Ccapacc Qolla

A key element was missing from my post about the pilgrimage to Señor de Qoyllurritti: video of the dance. Recently, I was able to film the dance that the Qollas when they presented their dance at the feast of Saint Peterand Saint Paul. Obviously I didn't film the whole thing because it can take as long as half and hour, and it's very repetitive, but here it is:

As you can see, the dance has two parts. In the first part, they offer song to the Lord. The verses are all different, and they're all in Quechua, so I don't know what they're saying. They sing a verse, then dance as the band plays a verse. This pattern repeats until the song is done.

Then we move into the second part of the dance. This is the more exciting part, because the men whip each other. With arms around each other shoulders, two men dance forward and back, kneeling down before an image of the Lord three times. Then they separate. One stands in place while the other dances and displays his whip. At a certain moment, he brings his whip down on his partners lower calf/ankle region. Then the roles are reversed. After the second man is whipped, they trade blows until they stop, or another Qolla throws himself between the pair to separate them. After the whipping, the two men embrace. It's worth noting that if one man doesn't whip hard enough, the crowd will yell out “yachachiq!” which is Quechua for “teach him;” the message is for the other man to whip harder.

Whipping is a integral part of Qoyllurritti. The men whip each other to cleanse each other of sin. They embrace at the end because they are made clean by the stinging efforts of their partner.

This video features Pd. Calilo (he is the first to get whipped). Pd. Calilo is a part of the comparsa of the Qollas, and dances with them most years at Qoyllurritti. He has a bad back, which is part of why he doesn't whip as hard as the other men. There's also the fact that he comes from Lima, and not from farm work. You have to give him credit – he takes his beating without flinching. His incorporation into a local expression of faith is one of the things I most respect about Pd. Calilo.