Peru is a country of great linguistic diversity. While Spanish is used widely throughout the country, Peru is also home to more than ninety indigenous languages.
Amazonian painter Brus Rubio creates abstract scenes of Huitoto-Bora myths, local stories, and songs in addition to singing and playing the manguaré, a pair of drums made from tree trunks.
After a two-day break and a relentless overnight thunderstorm, the Folklife Festival returned to the National Mall. Thanks to the efforts of our Smithsonian colleagues and the National Park Service staff, the Festival site was able to open
The rain on June 27 may have pushed the Festival inside the National Museum of the American Indian, but it didn’t stop this year’s first tactile and verbal description tour.
Here is a short guide to a few of the activities and performances that have been especially popular with kids in the Perú: Pachamama program
With their glittering multicolored costumes, ear-splitting whip cracks, expressive masks, and a marching song you’re sure to get stuck in your head, the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen procession has been a crowd favorite at the Folklife Festival.
The event featured a few of the visiting performance groups representing the Perú: Pachamama program, plus speakers from the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, American and Peruvian embassies, and more.
Much time and research went into its design, so the “icon” could thoughtfully and equally represent the twelve artisan groups we brought from Peru to the National Mall.
The first week of the Festival closed with our first of two Community Days, as we welcomed Peruvians living in the United States to share their adaptations of cultural traditions.
Eva Ayllón began singing and dancing as a young girl in Lima, carrying on traditions of Afro-Peruvian music: the combination of Andean, Spanish, and African influences, characterized by spirited rhythms.