No "cuicos" allowed: The door of Valpo's Guachaca bar (above) is open to good times.
Photo by Monica Evans

Valpo’s “guachacas” are shining their boots, brushing up on their cueca dancing and stocking up on their favorite four-liter bottles of cheap red wine in preparation for this weekend’s “Cumbre Guachaca” (Guachaca Summit) in Muelle Barón.

Guachacas characteristically shy away from any formal definition of who they are, but could perhaps be described as a societal movement that promotes humble living and simple pleasures. They also champion the lifestyle of urban Chile’s  “common people.” Their motto is “Humilde, Cariñoso, Republicano” (Humble, Affectionate, Republican). They oppose class discrimination, all things “cuico” (posh, upper-class, pretentious) and the privileging in Chile of foreign culture (VT, Apr. 23).

Valparaíso has always been Guachaca heartland. In a spoof of Valpo’s UNESCO title as a World Cultural Heritage site, the Guachacas proclaimed the city “World Guachaca Heritage” in 2003. As charismatic Guachaca leader “Gran Guarípola Dióscoro Rojas explained at the time, “If in one place in this country ‘Chileanity’ still lives and breathes, where the smell of seafood, baked bread, fried fish and pebre (spicy Chilean sauce) lingers, it’s in the port. If there’s one place where people still take the time to ponder the human and the divine, this world and the other, a place where hurrying is a waste of time, it’s Valparaíso.”

The Guachaca Summit has been held annually since 1997, either in Santiago or Valparaíso, and according to Rojas, numbers have grown steadily from year to year. This year’s summit is dedicated to legendary porteño singer Jorge Farías, a Guachaca icon, who passed away several weeks ago (VT, Apr. 23). On Friday a plaque will be installed in his honor in Guachaca bar “Primer Ascensor de la Luna” (First Cable-Car to the Moon) at 2345 Victoria Street.

Also on Friday the hard-fought title of Guachaca Queen, voted on by the porteño public, will be presented to one of the five candidates. According to the Guachaca Scriptures, the chosen Queen must among other things prefer baked bread with pebre to McDonald’s combos, dance cueca with her sleeves rolled up, and use her power to defend bars on the point of bankruptcy, directionless poets and public employees about to be sacked.

Among this year’s candidates are a young blonde “Cafe con Piernas” (Cafe with Legs) hostess, a long-time singer in classic Valpo bar Cinzano, a 30-something radio journalist, a Cummings street bar-owner, and – eading the polls so far – an Industrial Chemistry student who also waitresses at Primer Ascensor de la Luna.

The Summit will be held starting at 9.30 p.m. on Saturday May 19 in the VTP (Terminal Portuario de Valparaíso), Muelle Barón.

By Monica Evans (monica.evansAThotmail.com)