Padrinos

One night while we were eating dinner, there was a knock at the door. Susana´s sister and her husband had come, with nearly all of Susana´s extended family, to ask that Carlos and Susana be the godparents of their two daughters that were to be baptized. In Otavalo, this is an elaborate affair. Each family member brought in huge baskets and bags of food. This included the huge sack of potatoes that you seen here, as well as bunches of bananas, bread, and both cooked and live guinea pigs and chickens. They placed all of the goods in front of Carlos and Susana, while everyone else sat around in a circle, and then they asked them to be the godparents. This is a lot of stuff, and it comes out to a lot of money, especially for what they make on their salaries. But this is the tradition, and very important for them. Unknowingly, we had run into them a week earlier (remember the huge pig in the animal market post) when they were selling their pig. They had sold it just to be able to afford to ask for godparents.  

















It was a very touching family affair, and we felt so neat to be a part of it. It was even cooler that it happened while David and Joan were visiting, and that they could feel a part of the family. After Carlos and Susana accepted, the guinea pig and chicken (the cooked ones) were broken out and passed around. I know Joan was especially glad she got to try guinea pig while here...

One important part of every family gathering is the passing of the drinks. For families that don´t drink alcohol, soda is the main drink. One person takes the bottle of soda and one glass and goes around to each person. The server fills up the glass and gives it to someone, who chugs the drink, save for a small amount at the bottom of the glass which they pour on the ground for mother earth, and passes it back to the server. Carlos also asked me to do the honor of passing around the cola. Everyone thought this was great. Here I am passing the first drinks to the parents of the girls who were to be baptized.   

One interesting tradition here is the taking home of food. To every party or family gathering is brought a staggering amount of food. The neat thing is that everyone brings food with the expectation of taking some home. Here is Mario, Susana´s brother in law, eating one plate and keeping the two additional plates in front of him that he plans on taking home for later. More often than not, people bring old plastic bags and dump the plates into the bags to carry home. All the food gets mixed together in a delicious kind of casserole. More than a few times we have had these leftover meals, where you get a mix of corn, beans, mote, chicken, pork and who knows what else. Mix it with a bit of lard and stir fry it. Yummy.