Loiza-Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol 2018

One thing that drives me to practice photography is to capture special moments for people to enjoy, and learn from it. Maybe is a flower you didn’t have the time to observe or a moment in history you didn’t have the chance to witness, and this blog is about that.
 
One Sunday morning in July 2018 I saw at the social media that there would be a cultural event in the town of Loiza, a "Bombazo" in the "Batey de los Ayala". Luckily that day I was free from work. it was a good opportunity for me to go there and take some nice pictures. Despite I’m a Puerto Rican, there are some celebrations of Puerto Rican culture that I don’t know about, and in my way to Loiza I realized that this event was part of the Apostle Saint James festivities.
 
For those who doesn’t know, the Apostle Saint James festivity is a religious celebration brought to Puerto Rico by the Spaniards, and it takes place in the month of July. During seven days people make various processions where some of them dress as four types of characters including: los vejigantes, los caballeros, las locas and los viejos. This is a brief overview about the history of this religious celebration, of which you can find more details in the internet.
 
This was an incredible experience for me: full of culture, music and a special sensation of being part of a huge family gathering. Enjoy the photos!