Invitation to a Fiesta
In our exploration of Mexico City's pueblos originarios, original indigenous villages, we have been following the lead of El Señor de la Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion, on his summer tour through the pueblos of Delegación Coyoacán. In our last post, we accompanied El Señor in his procession from Pueblo San Pablo Tepetlapa to Santa Úrsula Coapa, down the Calzada de Tlalpan, the highway that follows the original Mexica causeway south from the Centro Histórico.
Along the way we had a wonderfully serendipitous encounter with la Comparsa de Chinelos de San Lorenzo Huipulco. A comparsa is a dance troupe that performs at fiestas. Chinelos are dancers "disguised" by elaborate costumes that seem to be a takeoff on Islamic Moorish dress.
Huipulco is a pueblo just down the Calzada from Santa Úrsula Coapa, at the entrance to the Delegación Tlalpan. It is located where the southbound highway intersects with the main road west into the center of Tlalpan—with its Spanish Colonial-era plaza and buildings—and the main road southeast to the traditionally indigenous delegación of Xochimilco. Before the Spanish Conquest and the subsequent draining of the lakes, Huipulco was at the western edge of Lake Xochimilco.
We know the historic intersection well, as it happens to be where we turn west to reach the modern Medica Sur medical center where all our doctors are located. As a major crossroads for the southern part of the city, it is a bustling hub of transit and commerce distinguished by the near-chaotic jumble of small green jitney buses that provide transit between the station of the light-train rail line and the numerous colonias, neighborhoods, of Tlalpan and Xochimilco.
Amidst all this batiburillo, jumble, sits the grand statue of one of the stolid heroes of the Mexican Revolution.
We have a Google Map with us that places the church of San Lorenzo on a side street a block or two from the main intersection. We stop at a Pemex gas station and showing our map, ask the way. The as-always amable, kind, considerate, Mexican worker points and tells us it's more or less around the corner and down a certain street. Arriving there, we ask the way from a merchant in a corner shop, who points down the side street. We see papel picado, cut paper banners, hanging above the street—a sure sign of a fiesta.
Not encountering any church, we ask more people on the street, which is evidently in a working-class barrio, and they point us to a cross street. We end up behind a fairly modern church, not the ancient 16th-century one we are seeking.
Nevertheless, walking around to where the front of the church would seem to be, we enter a street with many people. At one side is what appears to be a fairly large plaza full of temporary puestos, stalls, selling food and juegos mecánicos, mechanical rides common to fairs—just like at country fairs or church bazaars in the rural U.S.
As it is early afternoon, they are mostly empty. Such fairs really light up, literally and people-wise, at night. As it turns out, the other end of the plaza faces the Calzada de Tlalpan, one block north of where our search began.
Iglesia de San Lorenzo Huipulco
On the other side of the narrow street is an iron grill gate surrounded by a colorful portada that marks the entrance both to the church and the fiesta.
Entering, we find a modest-sized atrio, covered with lonas, tarps, to protect fiesta events from the virtually daily rains of this temporada de lluvias (YU-vias), rainy season. Their flor de calabaza, squash-flower, color, gives everything and everyone below an especially warm glow.
At one side is a large stage, with a banda playing. Facing the stage are rows of folding chairs, where a few people sit, waiting for the events of the day.
At the rear of the atrio, we encounter San Lorenzo on a small platform, awaiting his procession.
At this point, we hear the church bells ringing tercera llamada ("Ya-MA-tha"), third call—three distinct tollings of the bell after a series of perhaps twenty rings—that announce the beginning of Mass. So we walk up the stairs at the side of the chapel and enter the modern church, which has amphitheater seating and a glass ceiling letting in the Mexican light.
Returning outside, we find La Banda San Lucas playing a tango.
El Comité
It is clear that both señoras are damas of some status, not of the working-class that seems to be typical of the neighborhood. They enthusiastically welcome us to the fiesta and to the procession that will begin shortly. We tell them that we met the Comparsa at San Pablo Tepetlapa and were invited by them to come. Expressing their delight that an outsider would take such an interest in their pueblo, of which they are obviously very proud, they introduce me to other members of el comité.
It is clear that las señoras are in charge in the parish of San Lorenzo Huipulco.
Feligreses, Parishioners
Meanwhile, feligreses, parishioners, and their children await the start of the procesión.
La Comparsa de Chinelos
Soon, comparsa dancers begin to arrive, carrying their costumes, which they don.
With everyone ready, the procession starts off.
Rostros, Dignity and Identity
As we follow the procession and focus on the striking masks of the chinelos, we feel something very basic to being human is being portrayed. There is a kind of classic formalness and stillness to their rostros—visages or countenances. Together with their elaboate headdresses and robes, they convey both a regal-ness and a sense of great dignity.
The image is, of course, one existing only in the imagination, yet it is also an image created from a combination of impressions of two extranjero, or foreign, cultures:
In fact, looking into the faces of the persons behind the chinelo masks, and of the fiesta committee and parishioners of el Pueblo de San Lorenzo Huipulco, we see the same dignity.
Delegación Tlalpan
Tlalpan is the largest of Mexico City's 16 boroughs. At 120 sq. miles, it is about the size of Philadelphia or Atlanta, or New York City's Borough of Queens. Eighty-three percent of its 650,000 inhabitants live on 15% of the land in the urbanized north. Much of the southern part is mountainous conifer forest, serving as water supply for the city and protected as national parks or forest preserves. Wikipedia
In our exploration of Mexico City's pueblos originarios, original indigenous villages, we have been following the lead of El Señor de la Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion, on his summer tour through the pueblos of Delegación Coyoacán. In our last post, we accompanied El Señor in his procession from Pueblo San Pablo Tepetlapa to Santa Úrsula Coapa, down the Calzada de Tlalpan, the highway that follows the original Mexica causeway south from the Centro Histórico.
Along the way we had a wonderfully serendipitous encounter with la Comparsa de Chinelos de San Lorenzo Huipulco. A comparsa is a dance troupe that performs at fiestas. Chinelos are dancers "disguised" by elaborate costumes that seem to be a takeoff on Islamic Moorish dress.
 |
| La Comparsa de Chinelos de San Lorenzo Huipulco |
Huipulco is a pueblo just down the Calzada from Santa Úrsula Coapa, at the entrance to the Delegación Tlalpan. It is located where the southbound highway intersects with the main road west into the center of Tlalpan—with its Spanish Colonial-era plaza and buildings—and the main road southeast to the traditionally indigenous delegación of Xochimilco. Before the Spanish Conquest and the subsequent draining of the lakes, Huipulco was at the western edge of Lake Xochimilco.
 |
| Pre-hispanic location of Huipulco, at lower left. For present location within Mexico City, see maps at the end of this post. |
The young man carrying the group's banner invited us to the annual fiesta of Huipulco's patron saint, San Lorenzo, St. Lawrence, and its culminating procession in which the Comparsa would participate, on the afternoon of August 10. So at about 1:00 p.m. on that Wednesday, we once again take a taxi from our base in Colonia Parque San Andrés, down the Calzada to Huipulco.
Finding The Way to a Pueblo
We know the historic intersection well, as it happens to be where we turn west to reach the modern Medica Sur medical center where all our doctors are located. As a major crossroads for the southern part of the city, it is a bustling hub of transit and commerce distinguished by the near-chaotic jumble of small green jitney buses that provide transit between the station of the light-train rail line and the numerous colonias, neighborhoods, of Tlalpan and Xochimilco.
Amidst all this batiburillo, jumble, sits the grand statue of one of the stolid heroes of the Mexican Revolution.
 |
| Emiliano Zapata entered Mexico City in December 1914 from Morelos, to the south, along the Calzada to help overthrow the military dictator Victoriano Huerta. Later that year, he and Pancho Villa, coming from the north, challenged Venustiano Carranza for control of Mexico. By 1916, Carranza had won. See Ambles' page: Carranza vs. Villa and Zapata |
We have a Google Map with us that places the church of San Lorenzo on a side street a block or two from the main intersection. We stop at a Pemex gas station and showing our map, ask the way. The as-always amable, kind, considerate, Mexican worker points and tells us it's more or less around the corner and down a certain street. Arriving there, we ask the way from a merchant in a corner shop, who points down the side street. We see papel picado, cut paper banners, hanging above the street—a sure sign of a fiesta.
Not encountering any church, we ask more people on the street, which is evidently in a working-class barrio, and they point us to a cross street. We end up behind a fairly modern church, not the ancient 16th-century one we are seeking.
Nevertheless, walking around to where the front of the church would seem to be, we enter a street with many people. At one side is what appears to be a fairly large plaza full of temporary puestos, stalls, selling food and juegos mecánicos, mechanical rides common to fairs—just like at country fairs or church bazaars in the rural U.S.
As it is early afternoon, they are mostly empty. Such fairs really light up, literally and people-wise, at night. As it turns out, the other end of the plaza faces the Calzada de Tlalpan, one block north of where our search began.
Iglesia de San Lorenzo Huipulco
On the other side of the narrow street is an iron grill gate surrounded by a colorful portada that marks the entrance both to the church and the fiesta.
 |
| Banner: "San Lorenzo blesses your pueblo (people, community)" The portada is made of plastic flowers, more economical than live ones. |
Entering, we find a modest-sized atrio, covered with lonas, tarps, to protect fiesta events from the virtually daily rains of this temporada de lluvias (YU-vias), rainy season. Their flor de calabaza, squash-flower, color, gives everything and everyone below an especially warm glow.
At one side is a large stage, with a banda playing. Facing the stage are rows of folding chairs, where a few people sit, waiting for the events of the day.
 |
| La Banda San Lucas plays waltzes. |
At the rear of the atrio, we encounter San Lorenzo on a small platform, awaiting his procession.
 |
| San Lorenzo, St. Lawrence, born around 225 CE, in the Roman province of Hispania, was a deacon of Rome under Pope Sixtus II, martyred by Emperor Valerian in 258 CE.
The tool he is holding in his hand is a grill, used for roasting meat.
He was martyred by being grilled over a fire.
|
San Lorenzo stands in front of the old chapel we are seeking.
 |
| Built by Dominican Friars in the 16th century, the chapel fell into disrepair after a new church was built in the mid-20th century. It was restored, with much pride, by parishioners in 2012. |
 |
| Simple chapel interior, San Lorenzo occupied the flowered arch before being carried outside for the procession. |
At this point, we hear the church bells ringing tercera llamada ("Ya-MA-tha"), third call—three distinct tollings of the bell after a series of perhaps twenty rings—that announce the beginning of Mass. So we walk up the stairs at the side of the chapel and enter the modern church, which has amphitheater seating and a glass ceiling letting in the Mexican light.
 |
| Huge bouquets of flowers front the altar and another image of San Lorenzo. To the right, a parishioner reads Scripture. The priest, to the left, with his full beard, looks to us more Orthodox than Roman Catholic |
Returning outside, we find La Banda San Lucas playing a tango.
 |
| Tango..... |
 |
| ...with style! |
El Comité
We notice a group of three or four older men sitting on a low wall enclosing a flower bed. Wondering if they might be members of the committee that each parish has to organize its fiestas, we approach them, introduce ourselves and ask if that it so.
"No", they aren't committee members, but one caballero (cah-bah-YER-o), gentleman, gets up and, muy amable, leads us to the front of the atrio, where he introduces us to a señora who is on the committee. She, in turn, introduces us to la presidenta, the president of the committee.
"No", they aren't committee members, but one caballero (cah-bah-YER-o), gentleman, gets up and, muy amable, leads us to the front of the atrio, where he introduces us to a señora who is on the committee. She, in turn, introduces us to la presidenta, the president of the committee.
 |
| Fiesta committee member |
 |
| Fiesta committee president |
It is clear that both señoras are damas of some status, not of the working-class that seems to be typical of the neighborhood. They enthusiastically welcome us to the fiesta and to the procession that will begin shortly. We tell them that we met the Comparsa at San Pablo Tepetlapa and were invited by them to come. Expressing their delight that an outsider would take such an interest in their pueblo, of which they are obviously very proud, they introduce me to other members of el comité.
 |
It is clear that las señoras are in charge in the parish of San Lorenzo Huipulco.
Feligreses, Parishioners
Meanwhile, feligreses, parishioners, and their children await the start of the procesión.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Soon, comparsa dancers begin to arrive, carrying their costumes, which they don.
 |
 |
 |
| This woman recognizes us and tells us this is the last time she will dance, as she has health problems, |
 |
| ...but she is full of alegría, joy. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The gentleman who invited us. |
La Procesión
Finally, two other essential components of the procession arrive:
 |
| El cohetero will shoot the cohetes announcing the procession's progress through the pueblo. |
 |
| La Banda Don't you just love their lavender checked shirts? |
With everyone ready, the procession starts off.
 |
| Señoras del comité carry San Lorenzo on his palanquin. |
 |
| Although the modest palanquin isn't bedecked with flowers, bouquets are carried in front of it. |
 |
| Wall banner reads: "Parish of San Lorenzo, Festival in honor of our patron. Program of events" |
 |
| Two jovenes, young men, wave the banners of the chinelos' organizations. Piñas y piñones grupo de comparsas (Literally, Pineapples and Pine Nuts) is an association of chinelo groups. Facebook: @pinasypinones, |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Brincos, jumps and spins |
Rostros, Dignity and Identity
As we follow the procession and focus on the striking masks of the chinelos, we feel something very basic to being human is being portrayed. There is a kind of classic formalness and stillness to their rostros—visages or countenances. Together with their elaboate headdresses and robes, they convey both a regal-ness and a sense of great dignity.
The image is, of course, one existing only in the imagination, yet it is also an image created from a combination of impressions of two extranjero, or foreign, cultures:
- Spanish conquistadores and peninsulares, Spanish nobility and upper-class who arrived in the 16th century to replace indigenous nobility and rule Nueva España; and that of the
- Moors, another ruling nobility whom the Spanish nobility had finally fully defeated just shortly before arriving in the New World; the Catholic friars presented the Moors to the newly-conquered indigenous in Nueva España as an example demonstrating the need to subject themselves to Spanish rule and the Catholic faith.
In fact, looking into the faces of the persons behind the chinelo masks, and of the fiesta committee and parishioners of el Pueblo de San Lorenzo Huipulco, we see the same dignity.
 |
| Tradition, Identity and Dignity Are Passed On ... |
Delegación Tlalpan
 |
| Delegación Tlalpan (mustard yellow), is at the southwest corner of Mexico City. It is just south of Coyoacán (purple) and west of Xochimilco (pink) and Milpa Alta (light yellow). |
Tlalpan is the largest of Mexico City's 16 boroughs. At 120 sq. miles, it is about the size of Philadelphia or Atlanta, or New York City's Borough of Queens. Eighty-three percent of its 650,000 inhabitants live on 15% of the land in the urbanized north. Much of the southern part is mountainous conifer forest, serving as water supply for the city and protected as national parks or forest preserves. Wikipedia
 |
| Huipulco (starred), is at an historically important crossroads "wedged" into the northeast corner of Tlalpan. It is on the Calzada (main highway) that runs north through Coyoacán to the Centro Historico, (Tenochtitlan). Xochimilco is just to its east, with its famous chinampas, "floating gardens", in the Parque Ecologico Xochimilco (dark green area). |
