Jul 27, 2015 2 min read

Yawar Fiesta: The visit from a winged Andean god

A condor is presented to the public in the town’s bullfighting ring. Photo by Oscar Durand.

Elie Gardner: Fellow Storyhunter Oscar Durand and I traveled to Coyllurqui, Peru, to document a local tradition called “Yawar Fiesta,” where condors are mounted onto bulls and participate in a special kind of bullfighting.

What started as 7-minute video commissioned on Storyhunter for Yahoo en Español, will soon be a feature-length documentary. After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, we returned in 2014 to dig deeper into this Andean tradition with our partner Cecilia Larrabure.

“Yawar Fiesta: The visit from a winged Andean god” will peg the historical and cultural importance of this condor-bullfighting tradition against the obligation of Peruvians to protect the Andean condor, a threatened species in the region.

On July 28, Peru will celebrate its independence from Spain. The following day, a condor will be brought to the town’s ring and mounted on a bull for the festival. A handful of local and regional bullfighters will taunt the bull, as will the condor. Visitors and relatives by the hoards come to celebrate with their families and friends. They say that seeing the condor reminds them of their sovereignty and independence.

We recently launched the trailer of ‘Yawar Fiesta’, and are now in the process of finalizing the edit and seeking additional post-production funding.

We hope the documentary will encourage dialogue about this controversial ritual among its supporters and critics.