ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Guanajuato's Cervantino festival comes to grips with its ambivalent identity </TITLE> <BODY LINK="#808080" VLINK="#808080"> <CENTER><P> <TABLE> <TBODY> <TR> <TD width=500> <CENTER><B>Guanajuato's Cervantino festival comes to grips with its ambivalent identity</B> <BR>By Jonathan Clark<P> <FONT color=#808080>This story was originally published in the Mexico edition of <I>The Miami Herald</I> on Oct. 19, 2004. </CENTER></FONT> <P> GUANAJUATO - At the Esplanade of the Alhondiga de Granaditas, the choral harmonies of South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo soared out over the overflowing crowd of locals, tourists and dignitaries. Across town, a well-heeled audience filed into the neo-classical Teatro Juarez for a performance of the Baja California symphonic orchestra. On the evening of Oct. 6, 2004, Guanajuato's 32nd annual Festival Internacional Cervantino was officially underway. <P> Meanwhile, in the city's parks, plazas and cobblestone streets, a festival of a slightly different sort was also getting underway. In one alleyway, a crowd of 50 youths - some dreadlocked, some tattooed, and most with at least one piercing - were packed tightly together, gleefully pogo-ing up and down as four or five others pounded out a relentless drum rhythm. At the same time, dozens more of their confreres poured into the city from every direction with backpacks in tow, looking for the best place to camp free of charge. <P> For two-plus weeks every October, the small colonial city of Guanajuato becomes the Americas's center for the performing arts. Music, theater and dance groups come from around the country and the world to perform in the city's numerous theaters, temples and outdoor venues as part of the official Festival Internacional Cervantino. But the arts festival constitutes only one part the larger event. Its other major component is a spontaneous, raucous, often intoxicant-fueled street celebration of Mexico's alternative youth culture. The strangely symbiotic relationship of these two very different spectacles has ultimately provided the Cervantino with a truly unique identity and energy. <P> In the beginning, it was the arts festival that grew out of the street festival. A group of street performers began presenting the Entremeses Cervantinos (Short Works of Cervantes) in one of the town's plazas, and as the event grew in popularity, the performers sought and gained government funding. The Festival Internacional Cervantino was born. <P> But even after the event had been co-opted by the mainstream, the street festival flourished as young people continued to pour into the city each year to party in the streets. The two parallel events became intertwined in the popular conception of the Cervantino, to the increasing chagrin of the organizers of the official festival. <P> A recent controversy over the official festival poster - an annual collectors item for festival fans - illustrates the growing tension. This year's version, selected by a nationwide panel of judges, featured a 21st-century Cervantes: young, shirtless, tattooed, and sporting both a pierced eyebrow and nostril. When organizers limited its production and distribution, the designer decried the directors as elitist and as disrespectful of Mexico's youth. <P> The dual nature of the festival also inspires ambivalent reactions among local residents. Asked what she likes best about the annual event, Gabriela Ramirez, a 32-year-old university administrator, says: "First, I like any sort of contemporary or classical dance performance, and then, I like the 'Hippies.' " <P> The "Hippies" is what locals call the rambling counterculture market that pops up every October to offer festival-goers an assortment of incense, water bongs, Che Guevara t-shirts and handmade necklaces and bracelets. Ramirez says she looks forward to perusing its stalls for the silver and stone jewelry that she says she can't find in town at any other time of the year. <P> But while she enjoys this aspect of the alternative side of the festival, Ramirez also expresses consternation over the drunken, aggressive males who roam the streets, and complains of strangers banging on her window in the middle of the night, demanding to be let in to use the bathroom. "People like my family and I who live in the city center, we see everything going on outside our homes in the streets," she said. "And I mean everything!" <P> A PLACE TO BE FREE <P> For the kids, the anything-goes aspect is a big part of the festival's draw. <P> Nineteen-year-old Julio, from the nearby city of Salamanca, arrived in Guanajuato with a drum slung over his side which he'll play on the streets in hopes of raising a little cash. <P> "For me, (the Cervantino) is a way that I can feel free," he said. "It's a forum where we can come and express the feelings that we, the youth, all have, and where we can get together to promote the movement that we're a part of." <P> Harald, a vendor at the Hippies market, says he comes to the Cervantino more for the tradition of youth unity than to sell his handmade jewelry. He likes meeting kids like Julio and watching this "unique and defining event for Mexican youth." <P> The official festival may be an international event, but the street festival is more a Mexican thing, he says. <P> "Kids come from all over the republic - Chiapas, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, you name it - because this is a unique event in this country where they can express themselves, make friends, and be free." <P> But because heavy drinking, drug use and rowdiness have become expressions of that freedom, festival organizers and local officials have tried to crack down on the street party, or at least to restrict it to areas away from the city center and the official Cervantino events. <P> In the 1990s, they tried luring the kids to an alternative music festival on the outskirts of the city. But when the ensuing noise and rowdiness alienated residents in that area, the festival was abandoned. Then in 2003, the city tried a more forceful approach with a program called "Guanajuato is not an open bar" that saw local, state and federal police patrolling the city streets, confiscating and dumping out suspicious beverages. <P> This year, the city has targeted another issue endemic to the street festival: illegal camping. Though it has never been legal for Cervantino visitors to set up camp in public parks, in years past, officials turned a blind eye to campers in areas like Los Pastitos, a grassy park at the entrance to the downtown. Now police are clearing Los Pastitos free of would-be campers and directing them to private lots that have been converted into temporary, budget-priced campgrounds. <P> Some suggest integrating the kids into the official festival by offering them unused tickets to the official events at a significant discount. But so far, it's not an idea that organizers are embracing. <P> "The price of tickets is already very low, plus with student IDs, they can get another 30 to 50 percent off," said Begonia Bolanos, editorial coordinator for the festival. "But the fact is that these young people come to Guanajuato just to drink and party in the street and they are not interested in going to the events." <P> The kids say this is only half true. <P> Luis, Sahib and Paul, all 16 and all from Salamanca, have arrived in town with packs on their backs and ready to enjoy their fourth Cervantino. "We camp out and drink, check out the Hippies market, see new things, stuff like that," Luis said. <P> Asked if they go to the cultural events, Sahib answered: "Sure, especially the musical events. But we really only go to the free stuff since we don't bring a lot of money." <P></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <P><A href="../stories05.html">back to stories page</A> <div id="footer"> <div id="footer-nav"> <a href="/">Homepage</a> <a href="/stories/stories09.html">Mexico Stories</a> <a href="/border/border.html">Border Stories</a> <a href="/awards/awards.html">Awards</a> <a href="/resume/resume.pdf">Resume</a> <a href="mailto:jonclark500@yahoo.com">E-mail me</a> </div> <!-- Site Meter --> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://s18.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s18jonclark500"></script> <noscript> <a href="http://s18.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s18jonclark500" target="_top"> <img src="http://s18.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s18jonclark500" alt="Site Meter" border="0"/></a> </noscript> <!-- Copyright (c)2009 Site Meter --> </div> </body> </html>