“Las Misses”

We had a very exciting weekend in San José- “Las Misses” came to visit. “Las Misses” – English word pronounced with a camba accent are all of the contestants vying for Miss. Bolivia. The town rallied like never before to prepare for the event. The streets were cleaned, (well at least the dirt was plowed and trash covered up), there were 5 women sweeping the plaza for 3 days nonstop before the arrival, every group was preparing some kind of presentation or another. We even had an hourly countdown on tv! The night before, our awesome local anchorman announced “ Only 30 hours until Las Misses arrive… Dona Esta is painting her house- pan to a house being painted- why don’t we all paint our houses? If you don’t have paint now- wake up early and do it tomorrow!” It was pretty ridiculous- but also let me know how much people appreciate physical beauty in this culture. When the women actually got here, it was a 4 day parade around the city- the tall, skinny women with long hair and white smiles, in high heels and mini dresses, followed by our political figures, teachers, students and local film crews. We had almost 24 hour television coverage of the weekend. The reason for their arrival was the crowning of “Miss Talento Bolivia”. Saturday night, the plaza was filled with more people than ever before. Although not many people came out for the musical talents from around the world during the Baroque music festival, put on some regaaeton and bring out women in short dresses and the whole town is there- and early- that is pop culture for you, even way our here in our pueblo. Not expecting such a huge turn out or things to start on time, my friends and I were only able to see by climbing up wooden planks we set against the shaky wooden bleachers. It was an enjoyable night of a mixture of talents ranging from traditional dances, to a girl doing a clown routine. The winner- a top notch lip-syncer. Definitely an unforgettable weekend for the Josesanos.

Miss Talento night!


Strutting through our dirt calles


Fancy canapes I helped Dona Rosita prepare for the event