Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Countries fight over pageant costume

|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 21, 2009 at 8:15 AM

LIMA, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- South American neighbors Bolivia and Peru are engaged in a battle over a devil dance costume for Sunday's Miss Universe beauty pageant, officials confirm.

Both nations say the costume for the Andean ritual known as the Devil's Dance or La Diablada belongs to their country and only their contestant has the right to wear it in the pageant, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Culture Minister Pablo Groux of Bolivia says La Diablada originated in Bolivia and allowing Miss Peru to wear the costume at the pageant threatens his country's national brand.

"Culture doesn't have borders," says Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, Peru's foreign minister.

Anthropologist David Guss of Boston's Tufts University says the Bolivian city of Oruro "might have the most compelling claim" as the birthplace of La Diablada.

But Guss adds that there was lots of cultural cross-pollination as the dance ritual evolved, and it moved into parts of both Chile and Peru.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
President Obama Signs Smuggling Prevention Act at White House
View Caption
fark
Despite their efforts to convince you otherwise, many "foodies" can't, in a blind taste test, tell...
Photoshop this urban underground dweller
Kim Jong Un Dead. I repeat - Un Dead
Nothing is more romantic on Valentine's Day than taking your lover on a tour of New York's sewers...
Man arrested for writing 'bomb' on some toilet paper. "His family says the word 'bomb' is often...
Now that gay marriage is legal in California, the state's Health Department thought it was necessary...