MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
In Bolivia, there's an annual festival that can make you feel like a kid again. It's called Alasitas, and it takes place in the capital, La Paz. There, everything Bolivians hope to acquire or achieve for the next year is on offer - with a twist.
NPR's Julie McCarthy reports on the festival where faith in big things comes in small packages.
U: Buenos dias.
JULIE MCCARTHY: Buenos dias.
U: Alasitas.
MCCARTHY: Alasitas has to rank as one of the quaintest and quirkiest festivals I've seen. It's as if for a few hours, you can pretend what life would be like living inside a dollhouse.
You're selling mini passports?
U: (Speaking in Spanish)
MCCARTHY: Miniature, so everybody could travel abroad.
Every computer, kitchen appliance, copper pot and house that merchants sell from neatly lined stalls are all crafted miniatures.
Luis Alvarez(ph) zips and unzips his specialty luggage, one inch by one inch, with stitching no bigger than a spider's kneecap.
NORRIS: (Through translator) People who hope to travel this year buy these tiny suitcases; above all, people who have faith, people who want to travel to the United States. They go hoping things will go well for them. These people have faith in their religion, in God, or in Ekeko, the god of this fair.
MCCARTHY: In Bolivia's Aymaran culture, Ekeko is a generous rotund deity depicted in figurines as a squat, sideburned character laden with money and other accoutrements of abundance.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MCCARTHY: Whether it's a postage-sized bag of cement to build the new home or tiny banknotes that bestow wealth, people here buy the goods that they aspire to own, at times with great detail as with Victoria Arancivia(ph).
You can buy a car.
NORRIS: (Speaking in Spanish)
MCCARTHY: Four by four.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: In a celebration where small is beautiful, Victor Barboa(ph) bought a pair of matchbook-sized sandals in the hope that the shoes he already owns will last the whole year.
Lots of people want houses and cars and diplomas - and you want your sandals to last?
NORRIS: (Speaking in Spanish)
MCCARTHY: That's the difference, Victor says, between the city and the countryside. That is what we hope for in the country.
One of the festival's enduring traditions is artisan Ana Monasterios(ph) and her lead toy soldiers painted in uniforms from the war of the Pacific.
NORRIS: (Speaking in Spanish)
MCCARTHY: Lead is less popular in the United States, she notes, but I've been selling these soldiers here since 1946.
Keeping faith with custom, Rodolfo Myer(ph) returned from California to attend the fair. But Myer says Alasitas, which translates "buy from me," is actually more about giving than receiving.
NORRIS: It's a desire that somebody will get it for you but if there's nobody, that means there's a lack of community, right, or lack of family? You need family, then, no? You need community. So I 'll get something for you. I know you are by yourself, you are not here with your family.
MCCARTHY: He leads me to the stall marked Bank of Bolivia. Even the miniature dollar bills here are taking a beating as buyers jostle to purchase the favored mini currency of the moment.
Thank you.
NORRIS: How about euros?
MCCARTHY: Euros?
NORRIS: These will come in very handy.
MCCARTHY: Yes.
Rodolfo buys me play euros and I, in turn, buy him dollars and we strike off to get our booty blessed by the local shamans huddled over small charcoal fires.
U: (Mumbling in Spanish)
MCCARTHY: The Yatiri or blesser mumbles prayers, sprinkles flowers and pours wine over my little suitcase loaded with mini Monopoly money.
Margarita Alarcon(ph), the fourth generation in her family to hawk the tiny baskets that brim with the staples of a Bolivian pantry, says the holiday has become more materialistic but she says...
NORRIS: (Speaking in Spanish)
MCCARTHY: It is still really about having an enormous amount of faith. After all, she says, faith moves mountains.
Many of this year's fairgoers hope that their faith can move, if not mountains, then at least the car or housing market for them.
Julie McCarthy, NPR News, La Paz, Bolivia.
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