Devils and Bulls Series

Bull of Pucará, which they stablish as objects very present and representative of Santiago de Pupuja´s pottery, especially in the commercial circuit of Pucará, Puno....Read more

This selection, taken as an archaeological and anthropological trace, modernizes the knowledge about the Andeane cosmology and its re-interpretation of the colonization. According to oral tradition tales, apus – sacred divinities – made them guardians of the lagoon that, since then, is the dwelling of the bulls ´It’s said that they were born when the rainbow torn its colours and from those bowels the bull emerged, representing abundance and good fortune. Nowadays, the bull is introduced in local customs as bearers of prosperity, happiness and protection. The popular tradition usually puts a number of bulls in the top of houses roofs to protect their owners.


Bull of Petate, named after the material which was originally constructed. This figure is intimately link to the carnival of Michoacán State, but it can also stand by in other religious festivals.
The fundament of the presence of the bull in this celebration is comparable to a devil, seductive, pagan and provocative, that freely intrudes within other inhabitants during Carnival Tuesday, before Ash Wednesday.
The ceremony exhibits the Bull of Petate enraged, monumental, lavishly decorated, walking passionately around the streets, simulating a running and can even clash another bulls built for the occasion. The courtship is accompanied by a procession, troupe and orchestra. Some of the characters that take part on the event are maringuía: which is a man disguised as a woman whose function is to accompany the bull, el corporal: is who provokes the bull to dance and el apache: in black and with a red skirt, intimidates the audience to make way for the entourage. The festival ends on Carnival Tuesday, by giving death to the bull and handing out its bowels in a symbolic way, which are nothing more than food that the inhabitants consume. But the bull, undying, will soon be reborn and a new order will take place.