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[INTRO PLAYING]
[CHEERING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Hi.
It's Thomas.
We're in the Peruvian Andes.
It's the day before Christmas.
All these guys are about
to go beat the
*** out of each other.
It's called Takanakuy.
[CHEERING AND MUSIC IN
FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Takanakuy is a
giant mass brawl that happens
every year at Christmastime
in the Andes.
And the basic idea of Takanakuy
is people build up
their grievances all year.
And then instead of
them getting in
fights, they save it.
And on Christmas, everybody
gets in a big
fight, and that's it.
It's like Yom Kippur
but bloodier.
Takanakuy is exclusive to
the Andean province of
Chumbivilcas.
The province's capital, Santo
Tomas, is a murderous 10-hour
drive through the mountains
from the nearest city.
We've been driving
for eight hours.
The roads aren't, isn't
the autobahn.
Altitude sickness is kind of
combining with your general
car nausea in a fun way.
A bit of car sickness and a sore
***, however, seemed a
small price to pay
to get to see an
entire town fight itself.
Chumbivilcas is sort of
Peru's North Dakota.
It's pretty, filled with
Indians, and poor as the dirt
they grow their potatoes
out of.
Most guys here split town when
they hit 16 to work in the
Andes' illegal gold
mining industry.
Because it's pretty
much that or chase
sheep around the mountain.
The indigenous population here
claims descent from the Chanka
people, who not only resisted
the Spanish when they invaded,
but the Incas before them.
The area is cut off from the
rest of the country.
There's basically no police,
no military presence, no
government services.
All of which plays into the
local sense of defiance
against authority.
A lot of Chumbivilcans also
speak the native Quechua
language instead of Spanish,
which doesn't help so much
with the alienation.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: I haven't
been in a real fight
since middle school.
So I figured what better place
to relearn the trade than a
town so testosterone-charged
that they beat each other up
for Christmas.
We arrived a little before
lunch to find festivities
already in full swing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
THOMAS MORTON: The lead-up to
the Takanakuy fights is a
week-long parade of drinking
and dancing
through the town street.
Oh, this way.
This is kind the start
of Takanakuy.
So what's happening right now
is all these dudes in the
chaps and, like, the
animal things on
their heads are fighters.
There's a big procession
right now.
Through the town they're,
like, banging on doors.
They're like, come out
and fight basically.
The real gist of it is just
that, like, everybody is kind
of coming together, playing
some pretty
boss sounding music.
And pulling everyone out for
the fight, which I think is
tomorrow morning.
[CHEERING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE
AND PLAYING MUSIC]
THOMAS MORTON: I'm either a part
of these guys tribe now,
or they're all going to
beat me up tomorrow.
The traditional Takanakuy music
is an indigenous genera
called huaylia.
The lyrics mostly deal with
rebelling against authority.
And it's so devoid of any
Latin or other Western
influences.
It sounds like Peking opera.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Hualyia is played
on an endless loop,
much like American
Christmas music.
But doubly maddening because
every huaylia song literally
uses the same chorus.
This is the same damn song.
This is the same song.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: So we just
got here this morning.
None of us have slept.
Been drinking a lot.
The altitude sickness
is overpowering.
And we're dancing with a bunch
of guys who look like things
I've seen on DMT.
MALE SPEAKER 1:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Well, the
costumes everyone wears fall
into five basic characters.
There's the majeno, who wears
traditional horse riding gear
from the area.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Then there's the
qarawatanna, who basically
takes the majeno and Mad
Maxifies it with a biker
jacket and huge leather cowboy
chaps that looks like Aeon
Flux boots.
Then they put a dead bird
or a deer skull up top.
This looks pretty popular
with the young guys.
Whose cap am I wearing?
Then you've got the ***, whose
outfit's based not on
Negroes, but rather
the kind of guy
who used to own Negroes.
So he's a slave master,
basically.
[CHEERING]
THOMAS MORTON: And finally
there's the langosta, which
means lobster in Spanish,
but also locust.
In the 1940s, Chumbivilcas
had a plague of locusts.
So the men naturally started
dressing up as them to fight.
And the next year all
the locusts left.
So that pretty much sealed
langosta's place in the
Takanakuy pantheon.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Of course, you
can always just go q'ara
gallo, which means
naked rooster.
Which means no costume.
Which basically means
you're just drunk.
The one thing everybody wears
is the traditional
Peruvian ski mask.
This dates back to the days
when Takanakuy was the one
time a year you could beat up
your boss, or the big town
land owner.
So disguising your identity
was pretty key.
The voice they're supposed to
use to fight people and
challenge people is this
high-pitched falsetto thing.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE
IN FALSETTO]
THOMAS MORTON: There's nothing
more terrifying than that, an
angry drunk dude with a ski
mask talking to you like
Tweety Bird.
As fight time grew near, the
atmosphere in town started
getting a little aggro.
MALE SPEAKER 2:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MALE SPEAKER 3:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MALE SPEAKER 4:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MALE SPEAKER 4:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: After the third
or fourth parade, I ran into a
couple of majenos practicing
for the next day's fights.
So I asked them for some tips
on fighting Takanakuy style.
OK.
So what should I do?
MALE SPEAKER 5:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Kick that?
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: OK.
It might be the alcohol
speaking, but I think I'm
getting pretty comfortable
with it.
You try to kick as
much as you can.
And then when you're
in there, you just
pound a bunch of stuff.
I'm probably, you know, going
to get my face broken.
But pretty fun.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: In typical
fashion, I left all my
Takanakuy shopping until the
day before Christmas.
Oh, here we go.
So I had to hit the town quickly
and put together an
outfit that wouldn't mark me
as a total brain dead.
I went for a majeno with a light
splash of qarawatanna
[INAUDIBLE], horse and eagle.
Give them a little horse, then
I'll give them some eagle.
Just kidding.
He may have to grapple me.
Got the guns.
Got the toro.
Pretty solid.
This might be for kids.
Everything OK?
This is good right?
OK.
I think that's it.
I'm good.
All right.
I'm ready to go fight.
Fully outfitted for Christmas,
I headed back to my hotel to
rest up for the big day.
CHILD:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Morning.
Merry Christmas.
Last night we got in a firework
fight in this hotel
room with the kid across the
street whose parents own a
firework store.
So that was pretty dumb.
Oh, ***.
I haven't gotten
too much rest.
Oh, *** you, kids.
Damn it.
Ahh!
Feliz navidad.
Kids in Peru, man.
Let me get ready to go
watch some fights.
Put on my jacket, ski mask.
All right.
Ready for some Takanakuy.
What do you think?
Oh.
That was rough.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
THOMAS MORTON: The mood in
Santo Tomas on Christmas
morning is convivial and family
friendly, especially in
light of the violence everyone's
on their way to
watch and take part in.
This is the Takanakuy ring.
Everybody in masks you see is
here to fight or be fought.
A lot of areas in the Peruvian
and Bolivian Andes have
similar fighting festivals
to Takanakuy.
What distinguishes them from
Takanakuy, aside from
obviously not falling on
Christmas, is in Chumbivilcas,
the whole village takes part--
guys, girls, old drunk men,
even little kids.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: The fights are
intense, but fairly orderly.
Punching and kicking
is allowed.
But there's no biting
or hair pulling or
hitting guys on the ground.
There are also amateur officials
in the ring who
carry whips to make sure things
don't get too one-sided
or out of hand and also to
perform basic crowd control.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Things just
got a little nasty.
[BREAKING UP FIGHT]
THOMAS MORTON: That just
got way out of hand.
Dude picked up a rock and went
after the other guy.
It's a little bit tense.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: This is
the kiddie portion
of the fight now.
This guy looks like
he's pushing six.
[CHEERING AND MUSIC PLAYING
IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Is he crying?
That kid took a hard blow.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: I don't think
I've ever been in a place
where the idea of
law seemed as--
kind of negligible.
There's obviously something
a little incongruous about
watching children and old men
pummel each other's faces to
meat on the Christian world's
traditional day of peace.
At the same time, the second the
fight's over, everybody's
all hugs and beers.
Which I feel captures the true
spirit of Christmas.
At least better than getting
drunk with relatives you don't
particularly care for.
Tomorrow, there's another
Takanakuy in a village called
Llique that's sort
of the real deal.
And that's where the fights are
a lot harder, and where
everybody here who has a
grievance that they didn't
solve in Takanakuy goes to, to
like, really get it done.
We're going to go there.
And I'm going to
fight some kid.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Morning.
It's the day after Christmas.
We're in a van going
to Llique.
This village is about 300
meters higher than Santo
Tomas, which means higher
in the Andes.
We just passed like, cliffs
sides that look like they're
out of Land of the Lost.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: The origins
of Takanakuy
are a little nebulous.
The festival's name derives from
the rein of Tupac Amaru,
the last Incan king to resist
the Spanish conquest.
But there's widespread debate
as to when the practice
actually started.
And whether it has more to do
with indigenous rebellion or
with Spanish duelling traditions
introduced under
colonialism.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: We're just
going to Llique.
The festivities here have
been kind of going
on for a few days.
There's been dancing,
everybody's been drinking.
It's a bit of a scene already.
Hey, hey, what's up?
Que pasa?
MALE SPEAKER 6:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Yeah.
It's like what, 9:00
in the morning.
There's like 4 or 5 beer bottles
at those guys feet.
Everybody's dancing their
way into the church.
[PLAYING MUSIC]
THOMAS MORTON: Looks
like a nice little
church breakfast scene.
It's kind of weird.
Everybody's wearing what
look like devil masks.
But I guess that says something
to the fluidity of
religious thought up here.
[CROWD SINGING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Up in Llique,
the huaylia music was still
*** going.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: The dancing up
here is a little less ornate
than down below, a little
less bird-like.
But that may be the result
of them partying
for like three days.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
THOMAS MORTON: Beats normal
Sunday services.
VICTOR LAIME MANTILLA:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: That was a
pretty brief service.
I kind of liked that.
Let's see where they're
going now.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: After a few more
drinks, it was finally
time to head to the town center
and watch the fights.
This village has like
300 people in it.
But on Takanakuy day, it goes
to 3,000 because everybody
comes in here.
Because these are the guys
who are the best
fighters in the region.
Which is cool because we want
to see some good fights, but
not so hot for me because I
have to fight one of them.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: It's like a Roman
Colosseum, replete with
like dudes with whips.
It was pretty clear from the
get-go that Llique's
reputation is well earned.
Even the kids' fights here
were a million times more
intense than the ones
in Santo Tomas.
[CHEERING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Someone was
showing me how to wrap this
until we got whipped by a
guy who was pretty rude.
This is the guy I'm fighting.
He owns a pet eagle, has two
girlfriends, and rides a
motorcycle.
He's also taller than me,
and he has long hair.
I'm not looking forward
to this *** fight.
Jose was fighting a rival before
me, which gave me the
opportunity to see what
I was up again.
And hopefully get a
little handicap
courtesy of said rival.
I'm starting to freak out.
My bowels just clenched, man.
So I haven't had any
training for this.
I don't think my opponent has
either, but I'm pretty sure my
opponent's life is training.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
THOMAS MORTON: You ready?
OK, this is it.
Oh, ***.
I got nailed.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
THOMAS MORTON: I may not have
won the fight or come anywhere
close, or at any point look like
I ever could have, but
all the townspeople seemed
pretty psyched to watch a
*** fight and lose.
So at least I gave them that.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Truthfully, as
far as makeshift justice
systems go, Takanakuy's got a
lot going for it, especially
compared to our courts.
Their turnover rate for cases
is extraordinarily quick.
The results are immediate and
satisfying for the winners.
And if you've got a problem with
them, you can always go
back in the ring
for an appeal.
The rest of Peru may look down
on Takanakuy as a symptom of
rural backwardness, but while
they're sitting in a lawyer's
office filling out reams of
paperwork, the plaintiffs of
Chumbivilcas already have
their arm around the
defendant's shoulder
and are drowning
their problems in beer--
not a bad way to spend
a Christmas.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]
THOMAS MORTON: Still dancing.
[MUSIC PLAYING IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE]