Every January 6th Cuenca hosts the Fiesta del los Inocents, a parade to remember when Herod declared that all male children under two years old should be killed. Originally it started out with men dressed in drag to remember that the parents tried to disguise the boys as girls to avoid being killed. Hence, some of the parade officials showed up in drag for the parade.
The Amistad Clowns started out the parade at approximately 6:15 pm.
Over the years the parade has evolved to have wide-ranging entries. This year we saw "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, dancing groups, people costumed as the Cuenca Lightrail, leaders from the America's including Obama, Castro, Rousseff, Maduro, Pope Francis, and Ecuador's own Correa who finished out the pack. Another interesting entry was a procession about a tailor which included women in fairy-tail costumes, a large float with a seamstress operating a giant sewing machine followed by at least 20 people dressed up as spools of thread and balls of yarn. It took up half a city block.
The Amistad Clowns started out the parade at approximately 6:15 pm.
Over the years the parade has evolved to have wide-ranging entries. This year we saw "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, dancing groups, people costumed as the Cuenca Lightrail, leaders from the America's including Obama, Castro, Rousseff, Maduro, Pope Francis, and Ecuador's own Correa who finished out the pack. Another interesting entry was a procession about a tailor which included women in fairy-tail costumes, a large float with a seamstress operating a giant sewing machine followed by at least 20 people dressed up as spools of thread and balls of yarn. It took up half a city block.
We arrived at 5:45pm for the start of the parade, and expected it might be an hour or two long. We were mistaken! At 8:00pm the parade was perhaps half over. Our initial "front row" vantage point along the curb had been overridden by three or four rows of newcomers who just stood in front of us in the street. We were hungry and a bit tired, so we decided to head back toward our condo and find a restaurant along the way. We walked upstream as there were still many Cuencano's headed to the parade, many in costume.
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