The St. Peter’s Backyard: a promise

The Parranda de San Pedro, which is commemorated within the cities of Guarenas and Guatire within the state of Miranda, Intangible Heritage of Humanity since 2013 in line with UNESCO and one of the vital standard cultural occasions within the nation, will expertise immediately the reiteration of a memorable occasion, transmitted from technology to technology due to oral testimony. It’s concerning the success of a promise.

The oath of a slave to his severely in poor health spouse has been perpetuated over time, supposedly for greater than 200 years: to exit and dance along with his daughter in his arms, the miracle of surviving some deadly sickness of that point, each June 29, the day of the martyrdom of Saint Peter the Apostle.

Since there aren’t any exact or correctly established data, the origin of the competition is a thriller. An outdated dispute between the cities of Guarenas and Guatire retains alive a wholesome rivalry over their property, extra anecdotal than anything. “It represents the identification the place religion was born and the assumption in a miracle in favor of a slave woman requested by her mom, when there was not hope for a remedy,” mentioned the cultist Isidro Vilera, a dwelling reminiscence of Guatire.

Each June 29, each Mirandino cities welcome guests of any origin, photographers, ethnographic researchers and lovers of traditions to parade the saint in a procession with a colourful choreography that features dances, a sport of flags (pink and yellow within the case of Guatire, the place it’s related to a pact made by liberals and conservatives through the Federal Struggle), to go on pilgrimage to varied properties of promeseros, or dance to the saint in entrance of babies as a logo of excellent omen. Thus they full a mystical circle that takes the city and immerses it in a multitudinous show.

In Guarenas it’s a extra liturgical and household exercise, and in Sarría, Caracas, it has been practiced for greater than 100 years as a spinoff of the Guarenas and Guatire parrandas, which originated from households who migrated to that sector.

In case you will get together immediately

• No start certificates. For years makes an attempt have been made to find out the origin of this custom, however there isn’t any documentation to help it. Guarenas and Guatire dispute its start in one of many candy cane farms within the area.
• Protagonists. The principle characters, highlighted of their blackness with faces varnished with bitumen, are María Ignacia (all the time a person dressed as a lady), the parranderos (dancers, all males), the usual bearer who guides the procession via the totally different streets of the city, the tucusitos who’re the kids who accompany María Ignacia, the coticeros (who dance frantically with leather-based cholas made for his or her sound) and Rosa Ignacia who’s the small rag doll who performs the position of the woman who’s the product of the miracle.