Fuente de Soda: Schop, Cortado, Completo, Cueca Brava & Buddy Richard…

Quick: where was this picture taken?

It’s a pretty safe bet that there’s only one country on Earth that this picture could have been taken.

Do you know?

There are plenty of clues here… Keywords like Fuente de Soda, Schop, Completo, and Buddy Richard are a dead giveaway to the country…
Cueca Brava even provides clues to the city.

Is it clear yet?

Chile of course… that was a no-brainer. But congrats if you named the city as Valparaíso—and quadruple points if you knew the street! (O’Higgins!)

So, for those of you still in the dark… What were the clues? Let’s go through them one by one:

Fuente de soda: a literal translation of the North American “soda fountain,” although in practice, they tend to be more of a type of sandwich shop, rather than the typical ice cream and soda shop that was so popular in the US in the 50s and 60s. For example, I have never seen them serve an ice cream soda (or a banana split or even a sundae), but they do serve beer (schop).

Escudo: One of Chile’s favorite national beers.

Schop: Draft beer. Places that sell schops are often called “schoperías.” As far as I know this is pretty standard Chilensis for a frosty (or not) mug.

Café (express / cortado): Most Chileans tend to drink instant coffee at home (Nescafé, sometimes referred to by purists as “no-es-café” (it is not coffee), has a definite corner on this large market) When they go out, they drink “café café” (coffee-coffee) and say “vale la redundancia” (it bears repeating) to explain that this is no regular coffee (which would be Nescafé) but rather REAL coffee.  And it will probably come in a very small (demitasse) cup and often includes a small glass of soda water and a couple of little butter cookies on the side.
The whole coffee vs Nescafé thing warrants an entry of its own… it’ll happen one of these days.

In the meantime know that if you go to a coffee shop they’ll ask if you want “express” (espresso), cortado (café con leche), or capucchino (don’t be fooled by the name—this version comes with a ton of whipped cream).

Completo: Chilean hot dog topped with an abundance of mayonnaise, (see A Hotdog is Not a Completo).

Menú: You might think that a menu is a list of everything a restaurant has to offer. But you’d be wrong. If you ask for the menu, the waiter will be happy to recite the list of daily specials. If you want to see the full list, you’d better ask for the carta.

Colación: When it comes to lunch, Chileans seem to make a very clear distinction between almuerzo, which is the word we all learned in Spanish class for the midday meal, and colación. The term colación is used in relation to the quick-ish lunch that is eaten at school or work, while almuerzo is the leisurely meal eaten at home.

Cueca Brava: Also called cueca chora or cueca urbana, this is the more bohemian side of the traditional Chilean cueca (the national dance, by the way). Valparaíso vies for the title of king of the cueca. (See Choro el Piernal de la Cueca Chora, and while you’re at it, go ahead and take a look at September-style cuecas at Chile’s Fiestas Patrias: Fondas for September).

Buddy Richard: Chilean singer-song-writer and early pop star Ricardo Roberto Toro Lavín created his stage name by from Buddy Holly and the “Englishification” of his given name Ricardo. Born in 1943, his heyday was in the 1960s and early 1970s, but as this sign shows, still performs on a pretty regular basis.

So how’d you do? Did you know the inside tips to Chile?

Chile’s Fiestas Patrias: Fondas for September

Another major part of Chile’s Fiestas Patrias—Independence Day celebrations—are the “fondas.” Also called “ramadas” because they are often made with branches (ramas) these temporary fairs are set up in parks all over the country for about 10 days of food, games, drinking, dancing, crafts of all sorts, and general good times to be had. Some of the bigger (and/or more rural) ones have rodeos and most will have cueca contests.  There are the municipal versions as well as some of the more popular ones such as the now-famous “Yein Fonda” (which in Chilean sounds just like the actress) and the Guachaca version full of cueca chora.

Fondas kick off the weekend before the September 18^th holiday and close up the Sunday following, although they sometimes reappear as “18 Chico” the following weekend.

Girl in traditional flowered "huasa" dress buys a treat from the organ grinder

They are very family oriented by day, although by no means cheap. Entrance fees can vary widely from a luca or so ($1000 pesos, about $1 USD) to $10,000 pesos for some of the more upscale versions with more bands. And once inside, prices of everything are considerably higher than anywhere else in town.

Price doesn’t seem to matter much though. Families save up to go (reminds me of going to the State Fair as a kid). Organ grinders crank away and the kids line up to buy their pinwheels, slinkies, glow-lights, and other souvenir treats.

Magicians and other entertainers draw crowds

The food is one of the biggest attractions.

This menu for an informal sit-down restaurant offers all the favorites: pork, cazuela, salads, soft drinks, choripan (grilled sausage on a roll), empanadas (savory baked beef or fried cheese pastries), anticuchos (skewered meats), beer, chicha (a partially fermented and very sweet almost-wine), french fries, mote con huesillo (a wheat and peach drink/dessert), terremoto (rustic wine with pineapple sherbet), wine, coffee, or tea.

Pork ribs on the grill, empanadas in the oven

Fried cheese empanadas

Snack food that can be eaten out of hand while strolling through the fonda is perhaps the best of all.

A fan of choripan (note the anticuchos on the grill behind him)

Cueca in Providencia-Fonda at the Parque Inés de Suarez

As night falls and the level of alcohol consumed rises, the families tend to clear out and leave room for the revelers who come for the shows, dancing, and more booze. Amazing quantities of chicha, beer, and wine  are consumed. In fact, this is Chile’s biggest drinking holiday, much akin to New Year’s Eve in the US.

It seems that 2009 is the year of the Cueca Chora (also called Cueca Brava). Young people who were long reticent to twirl their handkerchiefs and stomp their feet have taken new pride in the national dance.

White handkerchiefs fill the air when Las Niñas take the stage

For more on September 18 Fiestas Patrias activities, see “El Dieciocho“.

Concón, Chile: Lookin’ good after 468 years! (Part 2)

Concón, one of Chile’s popular beach resorts, goes all out with murgas, comparsa, cueca, cumbia, ranchera, diablada, and bailes pascuenses to celebrate its 468 years of history.

Candy Vendor, Concón, August 2009

Sunday, August 30, 2009.  The party continues. Last night Concón celebrated its 468^th anniversary with influences from Brazil (samba-esque Comparsas), Colombia (cumbia), Mexico (rancheras and Marco Antonio Solis impersonator), but today it’s all about Chile, with dances from the north, south, center, and even Rapa Nui (which you may think is called Easter Island). (See part 1 of Concón Celebrates here).

But first a bit about the motives behind all this festivity and pageantry. Yes, you knew it was coming… just a little bit of history.

468 years. That’s a long time in the New World. As a point of reference, New York City’s disputed founding date centers somewhere around 1625. Here’ we’re talking about August of 1541, which is pretty impressive considering Pedro de Valdivia had only claimed the territory for the Crown a few months earlier, in February of the same year! It seems they were extracting gold from the Estero Marga Marga (which is now in Viña del Mar) and set up a shipyard in Concón to build a brigantine (a fancy 2-masted sailing ship) to get the haul back to the homeland. Good idea; not so good results… it turns out that there was a mutiny of sorts and the ship got hijacked along with the gold and that was the end of that, but the shipyard continued to operate, along with the Hacienda de Concón there in what was known as Puerto Concón.

Other highlights in its long history include the bloody Battle of Concón in 1891 during a Civil War—approximately half of the 8000 men were killed or injured. Happier times lay ahead, however, and it was named a comuna (municipality) under Limache in 1899 and later switched to fall under Viña del Mar, and only recently, in 1995, did it become the fully independent Ilustre Municipalidad de Concón.

Concón has been a popular seaside vacation spot since 1917 and expanded greatly after the coastal route from Viña to Concón was completed in 1930. The most recent census (2002) showed a population of 32,273 people, pretty much divided miti-miti (half and half) men and women.

Want to know more? You can find plenty more information at the city’s website: www.concon.cl

Ok, so now for what you’re really here for… the pictures!

The show started in the late afternoon with a group of seniors dancing traditional folkloric huaso-and-china style cueca

Señoras preparing to dance cueca in Concón, August 2009

Dancing the Cueca, Concón, August 2009

Next came the Grupo Folklórico Here-Taina, which celebrates the culture and dance of Rapa Nui, the Chilean island territory better known elsewhere as Easter Island.

Grupo Folklórico Here-Taina performs dances from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Jaime Olivares of the Grupo Folklórico Here-Taina

This is a dance group from Concón that performs dances based on those of northern Chile.

Unfortunately I do not know their name (If you know, please tell me so I can give them their due credit!)

Dancers from Concón

As night fell, the guest group Fantasía Folklórica Chilena de la Comuna de Maipú performed a “Diablada,” a traditional dance of Andean cultures in northern Chile as well as Peru and Bolivia. In Chile it is best known in association with the celebration of La Tirana on July 16.

La Diablada (northern Chile), Fantasía Folklórica Chilena de la Comuna de Maipú

The show wrapped up with a lively round of cueca and blasts of chaya (confetti).

The grand finale with confetti, Fantasía Folklórica Chilena de la Comuna de Maipú

Choro el Piernal de Cueca Chora

La Cueca is cool.
Forget the whole huaso bit and the women in the silly square dance type dresses, we’re talking la Cueca urbana, la Cueca brava… la Cueca CHORA!

Quilombo Ediciones 2009

After years of having gym class-style dancing shoved down their throats at any and every cultural event, there’s a quickly growing movement among Chileans to take back the “real” cueca. The cueca that always existed.
The cueca that the  “rotos chilenos” proudly danced in the chinganas, fondas, and ramadas where people from the city and the port went to let their hair down, swill some chicha, hoist a few pipeños, sing a bit, and dance a lot. And that dance was the cueca. A dance that can take flirting to the edge of social mores—without touching—and that when done well, eye-to-eye and with just the right whisk of the pañuelo, turn of the head, tilt of the hip, and stomp of the foot, can bring a flush to the cheeks and set the heart aflutter.

The problem is that until just recently, that spirit of the pueblo cuequero was all but lost, buried under a 1960s wave of imported rock and then appropriated (and toned down) by the military right in the 1970s-80s in an attempt to impose, instill, and imbue “true national values” with an official and state-sanctioned version that involves a manly poncho-wearing huaso patrón who flirts with and wins over a demure and oddly dressed woman called a “china”… Yeah… exactly… No wonder no one I know ever wanted anything to do with it!

La cueca chora, step by step. Illustration by Alberto Montt

But there’s been a movement of late to take back Chile. To take pride in the real Chile. To take a stand and raise the pañuelo.
¡Éjale compadre!, put those hands together chiquillos, clap-clap, clap-clap, and tiki tiki tiki…
Get a guitar, a pandero (tambourine), and a voice and you’re good to go.
Find an accordion and there are definitely some hot times ahead. And there you are…. The cueca is hot and Chile is cool! ¡Chile es choro and la cueca es más chora aún !

Okay, so there’s a lot more to be said about how I feel about Chile in general and the cueca in particular… but all this has been a long-winded wind-up to the real topic of this post, a new book on how to dance the cueca chora.

Editor Camila Rojas (left), author Araucaria Rojas (right) © MSnook 2009

Araucaria Rojas, daughter of the Gran Guaripola himself Dióscoro Rojas (drawing a blank? You’ve got homework: go study up at the Guachacas web site) and who is now finishing up a degree in history, just launched her book “Piernal de Cueca Chora” a guide to everything you need to hold your own amongst the choros, from the color of your pañuelo to just how high to hike your skirt.  ‘Piernal,’ in case you’re wondering, is one of those words invented by necessity because a ‘manual’ refers to something done with the hands, but in this case it’s the legs (piernas) following all the steps that are so explicitly described in words and images (illustrator Alberto Montt of “Dosis Diario” fame weighs in with his signature style). Cousin Camila Rojas edited the book for her newly-formed publishing company Quilombo Ediciones and came up with some pretty clever touches like resolving the twisted spine problem (English books write the title down one side of the spine and Spanish books, the other) by wrapping the book—along with a nifty stamped pañuelo—in a box that allowed her to print the spine in both directions! (¡Bien hecho Camila!).

Chilean journalist /Guachaca Queen Mónica Pérez

The Santiago launch was held last night (Sept 1) at the 100% chileno bar Piojera (could there ever have been any other option?) with a dedication by the paternal Guaripola and the reigning royal Guachacas Queen Mónica Pérez and King Ricarte Soto, among others, followed by a few patitas de cueca, and a healthy round of terremotos and pichanga. Be sure to check out Eileen’s  bearshapedsphere version of the evening—she can even show you food & drink pictures because by that time I was much too busy sipping and munching to take pictures. An excellent way to kick of this month of fiestas a la chilena!

Araucaria and Dióscoro Rojas dancing cueca

Araucaria and Dióscoro Rojas (© MSnook 2009)