It is comforting to know that there are these troupes. Fiestas haven't always been as diverse as they now are in providing entertainment, attractions and activities for all members of the family. Nowadays though, you can't go near a fiesta without being confronted by a clown, an enormous array of inflatable bouncing things and entire squares given over to an "aquatic festival", the climax to which is the now almost obligatory foam party. Kids, in fiesta terms, have never had it as good, and they aren't presented solely with opportunities of a totally unserious nature. There are kiddies' workshops for making them good recycling citizens, workshops for absolutely everything. And then there is tradition, as in, for example, demons. Yes, there are even kiddies' gangs of demons, learning the art of creeping around menacingly and then terrifying the life out of you. Which all sounds like a recipe for later-life disaster but which, exposed to the island's culture from an early age, is probably the exact opposite.
Uapidubi, it's probably fair to say, don't conform to any known tradition, though as an act this foursome, typically kitted out in different coloured, silken boiler suits with accompanying hats, specialise in bringing popular songs from the Balearics to its mini audience. Dances, games and songs, the Uapis (as they are known for short) keep the little ones amused and entertained for an hour or so while parents can indulge in more adult fiesta pastimes: those involving a bar, for example.
Cucorba is probably the better known if not the best known of the kiddies' groups. And they have also been around for a fair old while: since 1977 in fact, when the troupe was formed in Muro. There are now Cucorba DVDs, a Cucorba book, Cucorba songs and a bunch of awards in recognition of their cultural contribution. In 1988, for instance, they received one from the regional government "in recognition of their extraordinary work in the promotion and development of the Catalan language and culture of the Balearic Islands". Then, in 2002, came perhaps the grandest honour - the Ramon Llull prize "for 25 years of dedication to children's theatre ... always in Catalan". So, even with kiddies' entertainment groups, or perhaps most importantly because of them, the politics of language seem never to be too far from the surface.
The omnipotence at fiesta time of the "animación infantíl" does probably owe quite a deal to Cucorba. Such a galaxy of entertainment didn't used to be on show, but now fiestas can almost seem as if one of their principal reasons for existence is so that children can sing songs in Catalan and smear each other with foam.
If one is, however, looking for the origins of children's involvement in fiestas, then one can go back to the Crown of Aragon where a tradition of children's participation came to rival that of the heartland of Spanish religiosity, Santiago de Compostela. As a consequence, when Jaume I conquered Majorca in 1229, this tradition was to become established. In Jaume's "llibre dels fets" (book of deeds), there is mention of how children were part of ceremonies that were part political, part religious but in which children symbolised the purity of the word of God; and Jaume was under the impression, as kings tended to be back then, that he was from divine origins. There was later, by the end of the fourteenth century, a system by which municipalities in Mallorca had to have elections for seven-year-olds to participate in certain fiesta activities. (This was in fact a law for Mallorca of 1384.) This notion of election might be said to still exist with, for instance, the election of La Beata in Santa Margalida, which takes place this evening, albeit the "girls" are now older.
Anyway, so much for the past and back to the present. Uapidubi won't be worrying too much about what happened six or seven hundred years ago. They'll be entertaining in Puerto Pollensa's church square. Fiesta time: Uapidubi!
* Photo: Uapidubi from www.uapidubi.blogspot.com.es
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