Dia de la madre Boliviana

First off, I just love that there is the specification that this is BOLIVIAN mothers’ day, it could either mean that it’s here as opposed to Peru, or that we are celebrating Bolivian mothers’ bolivian-ness.  Either way, it’s a big deal here, and I had a lot of fun even though I’m neither a mother nor a child of a Bolivian mother (mandatory shout out to my U.S. mom, who continues to amaze me with all she does and how much she supports her daughter doing who-knows-what out here, same to dad).  So there were three “acto civicos” put on for the mothers.  The first two were by the schools, the last was at night, and more for an adult audience, but I didn’t go to see it because I was tired and I figured I’d gotten the gist of an acto civico for Dia de la Madre Boliviana.  An acto civico is basically a public performance.  The performers put on dances, recite poetry, sing, and do skits.  The elementary kids’ was in the morning, and with 6 kids performing, I was busy taking pictures.  I was really amazed at how much effort was put into this, down to the costumes.  Even though I wouldn’t say the kids really knew how to dance, they were totally into it, and they were genuinely into doing something great for their moms.  The kids prepare for about a solid week for this, taking up their precious half-days of school with learning poems and dances.  The middle/high school performance went all afternoon, and I think that I enjoyed the calibre of dance and drama a bit more, even if they weren’t as cute.  The skits were really interesting, clearly influenced by the telenovela style of story and acting.  However, I was impressed by the maturity of the actors and the audience, and by the fact that the students made up some intense skits about how poorly mothers are often treated here (from cheating husbands to kids who just don’t respect their mama).  I was quite convinced that people think mothers are of the most importance here; “si no hay madre, no hay familia”  (if there is no mother, there is no family) was a common refrain.  Of course EVERYONE comes out to watch, not just the mothers.  So on one side you have the group of grungy guys who kind of smell like alcohol and tend to be smoking and whistling at the gringa, but they do no real harm, and hey, they probably have kids too.  At the end of the acto civico, food is always served to the mothers, courtesy of the school.  Some sort of sweet drink and a bag with cake, bread, any type of cheese-carb combo snack (you wouldn’t believe how many variations you can make on that), or a sandwich was standard fare. I got to see my community as a whole that day, and be a part of it at the same time, just hanging out with whatever group of kids was watching, eating jello or some other random snack, and really having fun.  This is Bolivia, and I’m falling in love, despite the aforementioned and sure-to-come frustrations.