This project seeks to document the intersection of festivals and governance across various sites in the Americas. These include the San Francisco Carnaval in San Francisco, California, the Fiesta de la Tirana in Tarapacá, Chile, the Saint Paul Winter Carnival in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the Corpus Christi Fiesta in Atánquez, Colombia.  

 

These fiestas reflect the local politics of a region as well as the various ways that participants and organizers exercise governance through fiestas, festivals or carnival. At each site, interviews were conducted with fiesta organizers and participants.

 

Through this research, the goal is to more fully understand the ways that fiestas function as spaces that influence, redress and practice  governance.