The Andean Carnival in the Province of Jujuy, Argentina, is one of the most significant cultural celebrations in the country’s northern region. Music, dance, masks, talco (talcum powder traditionally thrown during carnival celebrations), and comparsas (organized carnival groups) transform streets into spaces of gathering where community, memory, and territory intertwine. These celebrations are part of deeply rooted Andean traditions, passed down from generation to generation and experienced as collective moments of gratitude, abundance, and the celebration of life.
Although the Jujuy Carnival has a long history and strong cultural vitality, for decades many cultural expressions from northern Argentina have had limited presence in open digital repositories. In this context, the publication of a video of the carnival in Maimará, a town located in the Quebrada de Humahuaca at approximately 2,300 meters above sea level, takes on particular significance within efforts to expand cultural documentation in open spaces. The recording was made by Luis Fernando Flores, a member of the Indigenous community of Purmamarca, and was later shared on Wikimedia Commons. In this way, the publication represents not only the addition of a new file, but also a contribution toward expanding a cultural record that has historically remained incomplete.
The video opens with the deep, resonant sound of erkes (large traditional Andean wind instruments) announcing the beginning of the celebration. Over this soundscape, different scenes appear showing typical garments from northern Argentina: colorful textiles, hats, masks, and details of clothing worn during the Andean carnival in Jujuy. The camera lingers on textures, embroidery, and movement, allowing viewers to observe how these garments form part of a festive aesthetic that combines tradition, community identity, and contemporary creativity.
At the center of the celebration appears an emblematic figure: the Pujllay, popularly known as the “carnival devil”. Despite its name, this figure is not related to the representation of evil associated with the Catholic tradition. In the Andean worldview, the Pujllay is an ancestral symbol connected to fertility, abundance, and gratitude toward the earth. During the carnival, its presence expresses collective joy and appreciation for the fruits of labor and the generosity of the land. Masks, colorful costumes, music, and talco form part of a festive language that strengthens community ties and celebrates cultural continuity.
Throughout the video, the soundscape expands with carnavalitos (traditional Andean carnival folk music) and other audio recordings available under open licenses. These sounds come from materials published on YouTube under Creative Commons (CC BY) licenses, which allow their reuse in free knowledge projects. The combination of open images and sounds accompanies the audiovisual narrative and illustrates how open repositories can help document and share living cultural expressions within the global ecosystem of free knowledge.
Many of these practices are connected to Indigenous histories and cultural traditions that form a constitutive part of Argentine society, although they have not always occupied a place proportional to their importance in widely circulated narratives about the country’s culture. The scarcity of open records documenting Andean celebrations and Indigenous communities in Argentina is not only the result of technical limitations, it also reflects historical processes in which certain territories, languages, and experiences have been documented more extensively than others. Recording these moments means recognizing that culture is preserved not only in museums or written archives, but also in living celebrations that continue to renew themselves in the present.
In Argentina, cultural and media dynamics have historically been shaped by strong processes of centralization, with Buenos Aires serving as the main center of symbolic legitimacy. In this context, many cultural expressions developed in other parts of the country have had less presence in open digital repositories. In fact, Argentina has Wikimedia affiliates in Buenos Aires, and an active chapter since 2007. However, nearly two decades later, the challenge of deepening the decentralization of knowledge within the free knowledge ecosystem remains.
Free knowledge is not only a matter of licenses or technological platforms; it is also linked to cultural representation. Each file incorporated from territories that have historically been less documented helps rebalance a digital cultural map that remains uneven. In this sense, the Jujuy carnival can be understood not only as a festive celebration, but also as an expression of cultural continuity in the face of historical processes of invisibilization.
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