Catalina and Lorenzo are two lovely characters of a TV commercial produced by SOS Children's Villages in Bolivia. The characters were first created in Uruguay and were aimed at increasing the public awareness of the role and situation of children in the country. Since then, both characters have become more and more popular in Bolivia so that today one can even get them as puppets.
Within this context and taking advantage of the carnival celebrations in Bolivia, SOS co-workers from the village and the social center in Sucre came up with the great idea of participating in the Corso Infantil (children's allegoric carnival) with costumes of Catalina and Lorenzo.
The attractive corso took place in March and was organized successfully, once again, by the City Hall. The day was bright and warm and this was the perfect motivation for all participants: dancers and the public. Everyone played with water balloons.
The children from the village as well as the social center were among the happiest. Their comparsa (group of people sharing costumes in carnival) was very well organized, and their original costumes, the dresses of Catalinas and Lorenzos, were outstanding.
Among the thousands of people watching the corso were many friends of the organization in Sucre. When they saw the comparsa of Catalinas and Lorenzos dancing cheerfully along one of the streets of Sucre, they immediately recognized the village children and many of them did not hesitate to jump from their seats and pose for a picture with the little dancers.
The children's SOS mothers, on the other hand, walked behind the comparsa, many of them dancing, so as to make sure their kids were fine and that their joyfulness would not exceed the limits, say, when playing with water balloons. After all, it was the mothers, aunts (family helpers), and co-workers of the village and social center who came up with the original idea and, of course, they deserved to enjoy the carnival, too.
"When I was a child, I used to have a good time during carnival," reminisced an SOS mother. "It was a little different, though, especially the music. The comparsas danced to music played by traditional local instruments only."