ABSTRACT

On the third Sunday each March, the Bolivian town of Tarabuco hosts the annual Pujllay festival to close out the carnival season and mark the beginning of Lent. During Pujllay, a period of playful release and pageantry, the population of this highland community swells with ethnic Yampara celebrants from Tarabuco and neighboring communities. The size and reach of the celebration has grown in recent decades along with the number of tourists and street vendors selling hats, trinkets, and textiles. 1 Tarabuco is also renowned for the earth tones, order, and symmetry of its textiles. Almost iconic in style, the production and sale of these textiles represents important economic and cultural links to the outside world. Tourists arrive in vans and busses and empty out into the streets to haggle with vendors along the main streets and central plaza before eventually making their way to the dance grounds.