Halloween Hits Mendoza!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Why? Because it’s all about fun with none of the obligations or solemnity that comes with most of the others. And it gives us an excuse to escape the bars constructed by our everyday identity and be someone else for an evening. Halloween is a blast – and they don’t celebrate it in Argentina!! So rather than lose out on my favorite holiday, I decided to turn it into a win-win situation by throwing a Halloween costume party at my apartment, thus giving myself an opportunity to celebrate my favorite holiday and give the Argentines a chane to get to know this great American festivity.

I made the house as scary as I could with fake blood (marinara sauce) splattered all over the sliding glass doors, red lights, jack-o-lanterns and a sign on the front door welcoming the guests to the “house of the dead”! I also made a variety of scary snacks, such as Jell-O “eyeballs” and “brains”, “cowpie cookies”, and even “vampire’s blood” to drink.

I was afraid that dressing up might be such a foreign concept for these people that they might be too embarrassed to do it, so I made invitations advertising that there would be a costume contest and I even included photos of our costumes from previous Halloweens to inspire them to really go for it. AND THEY SURE DID!!! It was as if their desires to dress up or let their identities go, express the artist within them, had been repressed all their lives and this party just opened the floodgates. We had a monk, a Mozart, a sexy nurse and her patient/victim, four out-of-this-world transvestites, two vampires (who were disguised so well that I didn’t even recognize that they were my two host sisters!) , and even a Dracula’s wife. We had monsters, Chinamen, Spiderwoman, and bellydancers. But the winners of the contest, with the best costume by far, were three boys, with whom I practice karate. They dressed as the Powder Puff Girls, or “Chicas Poderosas” in Spanish, from the kids’ TV cartoon of the same name and made their costumes completely from scratch, using cut, stapled and painted pillowcases for the superhero dresses, pompoms for wigs, and makeuparound their eyes for the superhero masks.

I was a great party filled with laughter, dancing and new friends and I think a truly unforgettable night for everyone.