Diablada

Diablada
A Diablada dance squad passing through the streets during the Carnival and Bolivia.
GenreFolk dance
InventorPre-Columbian Andean bolivian, civilizations
Year1500s
OriginAltiplano region, Bolivia, South America

The Diablada, also known as the Danza de los Diablos (English: Dance of the Devils), is an Andean folk dance performed in Bolivia, in the Altiplano region of South America, characterized by performers wearing masks and costumes representing the devil and other characters from pre-Columbian theology and mythology.[1][2] combined with Spanish and Christian elements added during the colonial era. Many scholars have concluded that the dance is descended from the Llama llama dance in honor of the Uru god Tiw,[3] and the Aymaran ritual to the demon Anchanchu, both originating in pre-Columbian Bolivia[4][5]

While the dance had been performed in the Andean region as early as the 1500s, its name originated in 1789 in Oruro, Bolivia, where performers dressed like the devil in parades called Diabladas. The first organized Diablada group with defined music and choreography appeared in Bolivia in 1904.[2][6] There is also some evidence of the dance originating among miners in Potosi, Bolivia,[7] while regional dances in Peru and Chile may have also influenced the modern version.

  1. ^ Kartomi, Margaret J.; Blum, Stephen (1994). Music-cultures in Contact: Convergences and Collisions. p. 63. ISBN 9782884491372.
  2. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001). "Diccionario de la Lengua Española – Vigésima segunda edición" [Spanish Language Dictionary - 22nd edition] (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain. Retrieved 30 November 2009. Danza típica de la región de Oruro, en Bolivia, llamada así por la careta y el traje de diablo que usan los bailarines (Typical dance from the region of Oruro, in Bolivia, called that way by the mask and devil suit worn by the dancers).
  3. ^ "Bolivia (Plurinational State of) - Information related to Intangible Cultural Heritage". UNESCO. 2001. Retrieved 3 October 2009. The town of Oruro, situated at an altitude of 3,700 metres in the mountains of western Bolivia and once a pre-Columbian ceremonial site, was an important mining area in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Resettled by the Spanish in 1606, it continued to be a sacred site for the Uru people, who would often travel long distances to perform their rituals, especially for the principal Ito festival. The Spanish banned these ceremonies in the seventeenth century, but they continued under the guise of Christian liturgy: the Andean gods were concealed behind Christian icons and the Andean divinities became the Saints. The Ito festival was transformed into a Christian ritual, celebrated on Candlemas (2 February). The traditional llama llama or diablada in worship of the Uru god Tiw became the main dance at the Carnival of Oruro.
  4. ^ Rubio Zapata, Miguel (Fall 2007). "Diablos Danzantes en Puno, Perú" [Dancing devils in Puno, Peru]. ReVista, Harvard Review of Latin America (in Spanish). VII (1): 66–67. Archived from the original on 1 April 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
  5. ^ Morales Serruto, José (3 August 2009). "La diablada, manzana de la discordia en el altiplano [The ''Diablada'', the bone of contention in the Altiplano]" (Interview) (in Spanish). Puno, Peru: Correo. Retrieved 27 September 2009.[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ^ http://www.carnavaldeoruroacfo.com/documentos/FORMULARIO%20DE%20CANDIDATURA.pdf Archived 2009-11-04 at the Wayback Machine Compilation of historians, anthropologists, researchers and folklorists about the Carnival of Oruro and La Diablada
  7. ^ Arancibia Andrade, Freddy (20 August 2009). "Investigador afirma que la diablada surgió en Potosí [Investigator affirms that the ''Diablada'' emerged in Potosí]" (Interview) (in Spanish). La Paz, Bolivia. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2009.