Having not gone to the Paucartambo festival was quite unfortunate, for I know I would've understood and pícked up on things that I wasn't able to while watching the video, also due to the fact that I only got to see part of the festival already limits my ability to understand the whole ceremony.

The "Virgen del Carmen" festival takes place during a few days where townspeople dress up in costumes to dance and tell a story, some of them have learnt since very little on how to dance and be a part of the festival. Its a tradition that has lasted many generations, meaning that there has to be something in it that transcends till today.

Different comparsas (dance groups) go out and dance, some like the Maqtas interact a lot more with the audience than the others, but the main "plot" that I could recognize was the guerrilla, the fight between the Qhapac Chuncho and the Qhapac Collas. This fight represents the merging of the jungle and andes people of the inca empire, which brings us to question, how is this remotely related to the "Virgen del Carmen"?, the answer is probably that it isnt, its as if the people from the andes have used the Virgen del carmen religious celebration as an excuse and mask to be able to show their real history and traditions
 when the Spaniards were supressing any sort of indigenous religion. This idea of the mixing of both cultures is seen everywhere in the festival, from the costumes to the music, everything shows the adaptability of the Andean culture to others, and how they take all the good thinks they can learn form other cultures and integrate it into theirs, like the crafting of masks for example, which is a European tradition. Having been born in Peru, I have to say that the closest ive come to understanding my country's history is through pages in a textbook, but this kind of celebration is an example of living history, which changes and adapts everyday to our everyday needs and events.

The whole celebration seems very festive and happy, people from all around the city come together and celebrate, its a community thing, so it helps keep the community together too, this is something that I don't see much in modern cities, and maybe that is why people aren't as close and united with their community in modern cities as they are in provinces and the countryside. I do think that the celebration also reminds the people of their identity, brings them back reminding them where they came form, and i think that is important for us as human beings to know, where we came from.

Here in lima, is there an equivalent of the paucartambo celebration in terms of bringing the people together?