3 de Octubre

Part of the family.  My old man is to my right.  I call the dog Ole One Eye.

Saturday night, the 3rd of October, I went to a neighborhood called 3 de Octubre to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the town on the 3rd of October around 36 years ago. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a party celebrating a virgin in this town and it was a blast except that I didn’t get to stay for the whole thing. I went home at 10pm but the party raged on until the cold gray light of dawn. This time I was in it to win it (or at least stay longer than 10). Turns out virgin parties are ten times more exciting than anniversary parties. The virgin party had a full stage, sound system, fireworks, beer stands, traditional dances, and a virgin on a throne. The anniversary party had a clown, about 6 impersonations of Michael Jackson (but only 2 Michael Jackson songs), and only a few cajas of beer.


My old man was one of the founders of 3 de Octubre and he still has several children that live there. We went to the neighborhood at around 4pm and visited with a couple of his daughters and one of his sons. We sat around and had some Inca Cola and a little cake and shot the shit for a while. My old man left early and I stayed around for what I expected to be a kick-ass party. Around 6pm, a clown showed up to entertain the younger kids. Now ordinarily clowns kind of creep me out but this clown wasn’t the John Wayne Gacey type I’m used to. Just different. He wore a wig that made him look like a Japanese pop star, a plastic red nose, oversize Chuck Taylor high-tops (my size) and a black velvet jacket with the Playboy bunny logo in sequins on the back.

He did clown-type stuff with the kids like games, prizes, balloons, juggling two silk scarves, that kind of thing. It may have been the worst clown act I’ve seen but then again I can’t really recall seeing a good clown act. The kids were totally down with the clown and having a great time and that’s all that matters. I got his business card afterward. On the front, his name, a couple of pictures, and the contact info for the local clown union in Chosica. His specialties were listed on the back and included birthdays, kids parties, special events, 50th anniversaries, and bachelorette parties. I guess he also has a cop outfit and a g-string and likely does something different with the scarves.

After the clown, it was the kids turn to entertain. There were little dance group that danced to pop Latino music and of course the Michael Jackson impersonations. There was a lot of build-up for the Michael Jackson acts but they did not live up to the hype. The highlight, however, was a kid about 3 years old who was dressed up in a little black suit, white shirt, black shoes with white socks, and a black fedora. He held his hat with one hand, stood on his toes and grabbed his junk with the other hand the whole time. That is until some little girl came up to him and started bugging him so he latched onto her hair and wouldn’t let go until the mothers intervened, pried his fingers off, and sent both kids off crying.

There was a dance troupe of kids dressed in yellow and orange sateen costumes with devil masks who danced around while two other little devils ran around scaring the shit out of the audience while they were distracted looking at the others. It seemed pretty traditional and was terrific. By this time a lot of trainees had showed up and were sitting up on the hill. About six of them did a couple of songs by CCR, we listened to a band with a pan flute do “Let it Be” and we bolted for another party in Yanacoto.