This piece folklore was gathered at the San Fransisco trauma recovery center. I met with a group of social workers and over the course of one hour we all got came together in a meeting room and in one big group we decided to go around the table and each discuss folklore from their lives. At the beginning of the discussion I gave a brief description about what folklore could be. After that everyone shared pieces of folklore from their lives.

“One thing in Peru thats really important is the sun. In Peruvian mythology because the sun god is who created the Inka empire so it’s a huge thing for Peru to celebrate the sun. To this day they have festivals of the sun and for that everything is supposed to be toned yellow or gold so everything you where is gold or golden white and you try to replicate what Inka’s might have worn during those times to celebrate the sun. And its huge because the sun  featured in lots of Peruvian art and gold and yellows are huge colors in Peruvian clothes and art and architecture. It’s interesting as well because it was the gold and the riches that attracted the conquistadors in the first place to kind of ruin that. Still to this day The Festival of the Sun is a huge festival.”

Background information about the performance from the informant: “I began learning about this festival in order to help reconnect me to my Inka roots. This festival has been going on for hundreds of years and I’m very happy that they continue doing that every June and it’s a wonderful festival that is designed to thank the sun and also the  earth. Which for me is important because it is making me closer to my roots and who I am and because so much of who I am comes from the other part the Spanish part.”

Final thoughts: This is a large communal ritual which associates a group of people with an elemental force, in this case the sun. The fact that this festival is still going on helps reconnect the Peruvian people to their Inka roots and reminds them of their own history and importance. In this way they act as both the teller and the audience for this piece of folklore. The celebration also serves the duel pour pace of connecting the people to their culture and connecting their culture to the natural world by using the sun as a symbol.