La Cruz de Botija

My posts are so long. I'm trying to keep this one short and let the pictures do the explaining...

May 1st is Peru's Labor Day. My host family has a tradition exclusive to their family for the night before Labor Day. About 4km outside of Ascope, there is a bend in the road where things start to get a little less flat as you head North and into the cerros (mini-mountains, as one of my visitors called them ;). This is the site of the Cruz de Botjia. A botija is a big ceramic pot and a cruz is a cross. The story my host-grandpa (we'll call him Abuelo) told me is that his grandparents and their families used to live pretty far north of Ascope, some of them even living as far as Cajamarca, the department north of ours. They used to travel to Ascope by donkey to do their buying and selling, and the site of the Cruz de Botija was a stop on the trip for them. They started using it as sort of a wayside to stop and rest. Then after awhile, they put a cross there so that God would bless them on their journey. This was in 1928. I'm not really sure where all the botijas came from. Abuelo said that there are stories about the botijas being found there, but no one really knows for sure where they came from. That's part of the story I'd like to figure out, but I asked a bunch of relatives, and no one could really give me an answer. Anyway, in honor of their relatives, it is now a family tradition to throw a night-long party at the Cruz de Botija every year on the eve of Labor Day. 

I went out to the Cruz with Abuelo Monday morning and helped him paint and get the place ready. We spruced up a few of the botijas and then I painted the steps leading up to the cross bright blue, so that people wouldn't trip on their way up in the middle of the night. I had extra paint, so Abuelo asked me to paint the rocks under the cross and the bench we sat on. Then he made me put my name on a botija as a recuerdo that I was there. Adorable. It was really cool watching him get so into this party. He made sure everything was perfect. There were fireworks, luminaries, music, food, dancing, the whole thing. He did a great job. 

My host fam and I left for the Cruz at about 9pm and lasted until 5am. At around midnight, one of the tias (aunts) lead the rosary, then the dancing, drinking, and fireworks began. It was a lot of fun for me to just chill with my host fam while meeting relatives and watching the older generation enjoy each other's company. Being in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night under the stars in a candlelit clearing was very peaceful, even with the Huayno and Cumbia music blasting through the cerro. Great way to spend the Peruvian holiday. 

The cross sits in that little house up there. I painted all the blue parts. 

Botija. 

At Abuelo's urging, I left my mark :) RDO= Recuerdo.

Getting the cruz ready at the beginning of the night. 

Luminaries. 

Piere burning boughs behind the cross. He liked the smell. 

There is never a shortage of Inca Kola bottles in these parts. 

What the place looked like from the road that night. Preeettty. 

Host Dad, Me, Cousin, Host Mom, and Host Grandma. 

3:00am. Still hanging in there. Shortly after this, I crawled in the back of the truck and found a blanket.