Wednesday, August 1, 2007

A couple of curiosities in the street of Bogotá/Un par de vistas curiosas callejeras bogotanas

In the big cities I have been in in Latin America, there are often lots of people selling things on the street (the same is true in New York and other cities in the US). So I wasn’t surprised to see people selling things on the streets of Bogotá. But it took me a while to catch on to the fact that some people were selling pirated DVDs, and that prominent among them was the Simpsons Movie, which had only opened the day before. I haven’t bought one…yet…

And it’s common to see street musicians in the plazas and on the streets (just like in New York, especially in the subways). But this afternoon I saw something new and strange—a group was playing Andean music, on nice Andean instruments—but they were dressed not like Andean Indians, or any native people of South America, but in a version of North American plains Indian outfits, complete with feathered headdress…



En las ciudades grandes que he visitado en América Latina, muchas veces se ven mucha gente vendiendo cosas en las calles (igual que en Nueva York y otras ciudades de EEUU). Pues no fue sorpresa ver a gentes vendiendo en las calles de Bogotá. Pero costo un poco de tiempo que me diera cuenta que algunas personas vendían DVD pirateados, y que prominente entre ellos era la Película de los Simpson, que había estrenado tan sólo el día antes. No lo he comprado…todavía…

Y es común ver a músicos callejeros en las plazas y las calles (igualito que Nueva York, sobre todo en el metro). Pero hoy por l tarde ví algo nuevo y curioso—un conjunto tocaba música andina, con instrumentos andinos lindos—pero llevaban ropa no de indos andinos, ni de ningún pueblo indígena suramericano, sino tenían puesto una versión de le indumentaria de unos indos del llano norteamericano, hasta el tocado aplomado…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Steve
i am catching up on your posts. fascinating commentary. regarding the North American plains indians: i saw a similar musical group on the streets of Athens, Greece. i was not sure if the clothing worn represented one cultural group or were intended to represent a broader category.
but i have never seen such a group in the US.
be well and keep up the blogs.
don ramos