Peryas: A Carousel of Commerce and Community Samantha Basalatan Right as dusk falls, the baryo people rouse from their afternoon slumber and call upon their friends and relatives to head to the local perya. The night has just begun–lights, music, and activity fill the perya as people flood into the wonders of what this year’s carnival is all about. This has been a routine my extended family took part in through the years of my childhood in Pampanga, twice every year, during our town’s fiesta and Christmas celebrations. Most of the time, the carnival is propped up in an open field close to the town center, or right by the square if the plaza is spacious enough. It is a nocturnal type of business and peryas stay for a week in our locality, although I have come to learn that it stays for up to a month in other areas. 1 Such impermanence builds much anticipation even for non-locals (like our family in Pasig) and groups like ours make it a goal to retain our presence in the perya each night. A perya, in general terms, is a gaming and amusement center comprising different makeshift game stalls such as a shooting gallery, coin toss, ring toss, color game, the famous bingo, and many others–all indiscriminate in players, but trials are in exchange for money. Rides are made from repurposed steel, scavenged wood, and vehicle engines customized and maintained by the perya worker themselves through self-taught construction skills. Other entertainment stalls include engaging the community in a karaoke battle aiming for the highest score. Food stalls are also present to sustain the hunger and energy of perya-goers. What makes the perya so captivating is the joyful, carefree spirit they evoke, where people reclaim their youthful spirit and reconnect with simple pleasures. For years, our family has come to enjoy the perya but it has never occurred to me just how this wonder comes to life every year–its structure, process, and the economics behind it. Other than paglalako (roaming carts) and wet markets, peryas became an avenue for gaining adequate profit in the provinces. Or this assumption could be under the premise of knowing very little about perya economics in the first place. Questions arise from this growing curiosity and my objectives seek the answers for: (1) how the perya applies as an economy base, (2) its history and colonial rationality, (3) how its market works, (4) how it simultaneously builds a community, and (5) its legacy. Seeking for answers under the lens of economic anthropology brings me to frame this case under two interacting economic realms (i.e. market and community) proposed by Stephen Gudeman (2005) in his work, Community and Economy: Economy’s Base. Perya as an economy base An economy’s base is the social and material space that a community or association of people make in the world. Comprising shared material interests, it connects members of a group to one another, and is part of all economies. Peryas serve as the melting pot of communities that come together to celebrate a festivity dedicated to a patron; it is an extension of a celebration that is religious by the day, and festive by the night. Community members from nearby baryos flock all together to where the perya is centered, as their fiestas vary in occurrence year by year. As such, the perya community is non-exclusive to the baryo locals, with its openness extending unto who 1 Most peryas in the provinces last for as long as their fiestas do. Some peryas (in both the provinces and the cities) last for a month or even a few months, for reasons I cannot speak of with certainty.