Overview

Every year the inhabitants of San Ignacio de Moxos, a large Amazonian village in northern Bolivia, celebrate Ichapekene Piesta, a festival that reinterprets the Moxeño myth of the victory of the founding father of the city, the Jesuit Ignazio de Loyola, and mixes it with indigenous traditions. The festival lasts for a week day and night, with processions, drumming, singing, dancing and games with the bulls. The major representation of St. Ignatius' victory involves 12 "warriors of the sun" wearing extraordinary feathers and fighting against the guardians of the sacred flag, the ancient masters of the forest and water, before defeating them and converting them to Christianity.