Zula Party

I've finally been able to get my videos of Zula to work on this site so I'll post them while I can. The town of Zula and indeed all of the region is full of native Indians who work hard and earn little. Every once in a while, though, they like to relax and throw a party. When I traveled to Zula it was the grandomothers 90-something birthday and the entire extended family was all there.

In an earlier post about the mini-blimps they sent off I mentioned that they were for the birthday and some saint, turns out I made a cultural mistake. The saint and the grandmother are actually one and the same, they say she is the saint because her birthday is her special day, just as in the Catholic church they have hundreds of saints and they all get their own day to be remembered. Being Mormon, I did not know much of this tradition so I didn't catch on at first. When it was my own birthday and people were calling me a saint I got a little weirded out by it, but once explained, it makes perfect sense.

Burning a tire for fun. What else is there to do in Zula, honestly? I didn't exactly find a dance club next to any cattle houses over there. Not even a tiny store.


Good old fashioned dancing to folksy music.


The whole time I was there they kept telling me the "vaca loca" was coming. I was like, wth? The crazy cow? Is this some kind of santa-type deity who visits the faithful and bestows milkshakes and cheese? You can see for yourselves what it is.


An old, old song, sung by the grandmother and her sister. The reason the other women are crying in the video is because the grandmother cannot remember anybody or anyone anymore, yet somehow still remembers this song and sings it beautifully. It takes them a minute to start singing.