El Toro Guapo, The Handsome Bull - National Festival in Anton

Every year the district of Antón, on Panama’s Pacific Coast covering areas from San Carlos to Rio Hato celebrates a festival to honor it’s cultural and agricultural traditions. The festival, called El Toro Guapo or the Handsome Bull was begun in 1964 by Armando del Rosario, a Panamaian folklorist artist.  The festival which pays homage by its name to the farming and cattle raising communities of Anton, is in its 39th year. Celebration for El Toro Guapo go on for 4 days. There are parades, bands, music, dancing and contests. During festival days one can watch a number of contests centered around the everyday activities faced in the life of farmers and cattle ranchers. You will find competitions for coconut peeling, cow milking and woodcutting. You will also see how rice is husked in wooden barrels, without machinery and you can enjoy a bowl of ‘guacho’, a hearty rice soup which is often made with meat or chicken.

This year Presidential candidate Richardo Martinelli was elected to ‘poner las cutarras al toro’, or put sandals on the bull. This activity is exactly as it is named. It involves bull down and putting leather sandals on its feet.

The festival culminated in a parade with bullock-cart floats, reflecting scenes from life in Anton. Many carts were followed by a woman dancing with a pollera and a man representing a dancing bull (el toro guapo). The bull’s costumes are made of hollowed caña brava wood, decorated with colorful cloth and mirrors and bears the head and body of the bull. The bull’s disposition is unpredictable, so the dancer could instigate other bulls into bull fight or chase the women dancers who engage the ‘bull’ in a dance.

If you missed this year’s El Toro Guapo festival in Anton, there will be another one in September of 2009.