Supermarket Cowboys

Peru’s biggest supermarket chain – Wong – plays up Fiestas Patrias in a big way, sponsoring patriotic events throughout Lima and featuring the “flavors of Peru” during the month-long season. The store’s colors are red and white, the colors of the Peruvian flag, but to celebrate the independence-day spirit during July, some employees wear outfits distinctive to Peru. The young men who bag your groceries wear these white ponchos with red scarves and big straw hats – the traditional costume of “el chalán,” the horse trainer or cowboy from northern Peru. (See photo of actual chalan, not in red and white, riding a horse in Lima, by Paul Ark, right).

Peru is such a service-oriented country that the Wong bagmen will walk you home with your groceries, free of charge (they’re probably glad to escape temporarily from the store). We live two blocks from a Wong and usually go there on foot. It’s invigorating to step into a busy Lima intersection flanked by a guy dressed like an expert horse wrangler, his white cape fluttering as he and you dodge the suicidal combi buses. (Toro, toro.)

El Fotógrafo, El Híjo and I moved from Florida to Peru on July 12 of last year. I was clueless about Fiestas Patrias then; my main focus was adjusting to the shock of its being winter in July. My memories of that first month are of being horribly cold and buying lots of alpaca sweaters and gloves and talking nonstop about la clima en Lima. I had sympathy for old people and empathized acutely with one of my husband’s elderly relatives, an 80-year-old woman who huddled in a wheelchair during family gatherings and was always complaining about “el frío.”

I hear you, sister, I’d be thinking.

In addition to stocking up on more chompas than I had room for in my tiny closet, I also spent time at Wong browsing for ingredients to make hot chocolate – anything to thaw my blood. That first month, I assumed the Wong bagmen wore those cute outfits all year round.

It was a letdown in August when the baggers switched to their standard uniforms. The button-down shirts and trousers and red caps looked so drab. I missed the cowboy getup.

Now it’s July again. Viva Fiestas Patrias!