La Cueca

It seems like my life has been taken over by... la cueca. The cueca is Chile´s national folkloric dance where the couple mimics the courting ritual between and rooster and a hen. And since the fiestas patrias (independence day celebrations) are quickly approaching, it seems like everybody is dusting off their cueca-dancing boots. Andrés´nephew S is in second grade and he´s learning how to dance the cueca in school. I´ve seen a couple of high schoolers who are preparing for a cueca test at their colegio. Andrés started taking cueca lessons in July at the Club de Cuecas y Huasos (Club of Cuecas and Cowboys) in Valparaíso. He just graduated/passed the first level last Saturday and they had a dance and dinner where all the students got to showcase their cueca skills. It was a lot of fun and now I´ve started taking the beginner level classes while Andrés has moved on to intermediate ones!


The cueca is actually one of the first dances I ever had with Andrés. We were learning it in my escuela and Andrés was my partner. I sucked at it. But now I´m somewhat okay because I have that same partner to practice with outside of class! It´s actually more fun than I thought it would be (I didn´t know I would like folkloric dancing so much), the music is growing on me and I feel so good actually knowing the steps. I can´t wait for dieciocho (September 18th, Independence Day) when hopefully I´ll get some opportunities to use my newfound skills.


Here´s a video of Andrés dancing the cueca on his graduation night:

Here´s some photos from the night:

Andrés´ friend Carlos

It went cueca, chicha, cueca. You would dance one cueca, take a drink in a bull´s horn, then dance another cueca.

The outfit of the huaso

Andrés´ friend Flaco/Ranier

The cueca can begin by clapping the rhythm until the singing starts

They all passed!