La Cruz al Valle de Lluta

Before I start this, sorry for the typing mistakes, the computer I did this on doesn't have english spellcheck number two, it took forever to upload on this computer, but I hope this is something cool for you guys to check out, so I spent the time on this thing to get it out.

This past weekend we went to the valley of Lluta, which is a 40 minute drive from our house in Arica.  21st of May was the big date, the date for the celebration.  However 2 weeks before this, we went to Lluta to bring the cruz/cross down.

At first I was told that this was all about faith, doing multiple/many things for the cruz, yes I can say it's a bit more than just about faith, but about sacrifice as well.  Boris had to spent a pretty penny on everything that occurred this weekend...

I'll try and get this in chronological order, but forgive me if I get a on a tangent here or there.

So, this all starts with the supposed 'drug deal' that occured when it really just was two scarves for the cross.  They are blue and decorated, however after a week of having these scarves(I don't know a better word for them...) we went to Lluta, We climbed up the hill(I´d call mountain) and got the crosses.  This was done with a few beers and a kind of procession on the way down.  Once we got the crosses back to the 'house' in Lluta, here is where a lot of people came from Arica and we had a religious type ceremony.  They took the old scarves off and we replaced them with the new ones.  We also had a large bottle of wine, and each person spilt a bit of wine on each of the four corners of the base/alter of the crosses.  This was to comemerate sacrifice and blessing of tierra madre(mother earth/god).  After, two by two, we all went up to crosses/altar and put some insence on a pan of burning carbon(the same wood used for asados) and blew the smoke/insence to the crosses, after some people said a prayer and/or kissed the scarves.

Well, all of the photos I took of that were stored on my now broken laptop... However, the crosses/alter and all were placed on the side of the garage, with a large white sheet covering the back of the wall.  There were flowers there placed every couple of days and candles that were continuiously replaced for the entire 3 weeks of the crosses being at the house.

This is what it looked like everyday, The picture is of my host-grandparents that live with me.



The tuesday before bringing the cross back up to the concrete alter on the 'mountain' most of the people who came this past saturday went to mass with us. The crosses were blessed by the priest after communion.  When we arrived to the house, a band was there and greeted us with music.  We had a lot of finger food/appetizers and some beers for the musicians/guys(us) at this 'reception'.

Yes, that is Mother Mary above the altar, not Jesus...

Video of music in garage.

Band symbol on the drums.

Apparently this is just a Chilean tradition from the north.  On our way to the valle of Lluta, I did see a few other crosses high above on the 'mountains'.  However, another tradition, solely in the north is a 'Guatia', or in english, an underground barbaque, this is solely a northern chile tradition, because of the heat, you would not be able to do this in the US, maybe the desert in Arizona or Nevada, but not in Chicago or the south of Chile for that matter.

La Cruz en Lluta.

Claudia comemorating the Guatia with wine, before traveling to put the crosses up on the mountain.  We all, well most of us, did the same thing, with the altar of the crosses, 2x2 poured wine in all four corners, I asked if I could put a cross in the middle and was denied.

Band praying before the trek.

Guatia Lit.

Our trek up the mountain/hill was a big procession, but before, we made the trek up the mountain during the morning.  I worked with a cool guy from Peru.(forget his name, it was hard to prounce, called him compadre/buddy, everyone else did too).  Anyway Boris, Compadre, Tonio(my uncle that lives with us), Boris' dad and I went up during the day.  This was tough, we had 5 cases of beer, and around 12 bamboo torches for the way up/down.  We used a wheelbarrel for half the way up, compadre and I took it up.  I carried the wheelbarrel while he led the charge with his belt around the front of it.  This wasn't too hard we usually stopped after 10-20 yards depending on where the next torch was put.  And well we cracked a beer at every other stop. (yes my kind of work).

Now the actual procession. It was lead by Compadre and Claudia's dad, they lit the torches on the way up. Following not too closely behind was Boris' dad, and his sister.  They had two candles that led the next charge up.  Following them, but they quickly got passed, was Jorge(one of Boris' friends from college, cool dude) and Claudia's cousin, they carried the arc that was covered with flowers that compadre and I put on the night befrore(among other things).  After them was Boris and Claudia, carrying the actual crosses.  And following them, was a massive amount of people, including the band.  We all stopped before the steepiness got too bad and most of the people who couldn't make the climb, kissed the scarves and walked away, some of the people were crying or had tears in their eyes.  

Crossing the street to get to the mountain to make the trek.

Martina y Julia kissing the cross, they will not make the trek, while other have some tears.

Lighting up the torches.

Another look to show the steepiness.

The band didn't play on the way up.  I helped Boris' dad and his sister on the way up, I was behind them the entire time, catching them a few times to get them back on their feet/stable again.  Once we got to the top, fireworks were going off, beer, yea some beer and oh some more beers were passed around.  Boris gave a speech, the band played.  We danced(like the circle dance at the school 'last supper' lunch, except boris and claudia where in the middle doing some kind of two partner dance), some prayed after.  This was fun, here is some media:

A look at the cruz, concrete altar up on the hill.

Fiesta at the top, A look at the entire valley too.

On the way down, I am not going to lie, Boris' dad was drunk, I had a few, but was ok, and we were locked arm and arm for the way down.  Now it is super dark, with only 12 torches from top to bottom.  We were cocky at first, haha, yea we had an arm around eachother and a beer in the other hand, we got about 30 feet in this manner and fell. We both instantly tossed our beers and fell about 2 more times on the way down. Haha, even the trek down was kinda fun, a bit tipsy, falling here and there.  Boris' dad kept going fast to be close to the band and singing the songs as the band played on the way down.

Once we got back to the house in Lluta, We had a huge Asado, We had potatoes, corn on the cob, a full goat, which was freshly killed that day, and some chicken, and of course some wine.

They cover up the pots with the dirt and use the rocks that have been roasting for several hours to cook everything, some rocks were put inside some of the pots for the meat.

After eating, the band got all set up and played many tunes many of us danced, yes I did, I danced with everyone and anyone, my host-grandma kept denying me, but I finally got her to dance at the end of the night.  All in all it was really fun, and a huge cultural difference.

Houses in Lluta.

I took a bus back to Arica with Compadre, and the host grandparents that live with us and Julia, the nanny.  I slept most of the day and as soon as I got home.  I was in Lluta for Almost 3 days with no shower, it got freezing in the night and I made the mistake of not going to the bathroom before going to bed, had to go in the middle of the night and froze for about an hour before I started sleeping again...

On a sidenote, I went number 1 out of number the 2 hole, like terribly on Sunday night. I think it was the dirt in the Guatia... And I lose everything, left my darn sandals in Lluta, totally forgot I had them there. Shouldn't have brought them anyway...