The peliqueiros

Latex with acrylic on acetate, 60x40

Vicente Risco in his work (V. Risco's work)

1962: The carnival celebrations in Galicia. The Peliqueiros.

"The cigarrón does not speak, he walks in bounds, jumps and dances, ringing the cowbells and hitting those he finds with the whip or the bladder. If two of them get together, they take any man on their shoulders and take him to the tavern and the man is obliged to invite them; they show up at houses asking for an invitation or money. The cigarrón is sacred, no one can touch him, you can shout and insult him, calling him anything, but even if you know him, no one can pronounce his name. He who is hit cannot be offended. The cigarrón cannot get angry or take insults the wrong way".

(Festivals of the year: CARNIVAL. In Ethnography: spiritual culture, HISTORY OF GALICIA directed by Ramón Otero Pedrayo, Buenos Aires, 1962).