Mazunte Build - The Ceremony of a Minka

Even before we arrived on the property to continue the construction we had left uncompleted four years ago, there was idea of a Minka we kept throwing around. Originally it was Manu who proposed this South American tradition, held normally at the beginning of a building project. The objective is to have a little celebration with friends, family, neighbors, and people of the community in general, combined with a bit of ceremony to ask the land and all the beings inhabiting it for permission to build. Since this type of event is present in various cultures, there may be some differences in their interpretation. Which is perfect with us: being a multi-cultural group in a rural part of a North American, though Latin American country, we were ready to mix traditions. One distinctive feature we didn't want to go without, was a big bonfire.

minka comic copiabb.jpg

Food, Drink, Music, Stories, and Spectacles

Okay, after inviting about fifty people (only the closest friends, neighbors, and associates from the community), we had to take care of feeding them. We spent the day preparing hummus, quiches, nachos, tinga (for the minka), a lemon pie, a big fruit punch, with and without rum, and a cooler full of beers. Though the food was supposed to be "just a taste, not a complete meal," we could not let our guests go hungry.

But being a theater, it was the entertainment that we wanted to focus on. After much too long debates and discussions, and after rehearsals that in my opinion could have been longer, we put together a diverse program of maybe 15-20 minutes. It included some music, some stories, a bit of interactive activity with the guests, torches and the lighting of the bonfire, and of course lots of thanks and appreciation. But first we had to wait for their arrival...

All Dressed and Ready, Cracking Beers

We had decided to start the event at sunset, taking advantage of the twilight to get our guests ready for what was going to happen, so once darkness had descended completely we could light the fire. Of course it was not going to be simple. The sun had gone down, and it was almost completely dark, when the first guests arrived. By then we were all cleaned up, wearing the white pants and shirts with black suspenders, Julia had picked out for us to wear. And since nothing is worse than to hanging in limbo, hoping and wishing at least someone would show up, we started killing our stage fright with a beer, or tasting the rum punch.

Handing out Permissions

Eventually, about two hours past our expected starting time, more and more guests started gathering, so we kept entertaining them, while still sampling beers, punch, or the mezcal one of our guests had brought. It actually started feeling like a party. Meanwhile, our volunteers were preparing our home-made torches. It was time to start.

I grabbed the empty carboy and the ladle wrapped in cloth, serving as drumstick, and started beating it slowly. Steph joined me with short sounds from his accordion, while Julia and Manu started handing out little rolls of paper with a ribbon tied around it. Our guests were surprised to be offered this little something, only to be withdrawn immediately. Just like our building permit, they had to put in a bit of work to actually grab it out of our hands. Once unrolled, it read "Permission to Dream" "License to Smile" "Permit for Feeling" and similar things, sharing our experience with obtaining a permission to build.

While doing this, we gradually kept drawing the crowd away from our kitchen tree, towards the construction site. Of course it had been meticulously cleaned, benches set up in a circle, just under the tire wall, the table laden with food covered with a cloth, and the bonfire prepared in the center. On top of the wall we set up all the crazy lights from the party bus (sure, while using it as a transport vehicle you don't need lights in it), which gave a nice addition to the torches stuck in the mounds of dirt on top of the wall.

Welcome - Beyond Politically Correct

Once everyone was in the circle, Manu and Julia grabbed their instruments too, and the four of us took positions on top of the wall. What followed was a welcoming speech, written by our ingenious in-house poet, Manuel, which I'm not even going to try to translate. It's a tongue-in-cheek attempt to use the Spanish language in an exaggeratedly gender-neutral way. I hope you can enjoy it in its original form:

Bienvenidas y bienvenidos!
Gracias y gracios!
Estamos y estamas
Hoy y hay,
Aquí y aca,
Reunidos y reunidas,
para celebrar y celebrarnos!

Music, Tales, and a Loaded Wheelbarrow

Then, as the laughs died down, he started strumming his charango, and
the rest of us joined in to play one of the Andean folk songs we had been practicing all this time: El Humahuaqueñito / El Quebradeño, making our way down the wall again, to face the crowd. Following a brief explanation of organizing this Minka to appreciate our friends and neighbors, Julia got up into the wheelbarrow, and holding on to Steph and myself, while being pushed by Manu, she proceeded telling the well-known story of The Three Little Pigs, changing the last house to one made of tires, which withstands not only huffy-puffy hurricanes, but wildfires and earthquakes too. After the first round in the wheelbarrow, she got out of it, and kept telling the story while being accompanied by Steph's accordion. At the same time Manu and me grabbed a pair of torches and started lighting the bonfire. By this time we had everyone's attention, so Steph started playing the upbeat tune of the Bear Dance, to which we encouraged everyone to get up and start dancing around the fire. Eventually, we split the circle, drawing everyone over to the table, of which Julia and Manu lifted the cover. Now we were ready to start the celebration for real.

Starting the Celebration for Real

This was exactly the time when our German musicians arrived. About a week before we kept running into three fascinating musicians from Germany. First we had a nice jam on the beach, then we picked them up hitchhiking, and finally they found their way to our property, resulting in another incredible jam. We told them they had to come to our Minka, even though at that time we still had no idea when it was going to happen, plus they were going to keep traveling, so chances were quite slim. Well, they just made it, so instead of the playlist we had prepared for after our presentation, we ended up in a fantastic blues jam. Of course the party could not be without an after-party, and finally we all found ourselves on the beach, playing and enjoying ourselves up into the small hours.

See For Yourselves: The Minka Video

After much waiting, I finally gave up and completely forgot about this video. In the meantime, however, my friends did a lot of editing of all the footage we took, recorded some lovely music to it, and completed this truly awesome video. So please, take a minute to get an impression of our Minka for yourslef: