Día del Campesino

August 2nd is the Día del Campesino, also known as Día del Indio, a day to celebrate being indigenous and preserving the culture and values of these rural areas.

The day started with a mass, then speeches, and then a parade with students from kindergarten through college.

Here are the students from the elementary school in San Pedro de la Loma, a small community near the College -- ready to march!




And here is the president of the town council, the subprefect, and our Director Father Freddy.



Here new graduate Policarpio Apaza*, also from San Pedro de la Loma, leads his fellow community members in the parade, with the Aymara Nation flag, the Wiphala.



Last in the parade are our students from the College. Here some agronomy students line up, ready to march through the high school grounds in honor of their roots as children of the land.



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*I didn't write about Policarpio's research project defense, July 13th, in La Paz. A "native son" of the valley where the College sits, he looked at chicken stocking densities, and found that less chickens per area meant better conversion of feed to meat, but that more chickens per area was more profitable (12 chickens per square meter). He plans to start a small community-run chicken farm in his community.