Marvin the Martian in La Paz, Mexico. Who’dda thunk it?

Wade’s tooth repair has taken just long enough that we managed to participate in that ironic festival of deferred repentance – Carnaval! We wondered how crazy it would get, here in the city of The Peace, and I’ll try not to sound disappointed as I report that we neither saw, nor participated in, any brazen nudity or wild drinking. In fact, given our expectations of a crazy, debauched Mardis Gras, we were surprised to find that Carnaval in La Paz is more of a family scene.  If anything, the citizens of La Paz need only be forgiven for turning their streets over to aliens. The Sci-Fi kind, of course.

Carnaval La Paz in 2014 was equal parts cotton candy, fuzzy monsters, sixties’ space icons, confused music, fast-talking salesmen, and a whole mess of deep-fried ‘food.’  It was a bit of a shock to find out that the parade theme in La Paz this year had something to do with space movies and television programs produced in the US.  I am sad to report that based on our limited experience of the parades and festivals we have seen in Spain, Canada, France, and now Mexico, Hollywood seems to have taken over as the world’s primary shared cultural experience. That bucket to Hades is getting bigger every minute, and since we’re all in it, I guess we had better start watching more movies or we won’t fit in anywhere, even when we’re traveling internationally.

We never did eat one of these. They were just too big!

But hey, who doesn’t like eating fatty fair food, watching people, and listening to loud music from four stages at the same time? Deep-fried bananas topped with a sauce that looked like chocolate, but wasn’t; ubiquitous fish tacos; giant burros (like burritos) filled with arranchera (marinated beef); ice cream, cerveza, churros by the bagful: these are the Carnaval sins of Wade and Carla, and we don’t plan on giving up any of them for lent. Well, maybe we’ll skip the fried bananas for a while.

We would have had a pancake, but without peanut butter, what is the point? The fried platanos (bananas) are next to the churros.

We were hoping to hear some local music, yet despite being nearly a thousand road miles from the border we heard as much USA music as anything else. We felt displaced: where was Mexico? Where was the ranchera music, or the Banda, or even covers of popular Latin artists singing those emotion-filled ballads with great drums and horns? We only saw one live ranchera group, and it elicited the most spontaneous dancing and sing-along behavior we witnessed all night.  Many bands played to only a few observers, and the live music was often drowned out by the recorded music blasting from giant speakers along the route. The main stage featured USA-styled rock music. Mostly, people walked from booth to booth, and most of the booths were blaring out rap and rock music from the USA.

One of the more ‘authentic’ bands we saw.

Carnaval in La Paz lasts for six days. The parade runs on the last three nights.  We walked the scene daily from Thursday thru Saturday, when we stayed for the first parade.  A vague sense of disappointment drove us to keep returning (that, and the fact that Carnaval takes over the waterfront district, which is our main thoroughfare to the central district where we shop, go to the dentist, etc.). We kept hoping for a more ‘Mexican’ experience, but on every turn it seemed we saw a reflection of our own country.  I sound like an authenticity snob, even to myself.  But we were genuinely puzzled, especially since the audience rarely applauded.  Did the majority of people there like or dislike the music and the parade theme?  Were people offended by the heavy cultural presence from the big guy up north?  Or maybe La Paz really is all about ‘the peace.’  Perhaps Mexico is as much a melting pot as our own country, with neighborhoods and movies and foods from all around the world, and one years’ Carnaval based on US movies is no big deal? Which brings me to our conundrum: when is something a cultural takeover, and when is it simply a universal human experience? English has become the second language of the world, which is as handy as it is embarrassing.  Hollywood movies are translated into dozens of languages; is a movie like Avatar, with its rainforest-like ecosystem, an inherently USA experience, or does it speak equally to the southern latitudes?  Does rock ‘n roll or rap represent only one country, just because that musical style was born in the USA?  What belongs to the US, and what belongs to the world?  To put it another way, when we hear La Bamba or Santana or mariachi music being played at a festival in Washington State, do we feel like the Mexicans are taking over?  Nope. So, chill out, Carla and Wade, and just enjoy the Carnaval.

Cop under serious fire from the bubble gang.

Our favorite moments by far, the ones that made us laugh out loud or share big smiles, were in response to some of the hundreds of children we saw running, walking, skipping, holding hands with moms and dads and grandparents. They were wearing wigs and ears and masks. The middle school girls were on promenade in groups (with moms and aunties trailing behind).  And the littlest kids were dancing, on the street, on the sidewalk, wherever music or drumming could be heard.

Like every festival I have ever been to, you can always count on the little ones to dance, and they don’t worry about whose music it is.  They are the ultimate festivalians, and I wish more of us could remember when we, too, were from that planet. Little kids are scared to death by the extreme rides, and then beg for more. They eat the greasy food and love it, they chase the bubbles, they are captivated by the salesmen and they believe that this time, Dad might actually win the giant stuffed Kermit hanging from the tent wall.  They are exquisitely happy, except when it is time to go home, when they cry inconsolably.  Walking the streets during Carnaval in La Paz didn’t make us wish to be wild and crazy twenty-something’s again. Carnaval made us wish to be toddlers, secure in the love and the safe arms of our families, with the crazy, diverse and colorful world on guilt-free display, just for us.