The Devilishness

In the windswept Bolivian tin-mining center of Oruro, garishly garbed Indian miners paraded through the streets last week behind some 60 mules and oxen laden with silverware and assorted household objects. Arriving at the Church of the Virgin of the Cave, patroness of Oruro tin diggers, the marchers symbolically offered their silver and china to the Virgin --just as their ancestors brought metal and pottery objects to their gods to seek good fortune. Then an Indian cast in the role of Lucifer, masked and cloaked in red velvet, capered into the area before the church doors. Thus began La Diablada (The Devilishness), Oruro's own version of the ancient auto sacramental (religious play).

Back in the 70th century, when the great Castilian dramatist CalderOon de la Barca wrote the most sumptuous of all the autos sacramentales (Belshazzar's Feast, The Divine Orpheus), these religious dramatizations, similar to the earlier English mystery plays, reached their peak popularity. After that, their appeal dwindled and they all but disappeared from the holy-days celebrations outside the churches of the Spanish-speaking world. But in remote Oruro, 12,000 ft. up in the Bolivian Andes, the auto still flourishes with strong Indian overtones, and last week, as usual at carnival time, the show was on.

Brandishing his mock-serpent scepter, Lucifer proclaimed in mixed Spanish and Indian that he was the Prince of Darkness, and proved it with impressive leaps and tooth-grinding roars. Immediately the

Archangel Michael bounded forward, gorgeous in a white-and-pink silk costume, and challenged Lucifer in the name of God and the seven virtues.

After they had exchanged a few prances and roars, seven more brightly costumed devils strutted forward to shout their vain glorious boasts and be routed, one by one, by Michael. Envy ("I am the worst of the capital sins") wore a mask of interlaced serpents; Sloth was a yawning frog; Lust was masked by lizards. Last of all came La Diabla, the she-devil. With her seductive smile and flouncing skirts, provocatively hoisted as she danced, the tempting she-devil managed to give the archangel a bad half-hour.

But Michael outpranced and out-preached all the devils. In one final going-over, he flung Lucifer to the ground and set foot on him, proclaiming the victory of God and virtue while the devils quaked in terror. Then he led all the devils into the church where they knelt, took off their masks and sang: "Our Mother, here we are, your little children devils."

After that they went out of the church, danced all around town for three days and nights of the carnival.

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