Independence Day

September 15 is El Salvador's Independence Day. Each major city has parades, parties, and official government presentations. Local schools are the primary participants of the parades. They have marching bands, color guards, baton twirlers, and dancers (Hugo played the snare drum when he was in High School!). The younger grades (kindergarten, first and second) are considered too young to participate in these long, elaborate parades on September 15. Instead, they have their own parade the Sunday before Independence Day. Rodrigo (Hugo's brother) marched in the younger children's parade and Hugo and I went to watch. Rodrigo was dressed as a doctor and was super excited we came to see him! (If you look closely, you can see his school's band and native dancers too).

ALL the schools from the ENTIRE country came to San Salvador to participate in this shorter parade. When we got to the parade route, I was stunned to see so many people. Standing at the front of the procession, you couldn't see the end. The entire group of parade participants stretched for at least a mile. Before the parade started, we managed to locate Margoth and Rodrigo. I was surprised to see so many parents standing near their children. There were huge clumps of people standing around. I figured everyone would want to drop off their child and rush to find a seat. I mean...with all those people, it would surely be difficult to find a place to park their lawn chairs. Right? Wrong. As we were standing, talking to Margoth and Rodrig, the parade started to move. Margoth told us, "Quick, grab the rope before there isn't a spot left to hold!" I looked around and figured out what she meant. The parents had no intention of leaving their children. They planned to walk beside them for the entire parade route. I guess it made sense. I wouldn't want my child left unattended amongst all those people either. The parents of each school had sort of drawn a circle around their children. They had encompassed their group with a rope and walked along holding it. All the children stayed inside and all the adults stayed outside the circle.

But, if we were going to walk with Rodrigo's school, we would miss out on the rest of the parade. I wanted to see all the other cute little kids in their costumes. I pulled on Hugo's arm: "Quick, let's walk down the rest of the parade and look at all the other schools. Then, we'll come back and find Rodrigo." Hugo was surprised, "Really, you want to see the other shcools?" I was flabbergasted! Of course I wanted to see the other schools. Wasn't that the point of a parade?! Plus, this whole experience was new to me. I mean, here were about a million 5, 6 and 7 year old children. Some were performing synchronized dances. Some were playing drums (with much better rhythm than I could even hope for). And all of them wearing the most elaborate costumes. Heck yes...I wanted to see it all!

Here is a picture of one of my favorite bands. They sounded sooooo good. And, I loved their little costumes. Hugo told me that the school hand-picks children to be in the band, dance, or wear another costume. If the parents agree to let their children participate, they are responsible for making the necessary costume. I would ahve thought that having 20 or so different people sewing a costume would mean they all would be a little bit different. But no...they were all perfect. Check out the group of cheerleaders at the back of the band. And, you can just barely see the rope I was talking about.

Well, we walked back quite a ways (we didn't have the samina to go allllll the way back). In fact, I took a picture at about the halfway mark. Notice how the end of the route still isn't visible!