Diez y Ocho de Septiembre--Felices Fiestas Patrias!

How can I describe the madness of Fiestas Patrias and make it real to you? If you think Americans burst with patriotism, proudly display the American flag, drink too much and throw incredible parties on Independence Day, let me just say that we've got nothing on the Chilean celebrations of their country and its independence. Our celebrating in Chile lasted for four days, from the 18th of September to the 21st, in which I ate at five different barbeques. By the end of the celebrations, just thinking about meat made me feel a little sick, and I really wanted a big salad.

Nearly every house displays their Chilean flags, either from flag poles or hanging in the windows. Here's our house with our flag in the front window.

One of the coolest things about Fiestas Patrias is that it is prettymuch a family-oriented holiday. Whereas in the US, the Fourth of July is sometimes more friend-group oriented, Chileans spend every day of Fiestas Patrias with different parts of their family. There are copious amounts of food in the way of empanadas, chilenitas (sweet bread topped with merengue), meat in every form, ensalada chilena (essentially tomatoes, onions, cilantro, oil and salt), wine, chicha (alcoholic, fermented grape business, it tastes like juice, which makes it killer), ponche, beer, and if you can handle it after everything else, hard liquor.

Meat on the barbeque, and this was just for appetizers!

Lots of other fun stuff happens during Fiestas Patrias, too. For instance, the little kids and often adults dress up like huasos and huasas in traditional clothes from el campo (the country). This means girls put on pretty, frilly, brightly-colored floral print dresses. The boys wear ponchos or white shirts with short black jackets, spurs, and black hats that are a cross between sombreros and cowboy hats. It's pretty festive!

The barbeque gets started in my Aunt and Uncle's backyard, and you can see my "neice" Cata in her huasa outfit. Precious!
A huasa kiss!
My cousins Nacho and Emilio are camera whores!
Me with a bunch of short Chilean women and Emilio.
Other festivities of Fiestas Patrias include all sorts of little games, such as tug of war or trompo. Trompo is a top attached to a stick by string, and you have to flip the top up and catch it on the top of your stick. It is pretty hard. We played men vs. women. I think the women won, but there was lots of cheating going on!

Trompo action shots.
My other host brother, Reuben, is a fierce trompo player.
My favorite part of the day was all the dancing we did. We listened to a lot of "traditional" music, which to my ears resembles Mexican music from the campo. We also blasted the ubiquitous reggaeton, to my delight! Then everyone who wanted to entered a dance contest. My cousins put numbers on everyone's back (I was an 8) and you had to find your partner. Then, they played snippets of different types of music and you and your partner had to bust impressive moves. We danced to reggaeton, electronica, salsa, merengue, even Madonna! I was paired with my host brother Lito, and we made it to the final round of three partners! However, the last round screwed us because we had to dance the cueca, the traditional Chilean dance which I have never quite learned. I hopped around to Lito's directions ("This way!" "In the middle!" "Turn!") but it was a mess. We got third place.

The dance contest gets underway.
Gunning for third place!
Look at Emilio go! He definitely beat Lito and me.
After the dance contest, there was lots more cueca danced. The cueca is modeled after the flirtation of a rooster and a hen. You hop around in a figure 8 while twirling or hiding behind a handkerchief, and sometimes there is stomping, and the spectators clap to the beat and whistle. It is actually a pretty sexy dance, if you can get beyond the fact that it is all about conquest and domination! After six months in Chile, I can. It was fun to watch all the cueca happening, and even participate a little!

Nacho and Cata dance the cueca.
Lito and his daughter dancing the cueca. Preciosos!
Chileans love to make the gringa dance the cueca, especially since I didn't know how. Here I am trying my best with Rodrigo.
Everyone dances the cueca on Diez y Ocho!
I'm not sure what's happening in this picture, but I like it. My cousins are locos!
After we worked up an appetite with all that dancing, it was time for the asado! Actually after a full afternoon of snacking and drinking, I wasn't sure how much more I could eat, but once the meat arrived, it wasn't hard. There was every type of meat imaginable, including pork, longaniza (pork sausage), beef, chicken. At one of the other asados, I even ate barbequed cow udder at Lito's suggestion. It was pretty good! I basically ate meat and vegetables, since they had my new favorite dish, beets! The vegetables helped refresh and rehydrate after my plate of meat.

Part of the group chowing down...see how seriously I was gnawing on my carne?
I would like to lie to you and say that after the asado, things got crazy. Instead, I took an hour-long nap on my Aunt and Uncle's bed. It made me miss my American brother, because we always nap on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner. When I woke up, I wanted to go out dancing with Felipe and our group of cousins, but I went to round everyone up and Emilio was passed out and Nacho was about to take a nap too, so my dreams of partying died. It was okay, though, because I felt like I was carrying a bowling ball in my belly!