page_title: Diablada
section_title: Independence and the transition to the Carnival
hierarchical_section_title: Diablada / History / Colonial history / Independence and the transition to the Carnival
caption_attribution_description: Español: Máscaras del Carnaval de Oruro en el Museo Británico. English: Masks of the Carnival of Oruro in the British Museum.
context_page_description: The Diablada or Danza de los Diablos, is an original and typical Andean dance characterized by the mask and devil suit worn by the performers. The dance is a mixture of religious theatrical presentations brought from Spain and Andean religious ceremonies such as the Llama llama dance in honour of the Uru god Tiw, and the Aymaran miners' ritual to Anchanchu.
context_section_description: The cult of the Virgin of the Candlemas, was then spread throughout the Andes reaching, Oruro and to the west to Puno. In Oruro there is a Sanctuary in honour of the Virgin of Socavón (or Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Mineshaft) who was originally the Virgin of Candlemas traditionally honoured on 2 February, like in Puno,  but later the date was moved to Carnival; this transition is product of the Bolivian War of Independence.
  There is a legend that says that on the Saturday of Carnival in 1789 a bandit known as Nina-Nina or Chiru-Chiru was mortally wounded in a street fight and before dying he was confronted by the Virgin of the Candlemas. Some versions state that he used to worship a life-size image of the Virgin painted in a wall of a deserted house, some say that the painting miraculously appeared on the wall of the bandit's own house after his death. And the legend is concluded with the tale of the troupe of devils dancing in honour of the Virgin in the next year's Carnival. The present sanctuary in Oruro was completed in 1891.
  However, according to the Ph D in religious studies and Executive Director of the Wisconsin Humanities Council at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Max Harris, this legend is related to a historical reality. During the Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II,  which started in Cusco and spread along the Andean highlands, Oruro experienced a brief but bloody revolution as well. Pushed by the fear of being target of the indigenous revolution, the majority Creole on the night of Saturday, 10 February 1781, attacked the minority ruling class of the peninsular-born Spaniards (Spanish: chapetones) . With the arrival of the Indigenous army the Creoles made an alliance.
  On 15 February, a messenger arrived in Oruro with orders from Túpac Amaru II. He instructed his army to respect churches and clergy, to do no harm to Creoles, and to prosecute none but chapetones. And assured the victory by entering in La Paz "by Carnival (por Carnestolendas)", the Indigenous occupation of Oruro started to retreat leaving several thousands of deaths. But during March and April they launched more attacks to the city this time against the Creoles and the remaining Spaniards who unified forces to repel them.
  Harris observes that the Carnival of the year of 1781, fell on 24 February, placing Oruro's occupation exactly halfway between Candlemas and Carnival, making the situation in Oruro in Harris' words, "carnivalesque". Religious processions duelled with secular parades. Europeans and Creoles disguised as Indigenous, cases like a Spaniard resorting to cross-dressing tin a vain attempt to save his life and thousands of armed men in the streets of the colonial city. By 19 February people in the city regardless of the conflict continued celebrating and, throughout Carnival, the city markets were full of robbers selling the looted gold and silver back to its owners or to cholos and mestizos. By 1784 it was customary to rejoice, dance, play, and form comparsas (companies of masqueraders) for the Carnival in Oruro.
  Harris considers that with this background is that the legend of the Virgin of the Mineshaft in 1789 appeared favouring the rebellion as they worshiped the Virgin of Candlemas while the chapetones used to worship the Virgin of the Rosary. Under the beliefs of the revolutionaries, the Virgin of the Socavón tolerated the indigenous deities or devils and, according to Harris, if the legend is correct, by 1790, Oruro's miners had moved Candlemas to Carnival and added indigenous gods, masked as Christian devils, to the festivities.
  In 1818, Oruro's parish priest, Ladislao Montealegre, wrote the play Narrative of the seven deadly sins, where according to Harris and Fortún, borrowed elements of the Catalan Ball de diables like the female devil, Diablesa in the Catalan dance and China supay in the Diablada and where the Devil leads the Seven Deadly Sins into battle against the opposing Virtues and an angel. Harris suggests that Montealegre may have wanted to represent the threat of rebellion and the historical context with this pla
caption: Different models of Diablada masks in an exhibition in the British Museum.
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