RETABLO. THE HUAMANGUINO

El Huamanguino. Year: 1988. Dimensions: Open: 28 x 62.5 x 10.5 cm / Closed: 28 x 32 x 10.5 cm. This retablo has the interior of its doors in black with colorful flowers, with red borders from which drops of blood drip. The crown is black and has three carved flowers; the central one is white and represents hope in the midst of the storm of violence. This is also found in the Ayacucho carnival by Ranulfo Fuentes on which the retablo is based. The carnival addresses the theme of disappearances and deaths related to the violence but nonetheless shows signs of hope for better times through the same metaphor of flowering. The retablo shows composer Ranulfo Fuentes playing guitar and singing the Huamanguino. He sings of how his loved one was taken away in the darkness of the night. On the right, two spouses are shown resting in their home. On the roof, two cats fight, and nearby a dog barks and a rooster crows at an unusual hour (omens that something bad will happen). Toward the left, the Huamanguino is shown being detained in the middle of the night, forced to be separated from his wife. Subsequently, the soldiers strip him of his clothes, bind and gag him, torture him, and drag him away, finally throwing him dead into an abyss alongside bones and more bodies being devoured by birds.