oh okay
you
it's Rivermen Guatemala penida todos
santos into small town northwestern
portion of the country every year todos
santos has a drunken horse race so i'm
gonna go hang out with a family up there
and see the festivities hopefully not
fall off a horse and get trampled every
year in toto santos the last week of
october the mayan townspeople celebrates
catch cold
a harvest festival that falls around the
day of the dead and culminates in a
drunken sometimes deadly horse race the
history of the festival dates back to
when the Spanish conquistadors invaded
Guatemala in the 1500s the Spanish
enslaved or slaughtered all the Mayans
in their path and the Mayans weren't
allowed to touch anything that the
Spanish owned if a Mayan touched a horse
the Spanish would execute him when the
conquistadors made it to Toto Santos
one brave villager stood up in protest
he stole a Spanish horse and raced it
around the mud streets until he was
caught and killed every year since then
to honor that brave ancestor the whole
town gets wasted and parties for an
entire week finally staggering on to
their horses drunk for the wild race
I'm a pretty serious lightweight and
I've only sat on a horse once but I want
to head to toe to Santos and see if I
could keep up the race takes place on a
track that looks more like a long sandy
run stretching about a half mile on the
edge of town it seems like all the guys
here are wearing the same traditional
shirt and pants I feel like if I want to
fit in a little bit I should go get
measured and have them make me a suit
myself from what I could figure most
folks in toto santos shake up all year
to buy new outfits for the festival so
the tailor was pretty slammed but he
managed to sort me out so I could try
and blend in a little bit haha oh yeah
yeah so no Merida kill Oh River Arriba
no Gomez Ravel reah reah
clay Espanola kumis leave em leave em I
was finding myself up against a pretty
massive language barrier when reliable
most people in toto santos shake to mine
language mom or this mountain dialect of
Spanish estas a la cabeza de nuestro
cora so exist kc somos Maya's y que
tenemos que usar los o trajes nuestro
trashy es la sangre de nuestros
antepasados para nosotros como Maya's
Elsa Mo's con los Muertos giving poor
mayor del del ad to camisa es Blanco con
Reyes Blancos nuestros antepasados lo
tenemos en nuestra camisa es algo muy
muy especial para nosotros to pantalone
que tu tienes es la sangre de del hombre
que murió
pollo Rojo
okay look like you're like here Oh
Randall of the samples for vector
Perfector okay I'm it gonna see very
nice now that I have my proper riding
attire
I had to go check out my horse and take
it for a test run before the big race
tomorrow
that's just so we're getting saddled up
getting on a horses uh I'm about to go
meet mine yeah my first drink of the day
today with some amigos over there cause
he needs tiene que tomar alcohol
parakeet armas el miedo y tambien cuando
se que no se siente muchos de door s
peligrosa muchas siento Sanka yo yo
tambien tal algunos algunos a nose at
rastan agendas case am wearing is going
a lot faster than up gone I'm good at
the trot I'm not so good at the whatever
else is past the trot I think I can do
that man how do I make him not go so
fast saw just let this thing go let it
go that's how you go go yeah and go
if you're gonna go throw just pulled
straight look okay tight you slow okay
let me tell you something see this
little horse is just another it's not
the best you know but okay you can keep
slow one - twig oh oh oh
Karima
oh holy you know when life is a
little blank right now I'm just like
surging with adrenaline I really can't
think anything a little bit shaky I just
stepped in a huge pile of also uh
most people are already half in the bag
and it was only about 10 a.m. but from
what I could figure the riders and I
were headed to the town square
it's no surprise that everybody was
partying and drinking to celebrate the
Mayan culture because discrimination
against the people at OU de Santos
didn't stop with the Spanish
conquistadors in the early 1980s in the
midst of the Guatemalan civil war the
army launched a genocide against the
Mayans
over a hundred and seventy thousand
indigenous people were killed and around
600 mined villages destroyed in the
spring of 1982 guerrillas who were
battling the government took Toto Santos
as a stronghold soldiers invaded the
village to fight the guerrillas and
residents were caught in the middle
todos santos el último pueblo destroyed'
o como que aqui y el fin de noticias la
capitale para el gobierno que estaba
cecily oyogu no golpe de estar entonces
ie para la guerra no sentados a redis
armata the genocide was one of the
bloodiest periods in the country's
history but like that ancestor who stole
the horse to rebel against the
conquistadors the people in toto Santos
have stayed strong
okay good I've got glasses I was still
confused about what was going on but
somebody told me that we were supposed
to dance with the horses
there we go let's go and randomly out of
nowhere there were these giant
explosions terrifying my horse
las bombas significa del camión SE de
cada actividad qual determiner Calaca TV
de the racing teams are made up of
families in the community with the
team's captain or first rider as they
call him usually being the oldest son in
the family he's the guy who pays for the
horses and the marimba and the food and
all the booze Santos tal vez y un ven te
por ciento todo santaros del austra in
team in lava tante sketchy a vibin los
Estados Unidos los que haces a career de
caballo solos que tiene más dinero
entonces solos immigrant ace todo
santaros so Lavina por la cara de
caballo y 7 porque es pierre de bastante
dinero por la Carrera pero se regresa
empieza a trabajar yo regressor lo Tran
you I finally got to meet my host the
father of the first captain whose custom
that the father ad traditional riding
accessories to my outfit like I was one
of his own sons hey Latrell todas trajo
del C or este van hopper nary Oba pasar
by lo se le gusta Valgard oh no Cho say
no sólo las diez Padres cancer amateur
Andreea ahorita tenemos ace comida y
como este es Bakura komui ho ha ha te
vas pasta make me load my destiny came a
girl Akeno race
and here's the crown I got this once I
was all dressed up for the race I met
with the first rider of my team
what does this Festival mean to you but
I'm missing a fika is there one minute
what in an idol dos Santos how long have
you been racing peple Cengiz
do you have any tips for me like I was
pretty scared out there miedo de correr
como puede
then it was time to kick off the party
so we started drinking and dancing which
would go all night preparing us with a
big race the next day
what should we anticipate for tomorrow
paramos que todos sister coram bien que
no hay nada porque sabes Muertos really
yes I would like to not be that dead
person I do not want to die I don't know
how I'm gonna be able ride a horse you
know so hungover tomorrow is have a keep
drinking insisted a la carrera es que no
ingen adorned un perdedor entonces los
los dientes tiene que tomar porque ESO
no es uno de chillon after 12 hours of
drinking and dancing
we're finally prepared to race so
everybody is putting pretty hard in
their that we're going all night we're
gonna hop on my horse soon do a little
racing I think the purpose of drinking
for 12 hours was to forget that I could
potentially fall off and die the
spitting booze on me hopefully for good
luck
did you go
everybody's laughing at me
everybody's pointing and drinking and
chuckling they're all saying like will
the gringo stay in a source here we go
here we go Korea the down buddy
oh I ran into horse on that side and
then coming back this way uh
couldn't stop went flying off a little
bit but all I gots a little bit skinned
knuckles a little bit bloody the riding
fights easiest parts stopping
who knew after I raced my horse
the captain's rode additional apps with
their ceremonial chickens which signaled
the end of the festivities Anna squaty
media well trained me my Gayo yo voy voy
a Montana kawaii voice Matar my guy am i
kawaii la sangre de la gallon a chaos
Corte es para darle todos Antero que
murió solo loss capitainesj
de de Algar SI galena me entonces menthe
Alka bio y sólo el capitan puede
commerce a gala knows si significa que
el en los Capitan azan cumplir la
tradición
so are you okay with tourists like
myself coming and participating in the
festival or are you worried about it you
know becoming too Americanized and
losing some of my culture al contrarian
nosotros on teemo's for Goya Osos de que
participa todos santos s siento muy
contento que usted y cuando llegó assest
isis aloha mostrar a sus familias lo que
nosotros queremos es que no se termina
tambien nosotros estamos buscando una
votación
otro país para apoyar para llamar a la
gente I wouldn't expect a town to
remember its dark history with a horse
race on a party but once I was welcomed
in the community of todos santos i saw
how the people here really have
something to celebrate put us onto his
has been victim to terrible things but
all the people here today have survived
and that's something to celebrate Plus
after centuries of genocide by the
Spanish and their government dying drunk
and free on the back of a horse isn't
the worst way to go at least it's on
their terms
Oh