(This was meant to be posted last month!)
July 20 is a national holiday in Honduras, dedicated to Lempira. He was a Lencan that fought against the Spaniards after their invasion.
For weeks the girls have been planning for today’s Indio Bonito contest. They voted on someone to represent their group (most commonly the person who looks most like an indigenous). Each grade made their own dress, made with natural things from their aldeas. They brought coconuts, seeds, leaves, and tree bark to make dresses, headdresses, sandals, and jewelry.
They put a lot of time and creativity into their dresses-the juniors had a colorful map of Honduras made of rice, and the chiquitas had the national seal put together with colored rice! It was quite impressive.
Today they dressed, modeled, shared about their dresses and about Lempira and what it meant for them to be representing a national hero.
There was a panel of adults from outside the school that chose the winner. After the modeling and speeches they chose Lilian from II Bachillerato, a senior. Last year’s Indio Bonito, Lilian's sister, proudly presented the sash.
There were two skits, the first of a Honduran legend, La Sucia. They say that when men go out by the rivers on their way home the Sucia comes out. At first she’s a beautiful woman, just washing her clothes. Then she turns into an ugly witch and steals the man away. It was humorous watching the students chase each other around but leaves an interesting message.. And the second skit was the death of Lempira. A group of girls did a traditional dance as well.
Then we were invited to try traditional food. Each grade had prepared something different. There were baleadas (flour tortillas with beans and cheese-a simple but delicious snack), catrachas (fried tortilla with beans and cheese), tamales (ground corn with beans, cooked in a banana leaf), pastelitos (similar to empanadas but these were filled with pineapple), sweetened papaya, rosquillas with honey (a hard, bitter cookie), and a corn drink with lime and sugar. Most of it was food that we’ve had here before, but it was lovely sharing a meal with the girls that they worked together to make.
Fanny made sure that we norteamericanos- who didn’t have the slightest idea of what was going on- were dressed in traditional clothing. The girls from Primero Ciclo had decorated something for me to wear around my shoulders and all the female tutors wore long, colorful skirts.
During the day there were a couple parades of school children walking by the Center, all dressed up. They were adorable in traditional dance clothes and dressed as indigenous.
Overall it was a very special day for the girls and a great opportunity to share in the culture with them and see their pride in their roots.
