viernes, 11 de marzo de 2011

Rua Parade and Carnival

The Rua Parade was my first Carnival experience on any level and in any country.  It was a cultural parade celebrating the different barrios of Barcelona, as well as the varying hispanic ethnic groups that live in Barcelona.

Involved were: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, and Ecuador, and each had there own float, dance, song, and cultural aspect to represent their country in the parade.  It was awesome to be a part of and it was interesting to see how many spanish speaking cultures inhabit Barcelona, and I am sure there are some from even more of the spanish speaking countries around the world.

The most well put together and festive section for me was the Colombians.  They wore extravagant costumes and had clearly rehearsed their routines and dances to perfection.  Each country clearly had pride in their nation, however, some seemed to take it more seriously than others.  This may have been because of the sheer numbers that each country had, but it seemed as though the Colombians were far and away the most prepared.

Thousands of people lined the streets and I was surprised at how festive the mood was.  Parades where I am from are usually calm and people wave and cheer, and often times there isn't even music, but this was not the case for Rua.  The majority of people wore costumes and danced and yelled at the floats, and people from the crowd were even joining into the parade.

I have never seen such a multi-dimensional celebration where so many nations are represented, which was cool to see.  One other thing that I found interesting was that I did not once see a Spanish flag.  Whether I missed it, could be, but if I am right, that says a lot about the attitudes of Catalonians.  Especially because they were so embrace to the other spanish speaking countries, yet they refused to acknowledge Spain.  A very interesting concept, and one that I do not think can be equated to something similar elsewhere in the world; it is truly a unique situation due to history and politics.

Overall, the Rua parade was a fantastic celebration of culture and diversity and was what I had pictured Spain to be like before I came.

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