique Orellana, one of the Salvadoran float organizers,
perceived the two contiguous presentations as one collaborative and
consolidated unit. Conceptually, the Chilean comparsa reinforced the
image of the peasant Salvadoran family, the pueblo, depicted by the
tugurio, while the Chilean soldier served as symbol of military aggres-
sion for both groups. Orellana remembers Dabancens "throwing off her
typical costume" to reveal a military uniformo For him, and probably for
many Salvadorans in the audience, she was the Salvadoran army
oppressing the Salvadoran pueblo. 28
This unit is an example of how an organic and spontaneous
solidarity between national groups emerged in the parade. It also
introduced central military and pueblo themes, later more fully developed
with additional images. In 1981, the images of a helicopter, symbol of
U.S. intervention, ofthe recently assassinated Monseñor Oscar Romero,
and of a volcano erupting represented the U.S. intervention and the
violence caused by that intervention. An accompanying comparsa of
militares cavorting with prostitutes exploited carnival humor to dele-
gitimatize the El Salvadoran Army, and therefore the U.S. support. 29 A
map of El Salvador indicated the guerrilla-"liberated" areas (areas
bishop Oscar Romero, by then a recognized hero, along with Farabundo
Martí, a less well-known figure from the Salvadoran War of 1932, was
painted on the sun. 30 A folk dance comparsa accompanied the float. But
the float was aTrojan horse, concealing a masquerade of "militares"
armed with toy bazookas and rifles. Once the unit was in the midst ofthe
crowds and nearing the judges' stand, the masquerade carne out of the
float and into action. Echoing the 1980s Chilean comparsa, the
"militares" proceeded to indiscriminately arrest and execute the pueblo
by chasing and wrestling with dance group members. The dual intent was
to indicate the escalating military repression of the Salvadoran pueblo
and challenge the Festival cornmittee's increasingly restrictive regula-
tions. 31 At this point, groups in solidarity with El Salvador were well
organized and were collaborating with each other. They were active in
demonstrations and applied pintas (spray-painted edicts) on city walls. 32
The 1983 Salvadoran unit represented the Salvadoran conflict
combined with foreign intervention in Latin American most dramati-
cally. It built upon the previous one-dimensional, bellicose images ofthe
"bad guys," transforming them into the central personages of a carni-
valesque satire. A utopian tableau depicting the guerrilla world comple-
mented the negative imagery representing the establishment. Several
solidarity groups collaborated on the Salvadoran unit, creating a display
comparable in magnitude to that of the 1986 Guatemalan unit.
Back Parade Diredion Front
Elanner
Masquerade GomplI'SlJ5 Aoal Compi2tS<l5
Individual Traditlonal Folk Dance
Saliric Folk Group
Personagas Drama

controlled by the guerrillas) as part of the tableau. This "liberated" or LEGEND

rebel territory would become the central theme of the 1983 float. ~.[..)mlWlrl9~,-d.,ml"'9
rvv-v--.. t.hQIIII~aph.d
The Festival organizers tried to prevent the 1981 parade unit from
entering the parade, but the surrounding public created such a clamor
that the organizers could not stop it from falling in at the end of the
parade. After this experience with the Festival authorities, the 1982 unít
Figure 38. Diagram of Salvadoran unit
organizers presented what appeared to be a non-threatening postcard of
a national float. The principal images were the Tazumal pyramid, the
Chac Mool Mayan messenger of the Gods, and a sun. A picture of Arch-
176 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital
Figure 39. Salvadoran float drawing by R. Horacio Quintanilla
The Festival Parade 177
It included a front line banner, a folk dance comparsa, a fioat accompa-
nied by a traditional folk drama comparsa, individual satirical person-
ages, and an elaborate masquerade. (See figure 38.) Designed to extend
the full width of the street, across the unit's front, children stretched a
red and black banner reading "FMLN/FDR" (Frente Farabundo Martí
para la Liberación Nacional/Frente Democrático Revolucionario). The
fioat theme concentrated on the Zonas de Control, the liberated areas
mapped out in the 1981 fioat, and the image of the "new Salvadoran."
Using the mountain, the symbolic and physical stronghold of the
guerrillas, as background, the designer created a collage of imagery
representing the activities of the milítary (FMLN) and polítical (FDR)
fronts in the rebel-held territory. (See figure 39.) The fioat was the
mountain. On the top of the mountain was a tree providing shade to both
the military and civil fronts. The left side of the tree showed the peaceful
and progressive civil domain with a wool tapestry figure of a boy with a
guitar and a cardboard-and-tissue-paper figure of a girl writing on a
chalkboard "El Salvador será un lindo y serio país" (El Salvador will be
a fine and serious country). This line is from a poem by the assassinated
Salvadoran writer and revolutionary hero, Roque Dalton. A local
non-Latino artist made the tapestry from a photograph. 33 The FDR
banner hung over the back of the fioat. This completed the civil or FDR
Front tableau.
The right side, starting with the mountain and encompassing the
front ofthe fioat unit, represented the military zone. In three illustrations
the legendary Salvadoran trickster, el Cipitio, strode down the mountain.
Dressed as a worker bearing a hammer, a peasant brandishing a machete,
and a miliciano (citizen militia) with a rifie, the three figures of el
Cipitio represented the alliance between peasant and worker forming the
National Liberation Army. Sitting on the front corners of the fioat, two
men costumed as rebel milicianos, as opposed to government militares
(soldiers), held the FMLN banner across the front ofthe fioat, guarding
the entrance to the "mountain" that symbolized the rebel-held territory.
An "El Salvador" banner covered the front of the truck. (See figure 40.)
Around the fioat, characters from the traditional foIk drama of the
Historian tes paraded. 34 Dressed as conquistadores and kings, they carried
machetes with handles in the form ofthe Christian cross. Much like the
Guatemalan moros y cristianos comparsa, this representation used a
traditional folk drama for new purposes. La Gigantona, a giant woman
puppet popular in Nicaraguan masquerades and usually accompanied by
178 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation's Capital The Festival Parade 179

·
F19ure 40 . Fron t ofSalvadoran
, float with the three figures ofthe Cipitio and that
ofthe girl writing on the chalkboard. Photo by Olivia Cadaval
a dwarf and a drummer, followed behind the float. 35 But this Gigantona,
unlike the traditional version the 1981 and 1984 Nicaraguan units fea-
tured, was a double-faced effigy-Ronald Reagan on one side and Jeanne
Kirkpatrick on the other. She was dressed in the American red, white,
and blue national colors. The front of her T-shirt read "U.S.A." and the
back, "Play." Her tongue was a serpent hanging out of her mouth. In one
hand she held an F-15 airplane, in the other a battleship, symbolizing
U.S. aerial and naval support to England during the Falkland Islands
War. Along with the Gigantona strolled a figure representing Ronald
Reagan as a Cuban Marielito, pushing a Safeway grocery cart and
picking up empty beer cans along the way. (See figure 41.) This referred
to the large number of Cubans brought into el barrio by the Mariel
boatlift of 1980. Joining the many other jobless Latinos on the street, the
Marielitos tried to survive as best they could. One Marielito had beco me
a familiar street figure by collecting aluminum cans in a Safeway
shopping cart to sell as scrap. President Reagan, transformed into a
familiar Latino street person, was accompanied by the figure of Death,
who danced and cavorted about him.
The masquerade behind the Gigantona dramatized yet another
instance of U.S. intervention. Wearing hospital assistants' gowns or
tatteredjackets and tennis shoes, two devils, aguerrillero (guerrilla), and
an old woman bore a coffin labeled "Made in El Salvador." The coffin
was not quite long enough for the deceased, so that his combat boots
stuck out. The soles of the boots read "Made in U.S.A." The deceased
represented an American military consultant who had recentIy been
killed in El Salvador. According to the unit organizers, the shoe label
was intended to symbolize that death was manufactured in the United
States. The bearers accompanied the coffin with the song:

Ese muerto no lo cargo yo

que lo cargue el qué lo mandó
[I'm not carrying that dead man
Let he who sent him cany him]

These lines are phrases from a popular song, but the paraders changed
the last word, mató (killed), into mandó (sent), again as a commentary
on U.S. intervention as well as an indictment ofU.S. culpability.
Weaving his way in and around the unit, "La Migra," the popular
·
F19ure 41 . "Reagan"·'¡ith
V'
Safeway shopping cart walks with "Death." Photo by nickname for immigration officials and here personified as a black-
Nancy Shia masked devil, pursued a Salvadoran "wetback" among the crowds. The
180 Creating a Latino Identity in the Nation 's Capital
units of the Central American Refugee committees, CARECEN and
CRECEN, complemented this playful drama with a ceremonial proces-
sion led by one of the sanctuary movement leaders bearing a yellow cross
with a red border. The entourage carried banners and posters. The largest
banner bore a salute from Central American refugiados (refugees) to the
Latino Festival:
Refugiados Centro Americanos
Saludan Al Festival Latino
En Washington
CARECEN-CRECEN
The use of the term "refugees" actively refuted their oflicial undocu-
mented status. Accompanying information posters amplified the
message:
"85,000 Central American Refugees in Wash. D.e."
Another poster stated:
En Nombre De Dios Cese La Represión
[In the Name ofGod Stop the Repression]
A Chilean comparsa again added to the insurgent spirit, with a proces-
sion of women beating on pots and pans in solidarity with the compañe-
ros in Chile. In Chile, when Fidel Castro visited Salvador Allende, the
middle class had beat on pots and pans to signify that the pots were
empty, that people were going hungry, and that AUende's government
was a failure. In 1983, women throughout the neighborhoods of Chile' s
capital city turned this form of protest around by banging their pots and
pans on the first Monday of each month as protest against President
Augusto Pinochet's government.
This 1983 series combined folk figures and real people, masquerade,
and current events symbolically creating the link between cultural and
political realities, the Washington Latino community, and the home
country. It became accountable to its audience while at the same time
transforming them into the validating voice of "the people." After years
of participating on many levels in the Festival, Maria Stella Dabancens
mused, "Columbia Road on Sunday, the day of the Festival parade, is a
tribune, una tribuna, that does not exist otherwise-it is this public
The Festival Parade 181
opinion mechanism where Opl1l10nS are formed, something also
recognized by the compañeros Salvadoreños who go out there with their
street theater. "36 The most obvious example was the 1982 Salvadoran
Trojan horse float that used the crowds to protect the performers from the
censorship of the parade organizers and to validate the message. A
Salvadoran compañero and float designer, Horacio Quintanilla, further
argued that this tribuna popular forced the oflicial parade tribune, the
parade judges who represented the authority of the community, to
acknowledge the legitimacy of the solidarity parade. 37 The image of
"tirarlo a la calle" (taking it to the streets) used by one of the Festival
founders became "tirarlo al pueblo" (taking it to the people). For Third
World ideologists, el pueblo was the source ofpolitical power, political
legitimacy, and the emerging Latin American identity. In the parade el
pueblo was the source of solidarity, or in festival terms, communitas. As
Victor Tumer states, "Much ofwhat has been bounded by social structure
is liberated, notably the sense of comradeship and communion, in brief
communitas. "38
After 1983, the Festival' s temper radical1y shifted under a new and
conservative Festival committee. Political commentary in the parade
dwindled to a Statue of Liberty with a sign pinned to her back, "Dame
tus pobres" (Give me your poor) accompanied by "La Migra," the
immigration oflicial, masked as a blond monkey. The Salvadoran floats
featured enramadas, and hearts imitating the State of Virginia's tourist
image in which "1 Love Virginia" was superimposed on a heart. A 1985
float put solidarity back into the parade by proclaiming "Peace in Central
America." On top of a large rainbow, reminiscent of Jesse Jackson's
Rainbow Coalition symbol, rested a white dove. The low level of
enthusiasm among solidarity groups was reflected in the use of commer-
cial rather than handmade float trimmings. At the last moment, the
statement "Venceremos," the militant Latino version of "We Shall
Overcome," was spontaneously added.
For my last example, 1examine a National parade unit that combines
elements of the Guatemalan National and Third World Solidarity
examples and that showed me how individual creative expressions of
personal historical visions are woven into generic interpretations of
national identity. At first glance, it was a typically romantic national
parade unit. However, its creator's reflexive explanation disclosed
layerings of coded representations of the mythic, historic, and contempo-
 182 Creating a Latino Identity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade 183

rary immigrant story in the Americas and an affirmation of the contem-

porary Latino self-Americanization process.
Back Parada Diraction Front
"THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS,,39

In this section, I will examine the 1987 Mexican parade unit. This unit
consisted of a float and comparsa that appeared to be another example of
the national "folkloric" pageant usually presented by the Mexicans in the
D
Rahch
/
CO\lJboy Float: Molorized Coslutned
///
Children
///
Bahnet
..
Car Joel Mural & ·Altar" COll1pMS~ Flag
D.C. Festival. But on closer examination it revealed a complex inter- ··Golden
Raefl"
hemispheric representation and commentary on the self-Americanization LEGEND
/11 w~lh"'g
process of immigrants in its broadest sense-from pre-Columbian times ~.:...tlousi"ilotd.. n.uihl;l
~.u,cn:~r... pl~c.d
to the present.
The 1987 Mexican parad e contingent, tme to its tradition, presented
one of the most stereotypical national parade units that 1 have seen.
Fortunately, I happened to meet its cronista and designer, Eugenio
Figure 42. Diagrarn of Mexican unit
González Valverde, who narrated to me what I first thought was a
description ofthe float. Only at the conclusion ofhis crónica did I realize
warriors ofthe Golden Race," riding an allegorical float pulled by a red
that, coded into his typical float were messages that, to the initiated, told
tmck adorned with another national flag and Mexican curios. At the end
the timeless American immigration story.
of the unit, a car with the "Rancho Mexico" insignia escorted Cowboy
Attending a 1987 parade committee meeting, I met González
"Charro" loel on his horse. The unusual element was a 1O-by-16 foot
Valverde and a group of Mexicans, who were planning to organize a
boxlike mural built as a backdrop for the float. (See figure 43.)
Mexican parade unit for that year. I was not going to look at this group
1 inteIViewed González Valverde while the float was under constmc-
closely since the D.C. Mexican population at that time was very small
tion and during and after the parade. 1 recorded a loosely connected
compared to other national ethnic immigrant groupS.40 Nevertheless,
crónica, which addressed everything from the origin of the "American
since I too am Mexican, our shared nationality immediately established
man" to the most technical details of making the float. 41 During the first
a common bond at the meeting, and members of the group readily
interview, González Valverde described the project as part ofhis personal
volunteered information about their plans. In the conversation, González
history. He explained that the mural was a visual crónica, a códice,
Valverde, who later identified himself as the float designer, commented
which "codified" and "registered our history" with symbols predating the
on his ritual preparation of paints, immediately sparking my interest. I
Aztecs. As a member of the clan of the mammoth hunters, he inherited
never had encountered Festival participants concerned with ritual
the tradition of cronista (his own term) from his father.
processes.
Donning a headdress made from items bought from a local Benjamin
The whole unit was similar to those of other years. It included all the
Franklin five-and-ten store and turning to face each cardinal point as he
usual typical national ethnic elements. (See figure 42) The group banner
narrated, González Valverde described the ritual process for preparing
went first, followed by the national flag and children in the archetypal
colors and painting the mural. He explained that traditionally these
charro and china poblana regional dress. The obligatory mariachi band
mural s are only witnessed within the clan, what he called the "tribal
accompanied the comparsa, displaying the different Mexican regional
family," but his father's accidental death allowed him to "break the oath
costumes. Next came a group of young men dressed as Indians, "the
184 Creating a Latino 1dentity in the Nation 's Capital
Figure 43. Members ofthe Mexican parade unit pose for a photograph on their
float. Photo by Olivia Cadaval
not to make it public." González Val verde himself was also a victim of
disaster. He had recently arrived in Washington following the 1985
Mexico City earthquake, which killed two sons and destroyed his shop.
He was staying with his aunt, María Beltrán, who had represented
Mexico in every Festival. 42 He wanted "to offer a small cultural token" to
the community.
In the next interview, González Valverde expanded his narrative to
include the cosmic story of the origin of man in the New World. He
retumed again to the clan of the mammoth hunters, whom he now
described as the original dwellers of the center of the New World, the
Anáhuac Valley ofMexico, where Mexico City is now situated. The story
radiated from the ceremonial center of Chimalhuacán in the Anáhuac
Valley. He then shifted to the history of migration ofthe American man,
which he claimed to be one and the same with the origin of man in the
New World. He emphasized that it was also the story ofthe Aztecs who
migrated, as nomadic tribes, north from this center, later returning to the
center to establish their empire, only to migrate north once more after
The Festival Parade 185
their defeat by the Spanish. He then linked the Aztecs with "La Raza,"
the new American man, and "Aztlán," the mythic home of the Aztecs,
which were both elaimed by Chicanos in the 1960s and 1970s to inelude
the people and land ofnorthem modern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest
that used to be part of Mexico, tying into all of this the contemporary
Mexican migrant worker. He then explained:
The traditíon that we as Latín Americans preserve to this day is that of
constant migration. It is symbolically sustained by what we call
pilgrimage-having to go from here, needing to go there, and evoking
a particular sacred image. Here in the United States, they are called
tours. Immigrants founded this country. Before the 19th century they
were called pilgrims. Today they are remembered as pilgrims or
founders, not as irnmigrants. Call them irnmigrants or call them
pilgrims, people continue to come, cornmunities contínue to be
founded, and other pilgrims, the tourists, visit them.
For González Valverde, tourism is as appropriately descriptive of the
experience ofman in the New World as are the ancestrallegends ofthe
mammoth hunters. 43
González Valverde then suggested I read the description ofthe float
that he submitted to the parade committee. I was eager to get a written
version of his story. To my surprise, it did not mention the marnmoth
hunters or the origin of mano The document informed the committee that
the float would represent the legend of the Mexican volcanoes,
Ixtlizíhuatl and Popocatépetl. It continued to explain that this legend was
about the impossible love between two factions, much like the story of
Romeo and Juliet, but the factions in this case were the ludian and the
Spaniard. The Indian warrior, Popocatépetl, falls in love with
Ixtlizíhuatl, the white woman. Later in conversation González Valverde
added his own cultural translation. "The white woman, for Americans,
she is Wonder Woman." Ixtlizíhuatl's parents disapprove ofthe union
and arrange for Popocatépetl to be sent to war. Ixtlizíhuatl dies heartbro-
ken when informed ofPopocatépetl ' s death in battle. Popocatépetl retums
victoriously only to find his lover dead. Taking her in his arms, he carries
her to the highest peak in the valley ofMexico, and gently lays her down.
Popocatépetl then takes a torch between his hands and posts himself at
186 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital The Festival Parade 187

Ixtlizíhuatl' s feet to watch over her eternal sleep.44 On clear days, two
adjacent volcanoes, Popocatépetl still watching over Ixtlizíhuatl, can be México : XVI( ..
seen from Mexico City. }: Aniversario ..=-
Poem
On the day ofthe parade, the parade unit assembled at the top ofMt.
Pleasant Avenue. The mural was painted on a boxlike structure built onto
the front of the truck bed. González Valverde described the box as a
temescal (ceremonial sweat house). At once symbolic and practical, this Ixtlizíhuatl
structure added yet another hidden element to this float. González Xétle
Valverde explained that while sweat houses were traditional in Cítlaltéptl
Chimalhuacán, he had built this one behind the mural as a dressing room Chimalhuacá~ Chapultéptl

~' ~Si?rn
for the participants. His exegesis was yet to uncover other concealed
components.
Ome ícuahitl
The mural visually synthesized the various narratives-the story of \
xx xx x lx "
ture
the volcanoes, the origin of American man, and today' s immigrant X

experience. A set of symbols stacked vertically in the center bisected the

three horizontal regions ofthe mural-water, land, and sky. At the base,
the Valley of Anáhuac, the center of origin, supported the column. From
Anáhuac rose ame cuahuitl (the mammoth hunter) and the smoke from
the fire at his ceremonial center. Above the original ceremonial center of
Chimalhuacán, the letters "MEXICO," spelled out in the national colors
of green, white, and red, surmounted a series of hieroglyphs. In the third
layer, the sky, the volcanoes loomed with Popocatépetl holding the torch
for the 17th anniversary of the Festival. Above Ixtlizíhuatl, a poem from
the Popal Vuh, the sacred book of the Mayas, was written. (See figure
44.)
When I first looked at the completed mural, González Valverde
asked me if I recognized the mammoths. He pointed to sorne black dots
with minuscule white marks (represented by x's in figure 44) surround-
ing wisps of smoke painted on the boundary between water and land. The
wisps of smoke represented different ceremonial centers whose names
were written on the right side of the mural. When I asked him about the
series of hieroglyphs resembling an icon at the center, he explained that
only clan members could decipher them. It was not until after the Festival
when González Valverde was viewing slides of the mural that he
volunteered the central message of the hieroglyph.
Tepetlacatl
Anáhuac Tulpetlac
---------_____________________________________________________________A\L________________________________________________________________________ _
Figure 44. Diagram ofMexican float mural
Inscribed within the lower mound aboye Chimalhuacán were three
sets of five dots in a roW. First he caBed my attention to the dots, then,
after a reflective pause, explained, "Those dots represent the people who
died of suffocation while crossing the [Mexico-U.S.] border in a freight
train. This mural is in homage to them. "45 This tragedy had recently
occurred and had received national media coverage. He then explained
that the dots, the symbols of the immigrant-which were to him the
symbols of the New World man-held the meaning of the mural. The
mural was an offering to the parade and the Latino community as weB as
an homage to the dead immigrants, a tragedy which accentuated the
plight of American mano But ultimately it was a códice, a message he
was sending to his clan at home. On the right-hand side, González
Valverde had signed the mural.
188 Creating a Latino Identity in the Nation 's Capital
At once a personal, an ethnic, and a cosmic representation, the
Mexican parade unit captured the different modes of identity enacted in
the parade. Although to the general Festival audience it was just another
national ethnic unit, it served González Valverde as a source offamiliar
symbols for redefining ethnicity. Through the mural and fioat, a typical
display backdrop and pageant of national identi ty, the parade unit parti-
cipants again said who they were by showing what they were not.
However, the coded meaning of the mural, as explained by its creator,
was an existential understanding of "a culture more than one hundred
years old" that was radically different from the more obvious celebration
of a romantic, remote past represented by a typical presentation ofheroes,
legends, and national symbols.
At the margins of the Festival and of the cornmunity, González
Valverde assumed the role ofthe cronista connecting his personal history
to the cosmic history ofthe origin of man in the New World, and finally
to the history ofmigration. This he linked with current history, and with
the continuing history of migration through the experience of undocu-
mented Americans and the emerging Latino communities throughout the
United States.
The three examples shared cornmon elements, converging visions of
history, and multiple identities. But each presented a unique statement.
The colonial town plan, the liberated zone, and the sacred centers were
complementary facets of a complex Latino cosmology. The Chichicas-
tenango townfloat, the comparsa's display ofregional costumes, and the
representations of legends and traditional folk dramas represented a
syncretic past. The syncretic past was directIy linked with the syncretic
future by the solidarity representations of today's struggles and the on-
going syncretizing experience happening in Washington, where indi-
viduals are both categorized into national or ethnic groups and then
lumped together as immigrants. Each parade unit contributed to the
protean definition of "Latino."
The different parade units selected images and decorative material s
from a cornmon pool influenced by a shared parade aesthetic. They
created designs using souvenirs, historicallandmarks, and heroic figures
to display, intensify, or masquerade reality. They used national colors to
identify with their country or to make a commentary on a political
The Festival Parade 189
situation. The various enactments represent different perspectives. The
Guatemalan unit addressed primarily the local ethnic community. The
series of solidarity units concentrated on promoting a Third World
consciousness. Dressed in the garb of ethnicity, the Mexican unit focused
on the cosmic nature of the American mano All struggled with a multi-
plicity of identities and contexts from the most intimate to the cosmic,
constantly re-defining insider-outsider boundaries, negotiating cultural
space, and collaborating with each other and with the audience in the
creation of identity.
NOTES
l. Segment of a poem submittGd in 1987 to the parade cornrnittee as a
description of the Spanish float. Translation by author.
2. See Victor Turner, The Ritual Process (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1977). Turner defines three phases of cornrnunitas, from an existential,
spontaneous recognition of a generic bond, to a more normative organization
toward goals where structure is introduced, to an ideological recognition of a
utopian model of society.
3. See Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Brooks McNamara, "Processual
Performance: An Introduction" in The Drama Review 29, no. 3, T107 (Fall1985)
for a basic definition of processual performance which includes parade,
procession, and pilgrimage.
4. See Frank Mal1l1ing, ed., The Celebration of Society: Perspectives on
Contemporary Cultural Peiformance (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University
Popular Press, 1983),24,26.
5. For discussions on cultural performance see Mal1l1ing, The Celebration
of Society, and John MacAloon, ed., Rite, Ritual, Drama, Festival, Spectacle:
Rehearsals Toward a Theory ofCultural Peiformance (Philadelphia: Institute for
the Study of Human Issues, 1984).
6. See Robert J. Smith, The Art ofFestival (Lawrence: University ofKansas
Press, 1975), 46-60. John MacAloon, "Carnival in Multiple Planes" in Rite,
Ritual, Drama, Festival, Spectacle, 208-240, also examines the relationships of
roles, objects, and actions in carnival processions. For a more general discussion
on material culture and celebrations see Victor Turner, ed., Celebration: Studies
in Festivity and Ritual (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982).
7. The most radical example is the Panamanian unit that usually features a
comparsa and a dance group, each representing opposing factions in the F esti val.
Each group ofien contests control of the float, and ofien the conflict is resolved
190 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital
with one faction controlling the queen's car and the other the folkloric float.
Interestingly enough, the cont1ict between the two factions only surfaces during
the Festival. For further discussion on this group see Chapter 4.
8. Two baImers were carried at the head ofthe 1985 Guatemalan unit. One
read "Folklore" and the other "Mi Bella Guatemala."
9. The Washington Post, 29 July 1985.
10. See Ronald L. Grimes, Symbol and Conquest: Public Ritual and Drama
in Santa Fe, New Mexico (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976).
11. Indeed, the Festival founders counted on this appeal for the success of
the first Festival. As described by Bill Brown in Chapter 4, in the early Festivals
the parade units were few, but the parade became massive as the different
national groups joined their unit. In later years, when the police and parade
organizers limited the parade to paraders only, the crowds continued to
demonstrate their solidarity by cheering from the sidelines.
12. In Washington, D.C., soccer plays a central role in structuring social and
recreational life. In many cases, the soccer network extends into the work
domain. A one-time Salvadoran soccer player and now coach in Washington
relates how he carne to this country as a soccer pI ayer but was able to get jobs as
a painter through his soccer networks (Francisco "Francés" Ortiz, interview by
author, Washington, D.C., 28 January 1988).
13. See, for example, Gonzalo Mejía Ruiz, "Las fiestas populares del
'corpus' en Guatemala," Tradiciones de Guatemala 8 (1977): 9-43.
14. The quetzal is the national bird ofGuatemala.
15. See William A. Christian, Jr., Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981)~ J01m M. Ingham, Mary, Alfichael
and Lucifer: Folk Catholicism in Central Mexico (Austin: University ofTexas
Press, 1986); and Grimes, Symbol and Conquest, on the participation of folk
drama and dance groups in fiestas.
16. See Peter Seitel, "Presenters Guide to the Festival of American
Folklife," Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Office of Folklife
Programs, 1985, photocopy oftypescript, on a discussion ofthe representation of
living traditions.
17. The Guatemalan cornmunity has symbolically and physically carved out
a space in the Church of the Sacred Heart. In 1985, they cornmissioned a
saint-maker in Guatemala to make an image of the Christ of Esquipulas, also
known as the Black Christ, patron of Guatemala. Following a ceremony, the
Christ was permanentIy placed in a ni che at the Church of the Sacred Heart. A
fiesta de costumbre ís celebrated yearly in his honor. See Rubén E. Reina,
"Annual Cyc1e and Fiesta Cyc1e," in Handbook ofMiddle American Indians 6,
ed. Manning Nash (Austin: Uníversity ofTexas Press, 1974).
The Festival Parade 191
18. See Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Min ia tu re, the
Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Baltimore: John Hopkins University
Press, 1984).
19. These spatial relationships are typical infiesta parades or processions.
See Smith, The Art ofFestival.
20. Robert Smith in The Art ofFestival examines the role ofthreshold in a
Peruvian fiesta patronal. For a more general discussion on threshold and
conununitas see Victor Turner, The Ritual Process (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1977),94-130.
21. See Richard Morse, El Espejo de Próspero: un estudio de la dialéctica
del nuevo mundo (Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1982). Nelson Graburn in
the introduction to Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the
Fourth World, ed. Nelson Graburn (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1979),29, examines the national and cornmercial manipulation ofthe dynamic
tension between the cornmon syncretic pattern and the specific cultures. He
states, "In the Americas, each large nation has taken the arts of its crushed
former peoples and erected them as symbols of 'national ethnicity' to distinguish
each from the other, and all of them from their European homeland. . . [to 1
institutionalize the monuments of conquered peoples and encourage the nostalgic
cornmercial productions of their poverty-stricken descendants."
22. Black cultural elements predominate over indigenous elements in floats
designed by ethnic groups from the Caribbean. In the case of South American
groups, like those from Peru, the Black element appears only with folk dramas
that in many cases can be traced back to Spain. See Arturo Warman, La Danza
de moros y cristianos (Mexico: Sep/Setentas, 1972), and Smith, The Art of
Festival.
23. The inscription on the 1985 Salvadoran t1oat.
24. As discussed in Chapter 3, the impact of refugees from the Cuban
Revolution was largely on the organizationallevel ofthe Festival. As discussed
in Chapter4, the core group ofCubans who orgaIlÍzed the early comparsas were
not directIy associated with irnmigrants from the Cuban Revolution.
25. Pedro Avilés, interview by author, 1985.
26. Avilés, interview.
27, María Stella Dabancens discusses her perception of the folklorization
process which occurs within the Chilean representation. "Sínce I've be en here
(1976), the Chilean Embassy has always participated in the Festival with its
float, un carrito bien elegante (a very elegant float), with its people dressed like
chinas y guasos, what we call the peasant (women aI1d men) in my country, but
in the outfits of the patrones, the terratenientes, latifundistas, the bosses, the
landowners. The peasant wears white shirt and pants, and a lot of grey and black.
192 Creating a Latino Identity in the Nation 's Capital
Every year, the Embassy and its people perform folkloric dances and bear
banners reading Viva Chile as if nothing were happening in the country,"
(Interview and translation by author, Washington, D.C., 24 May 1984). See Dell
Hymes, "In Vain 1 Tríed to Tell You" (Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania
Press, 1981), on accountability to the audience and the success of perfonnances.
28. Enrique Orellana, interview and translation by author, Washington,
D.C., 9 February 1988.
29. On reversal and camival humor see Peter Burke, Popular Culture in
Early Modem Europe (New York: New York University Press, 1978); Mikhail
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968), 196- 277;
Barbara Babcock, "The Novel and the Camival World," Modem Language Notes
89 (1974): 911-937; and James Peacock, "Symbolic Reversal and Social History:
Transvestites and Clowns ofJava," ínReversible World, ed. B. Babcock (Ithaca:
Comell University Press, 1978), 209-224.
30. According to Horacio Quintanilla, one of the designers, these images
embedded in an innocuous touristic float would spark interest in leaming about
Farabundo Martí through recognition of Archbishop Romero (R. Horacio
Quintanilla, interview by author, Washington, D. C. , 19 May 1984). The
campaign to recognize Martí as a hero ofEl Salvador had already been initiated
in other ways in the cornmunity, including the playful renaming of a neighbor-
hood park at the intersection of Colombia Road and Mt. Pleasant A venue
"Parque Farabundo Martí." This is not uncornmon. Meridian Hill Park, located
on 16th Street, known in the 1930s for its jazz concerts and later the site for
African American and African celebrations, is also known as Malco1m X Park.
31. The Festival this year was under the control of the progressive fachon
in the cornmunity, which called forth more intense scrutiny by the old guardo
32. A preamble to the perfonnance in the parade was arranged with Teatro
Nuestro, a cornmunity theater group, who platmed a guerilla theater perfonnance
for a public park prior to the Festival. The park perfonnance was interrupted by
the police the moment the actors jumped out of a pick-up truck with plastic toy
bazookas and rifles. It seems that the police at the park were not aware the group
had a perfonning pennit.
33. Leslie Kuter is a local artist who has become known for her politically
satirical yam paintings. In the 1980s she began to address in her work issues
relating to Central America and began to collaborate with solidarity groups. This
is not unusual among the socially cornmitted sector of artists in the city. In 1984
an exhibitionJauction called "Artists Call" was organized in solidarity with artists
in Nicaragua. The exhibition was held at the Washington Project for the Arts.
34. Los Historiantes is the Salvadoran version ofthe Moors and Christians
folk drama.
The Festival Parade 193
35. The Gigantona (giant woman) and the Enano Cabezón (large-headed
dwarf) are survivors ofthe Spanish minstrel tradition. They satirically portray the
"myth ofwhiteness" introduced by the conquistadors. The couple is well known
in Nicaragua as the giant fair-skümed woman and her short mestizo beau· their
relationship dates back to the colonial area. '
36. María Stella Dabancens, interview and translation by author, Washing-
ton, D.C., 24 May 1984.
37. Quintanilla, interview.
38. Victor Tumer, ed., Celebratíon: Studies in Festivity and Ritual
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982),29.
39. A central theme ofthe Mexican float.
40. A large number of Mexican Americans migrated to D.C. during and
after World War n, filling newly created govemmentjobs, but few associated
with the Latino cornmunity. Among Mexicans it has become a joke that,
whenever two meet, the initial conversation usually begins with "You're
Mexican? 1 didn't think there were many Mexicans in the cornmunity." The
organizing group at the parade committee meeting had only been organized for
six months. It called itself"Club Mexico." Its plan was to hold parties to identify
other Mexicans in the area. One of the founders is María Beltrán, a stalwart
parade participant from its early days.
41. Eugenio González Valverde, interviews and translation by author,
Washington, D.C., 20, 25 & 26 July 1987.
42. María Beltrán' s persistence in representing her country in every Festival
parallels that ofthe Guatemalan Doña Lucita Sigüenza, introduced earlier. There
are several other individual s in the cornmunity who feel this responsibility for
their country.
43. !bid. Dean MacCannell's analysís 111 The Tourist (New York: Schocken
Books, 1976) supports González Valverde 's statement. MacCannell states "The
more 1 examined my data, the more inescapable became my conclusio~ that
tOUfist attractions are an unplanned topology of structure that provides direct
access to the modem consciousness or 'world view,' that tourist attractions are
precisely analogous to the religious symbolism of primitive peoples."
44. This idyllic legend, like many others glorifying the indigenous cultures
of the Americas, serves as typical thematic material for ethnic floats in the
United States and in Latín America. Aesthetically, the stereotypical embellish-
ments developed around these legends lend themselves to creating exotic and
colorful displays. These legends are actually about the history of the c1ash
between colonial Spanish and indigenous cultures which is resolved in the heroic
indigenous prince/warrior figure, be ít Popocatépetl in Mexico, Tucum Uman of
194 Creating a Latino ldentity in the Nation 's Capital

Guatemala, or Tupac Amaru of Peru, who symbolicalIy triumphs but in reality

CHAPTER 7
is conquered and oppressed.
45. This is in reference to a tragedy that occurred a few weeks prior to the
parade.
Conclusion

Afier the parade, the crowds resumed their promenading, vIsltmg,

tasting, and general carousing until the police closed the Festival and
re-opened the streets to traffic. Columbia Road retumed to everyday
reality. The Festival ended, but the sense and reality of the Washington
Latino community persisted. The Festival effectively unified diverse
Latin American immigrant groups and provided them an arena for
creating a synthetic Latino identity, claiming a space in the national
consciousness, and defining a place in the nation's capital.
A combination of circumstances-economic and political conditions
in home countries, world events, and the fact that Washington, D.C., is
the capital of the United States-brought together these diverse Latin
American immigrant populations. In transition between two worlds, they
began the process of making this country their new home and the process
of defining "American" for thcmselves. They became the most recent
players in the outsider-becomes-insider social drama that characterizes
the American experience. They used community and identity as tactical
social and affective constructs to come together and transform their
differences into a dynamic diversity.
The central stage for this social drama was the Latino Festival,
celebrated annually in the Adams Morgan and Mt. Pleasant neighbor-
hoods from 1970 to 1989. The Festival staged a cultural performance of
community and identity that strengthened, altered, shaped, and reshaped
social and political networks among these diverse groups of immigrants

195