• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 05 / 02 / 2011

---

By Anett Rios. HAVANA – The mythological monster Tarasca has again paraded through Havana after a 200-year absence, in a street carnival that sought to revive and modernize the tradition in Cuba that has the crowds throwing all the bad things in their lives at the dreadful beast before it is burned on the capital’s landmark seafront esplanade, the Malecon.

With the body of a dragon – though many in the crowd mistake it for a beetle or even an alligator – the expiatory Cuban Tarasca returned this week, relieving onlookers of the evil they have done while leading three days of parades inspired by the centuries-old Corpus Christi processions on the island.

The giant puppet was carried through downtown neighborhoods and avenues to give people the chance to tell it or write on its body their most evil thoughts, memories and experiences, in order to purge themselves of all negative influences.

Many write on the cardboard dragon’s tail messages condemning ignorance, resentment, opportunism, envy and homophobia.

The show kicked off at an old colonial plaza in Havana, where mimes, actors on stilts and musicians acted out the myth of the monster, followed by dozens of people parading to the rhythm of the Cuban conga in a procession that stopped traffic, attracted tourists and lured people out of their homes to see what was going on.

When it was almost sundown Friday on the Castillo de la Punta esplanade on Havana’s Malecon, the party wound up its third and last day with the burning of the Tarasca, while the crowd danced around the bonfire singing extemporized songs.

The street theater company Giganteria, popular for its leisurely Spanish passacaglia dancing through the city, was responsible for resuscitating the tradition after it was decided in 2010 to celebrate the group’s 10th anniversary with a show dedicated to the Tarasca.

What might have been no more than an isolated bit of theater returned this year with the goal of making the mythological monster a permanent fixture and creating a new custom in Havana, one of the Cuban towns that celebrated the Tarasca back in Spanish colonial days.

Giganteria director Roberto Salas told Efe that some Tarasca figures were brought from Spain and others were made on the island, where they were associated with the growth of cities and the church as an institution.

Salas, who discovered the tradition while studying theater at Cuba’s Higher Institute of Art, said that Tarasca pageants were mentioned in the minutes of Havana city council meetings since the 16th century and are known to have continued for almost 200 years until their disappearance in the 18th century.

“The authorities thought folks were more interested in the festivities than in the religious processions, because they would rather march with the Tarasca than accompany the Blessed Sacrament, so the tradition was banned,” Salas, 39, said.

According to his research, the Tarasca, the giants and other figures such as “imps” were then eliminated from the Corpus Christi processions and only now in the 21st century do they reappear before the Cuban people.

But this is no longer a religious procession, but rather a kind of carnival that brings together dozens of artists from different groups, whose work has the support of the City Historian’s Office.

The Tarasca monster, whose name comes from the French region of Tarascon, apparently originated in a legend related to St. Martha, who according to the story tamed the monster with her Christian words.

The creature has been seen as a symbol of both vice and virtue and the story changes from one country and city to the next, though the version that seems to prevail is that of the dragon with huge gaping jaws.

Havana natives begin to see this strange creature as a kind of catharsis that serves equally to cry out in sorrow, dance the conga or play with the mimes. EFE


Source: www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14510&ArticleId=392802