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Alasitas

Alasitas. By Claudia Jahen.

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Alasitas

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  1. Alasitas By Claudia Jahen

  2. Every 24 of January, people from La Paz concentrate on specific streets around noon waiting for the inauguration where the mayor of the city cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the festival. Alasitas is an annual miniature fair that starts on the summer solstice in La Paz, Bolivia. The things that the people buy are given to the Yatiri to cha’lladar (blessing) with incense, alcohol, wine and later people get blessed in a Catholic church, so it comes true the following year. Alasitas is an Aymaran festival, that means “Comprame” (buy me) in Aymara.

  3. History • This tradition was initially started in 1781 when the governor of La Paz decided to do a festival in honor of Ekeko (the Aymara god of abundance). Since then every paceno celebrates this festival on January 24 exactly at noon and it goes on for three weeks. The main characteristic is that they sell miniatures of all kinds like houses, cars, construction materials, store groceries, etc. The first thing that people buy, though, is money, houses, cards, passports, and luggage full of money

  4. Ekeko • The symbol of this fair is “El Ekeko”. The Ekeko is the god of the abundance for many of the Andes people. They believe that if you ask for something he will return to you in a year. He is stocky and smiling character loaded with a variety of miniatures on his back. Sometimes he has a cigarette in his mouth. Every stand in the fair has at least one Ekeko in their stand. It is fun to see all those stands with him in there.

  5. Once you arrive, the first thing you will see is the section of the “banks”. There are booths with fake money and different documents in miniature you can buy, like your passport if you want to travel some place in the world and you can even choose the passport of a specific country, the most popular of course is the American passport. After that, you will see fake money such as Bolivianos, American dollars and now they have European Euros. Other things that you can buy in these stands are birth certificates, diplomas, newspapers, etc. The next section, you will find the fruit stands. You will find a variety of fruit of the season such as peaches, grapes, etc. There are big, juicy, and are not grown with preservatives. Next to the fruit section is my favorite part, the pastry. There you will find a variety of miniature pastries like wedding cakes, doughnuts, cookies, etc. I love to buy a dozen, and I always ask for a variety so you can taste all the wonderful pastries.

  6. Following the pastry section, you can start to see stands full of miniature groceries like milk, oatmeal, sugar, rice, toilet paper, and cans of different products. You are probably asking yourself if they have the product inside. Some will have some such as a little flour, sugar, rice, etc. A lot of girls like to buy these products so they can play kitchen with their friends and have real things.

  7. You will also see all the miniature crafts that people made. Some of those stands have clothes for dolls. They will have pants, shoes, sweaters and all those are handmade. One of the most colorful clothes is the Bolivian costumes that are used in the traditional dances during the carnival; you can see various costumes for dolls. You can see the dolls wearing these costumes and they look amazing!! They make you think how they do it. I think you need to be an artist to be able to make those things.

  8. Additional sections of this fair are where the games are. A lot of teenagers spend their time with their friends and playing with the foosball tables and other games. It is very popular for them because they can spend some time with friends and have the opportunity to see the stands with all the crafts. Past the game section is the food section. There you will find a variety of food. The most common food you will find is Plato Paceño, which is traditional of Alasitas, consists of corn on the cob, fried cheese, potatoes, fava beans and the llajua (spice salsa). In addition, you can find other typical food from Bolivia too. When it is raining, most of the people like to grab and drink a hot cup of Api with an empanada, so yummy.

  9. The stands are full of the most wonderful crafts you can imagine miniatures that you will never knew they could do it. This fair is a yearly tradition that all the people of La Paz visit but now we are seeing more people visit from other states. Now more tourists come, look at the wonderful cultural tradition that Alasitas is, and see how much it means to the paceños (people from La Paz). We are so proud of this fair and I hope that soon it’ll get international recognition.

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