The size and complexity of the procession leaving Santo Domingo this August to meet the procession from Ajusco was impressive, as was the one from Ajusco bearing El Señor that arrived at the meeting point, a major avenue bordering the two colonias. This told us that both communities maintain vital traditional Catholic practices like those of the original indigenous pueblos just to their north—most notably Tres Reyes, home of the Lord of Compassion, which has been continuously occupied for 4,000 years.
The Pedregal: On Stony Ground
However, we doubted that either Colonia Pedregal de Santo Domingo or Colonia Ajusco were original indigenous pueblos. The word pedregal, stony ground, in Santo Domingo's name not only triggered the doubt but provided the key to their history. In Mexico, pedregal refers specifically to terrain covered with a thick cap of lava rock from volcanic eruptions. Like Santo Domingo, the names of many colonias (neighborhoods) in southwestern Coyoacán and its neighbor to the west, Delegación Álvaro Obregón, bear the prefix Pedregal de, Pedregal of ... followed by a saint's name.
This is because in the first century CE, the cinder cone volcano named Xitle, on the slopes of the older and much larger series of volcanos now named Ajusco, erupted with a series of lava flows that buried both the urban center, Cuicuilco, and a large area near the southwest shore of Lake Texcoco. We have written about this in our post: Cuicuilco, Volcanoes and the Fragility of Life in Mesoamerica. Colonias in that area, such as Pedregal de Santo Domingo and Ajusco, rest atop this volcanic rock.
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| Circular 'pyramid' at Cuicuilco. Note depth of surrounding excavation trench below current ground level; it is all pedregal, lava, that flowed onto the site when Xitle erupted. Colonia Ajusco is two miles northeast of the Cuicuilco 'pyramid'. |
The historical significance of this fact is that the area was barren, untillable—a natural wasteland for nearly two millenia. Meanwhile, indigenous settlements developed along what the Spanish were to name the Magdalena River to the west and the Mixcoac and Churubusco rivers to the north. Other settlements, like Tres Reyes, developed along the southwest shore of Lake Texcoco. When the Azteca/Mexica arrived in the Valley of Anáhuac in 1225, these early settlements were flourishing—as they also were three hundred years later when Cortés and his Spanish troops showed up (1519).
In no way, then, are Colonia Pedregal de Santo Domingo—or Colonia Ajusco and similar neighboring colonias—original pueblos. The question, then, becomes when and how did these pueblos come to be? The answer lies in the explosive growth of Mexico City in the last half of the 20th century.
As we have written in our background page, How Mexico City Grew From an Island to a Metropolis, rapid population growth took place across Mexico from the 1950s through the 1980s—the result of continuing high birth rates and, with better health care, decreasing rates of infant deaths. Unable to maintain themselves in their rural pueblos, many rural dwellers arrived in Mexico City seeking work to sustain themselves and their families. Utterly without resources, they established squatter settlements on any available open land, including Coyoacán's pedregal region. Gradually, over the years, with Mexican ingenuity, they developed these settlements into working-class neighborhoods that became part of the urban landscape, virtually indistinguishable from the older pueblos around them. This is how both colonias Pedregal de Santo Domingo and Ajusco came to be.
Contemporary Traditional
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| Mt. Ajusco looking south from Coyoacán, across Delegacion Tlalpan. At 3,930 meters or 12,894 feet in altitude, Ajusco is the highest mountain in Mexico City, rising almost 6,000 feet above the Valley of Mexico. |
So, on the sunny, mild, mid-November Sunday morning, at about 10 o'clock, we head by taxi to Ajusco. It is less than fifteen minutes from our apartment, south down Division del Norte to Avenida Azteca, a wide boulevard that runs southwest across lower Coyoacán towards ancient Cuicuilco. Arriving at Calle Rey Moctezuma, King Moctezuma Street, where the announcement says the procession will begin, we find the street closed, as usual, for a fiesta.
We pay, thank our driver, get out and walk down the block. A few people are standing around, but there is no sign of a procession. We ask a lady about this, and she tells us to go around the corner into another street where she says the Aztec dancers are preparing.
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| A young dancer prepares his headdress, meticulously inserting feathers into the base. |
A number of women and men, including youths and some children, are being served breakfast under a tarp at one side of the street. This is the community's thank-you to them for participating. Others are moving about with parts of their dance attire in hand, but with no evident prisa (hurry). It does not appear that the procession will be starting anytime soon.
We notice some dancers entering and leaving the hallway of a building, so we enter to take a look. It is not a house, because there are a row of rooms along a long hallway. In one room, dancers are getting dressed. In another room, we spot ofrendas (offerings).
One ofrenda is el Señor de los Milagros, Lord of the Miracles.
Another ofrenda takes us aback. It is most definitely not Catholic.
One ofrenda is el Señor de los Milagros, Lord of the Miracles.
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| Jesus the Christ as Señor de los Milagros |
Another ofrenda takes us aback. It is most definitely not Catholic.
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| Coatlicue (Coh-aht-LEE-cooee, i.e., she who wears the skirt of snakes) the Mother Goddess of the Azteca/Mexica and Nahuatl-speaking peoples (Image on the ofrenda is a photograph of the statue that resides in the National Museum of Anthropology and History) |
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| In front of both gods sits an ofrenda of flowers in the shape of a cross. The cross is at once the Christian symbol of Jesus Christ's self-sacrifice, reconciling sinful humans to God, and the indigenous symbol of the four cardinal directions that organize and orient us within our world. The four candles also mark the cardinal directions. The circle in the center represents our bounded human world. The central candle is the axis mundial, world axis, the vertical connection with the gods in the heavens. As such, this symbolic construction is likely one of the oldest and most archetypical symbols in human culture, going back to pre-historic, hunter-gatherer times. |
We immediately recognize that here in Ajusco—built in the last fifty years—we are once again in that intermediate world created by the Spiritual Conquest of the Catholic friars in dialogue with the antecedent indigenous culture. Catholicism did not replace that world. Implicitly, if not explicitly, each adopted a form of cohabitation with the other. But, we wonder, how did that centuries-old combination come to be celebrated here in the new 'pueblos' (villages) of Ajusco and its neighbor, Santo Domingo. We know we will need to do more research when we return home. For now, we will just watch and enjoy the fiesta.
The Fiesta: A Gathering of Saints and Their Pueblos
Leaving the building, we wander around watching the dancers' preparations when we hear the sound of a brass banda back on Calle Rey Moctezuma. Looking toward the intersection, we see it pass, along with people carrying an anda, a platform, bearing the statue of a saint, surrounded with flowers. We hurry to catch up with it.
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| San Sebastián Martir de Xoco brought from the original indigenous pueblo of the same name, which we have visited just north of Coyoacán, in Delegación Benito Juárez |
Turning into Rey de Moctezuma, we see that there has been a lot of activity while we were with the dancers. Each side of the street is now lined with andas, platforms, bearing a great number of saints. This is going to be quite a procession!
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| Señor de los Milagros of Colonia Ajusco. The rear wings are those of a mariposa, a butterfly, an indigenous symbol of resurrection and rebirth. |
There is a very large anda bearing el Señor de los Milagros, the Lord of Miracles, elaborately decorated with fresh flowers, from the church of that name in Ajusco, the host of the fiesta. However, there are also a number of other flower-bedecked Señores de los Milagros! We wonder where they come from. We notice that one bears the name of a private family as its sponsor.
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| Three other Señores de los Milagros At least one is brought by a private family. |
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Some of the saints awaiting the procession.
We recognize several from other pueblos' fiestas.
They, and their people, have come to honor el Señor de los Milagros,
and His people in Ajusco.
There is clearly no distinction being made between los pueblos originarios of Coyoacán
and the new colonias of the Pedregal.
From upper left:
Virgen de Guadalupe, Virgen de Candelaria (from Pueblo Candelaria), San Miguel Archangel,
San Domingo and San Francis (from Colonia Santo Domingo);
Señor de la Misericordia (from Tres Reyes), Santa Ursula (from Santa Ursula Coapa),
San Mateo (from San Mateo Churubusco) and San Lorenzo (from San Lorenzo Huipulco)
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Comparsa de Concheros
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| A comparsa, fiesta dance troupe, of concheros, lute players, arrives. |
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| Corporación de Concheros de México, United Society We have met la Corporación before, in Santa Cruz Alcapixca, Xochimilco, Fiesta of the Holy Cross, in early May. Their tradition of dress and synthesis of indigenous and Christian traditions is distinct from and, they claim, older than that of the Aztec dancers getting dressed around the corner. |
The Procession
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| A priest appears to bless the procession and its participants. |
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| El Señor de los Milagros leads the procession. |
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| The cofradia, brotherhood, of the Church of the Lord of Miracles bears the anda and its weight. |
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| Other saints are born behind el Señor. Here: another Lord of Miracles, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Michael the Archangel, and the Lord of Chalma (a revered version of Christ from the State of Mexico). |
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| San Domingo and San Francisco, another Lord of Miracles Two Niños Jesus, Child Jesus. The left one, its bearers tell me, is from a pueblo in the State of Puebla, miles to the east. The second is from Coyoacán´s Barrio Niño Jesus. |
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| Of course, everyone moves to the sound and rhythm of la banda. |
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| After traveling through the narrow streets of Ajusco, the procession enters the wide Avenida Azteca. This in one of the largest processions we have seen in our two years of visits to traditional neighborhoods in Mexico City. |
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| Another comparsa of conchero dancers, many dressed in Azteca style of loin cloths and bare chests follows. |
Church of the Lord of Miracles Receives All the Saints
Reaching the intersection of Avenida Azteca with Calle Rey Moctezuma, the procession turns north, away from where it began south of the Avenue. A short way up the block, we turn left into another side street. There stands the Church of the Lord of Miracles.
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| Church of the Lord of Miracles The portada says, "You have shown us the grandeur of your miracles, Lord." The atrio (atrium) is filled with the visiting saints and their bearers. |
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| One by one, the saints are carried into the church, accompanied by the Aztec dancers. |
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| Some of the saints—from life-sized to tiny. We estimate that there were twenty or more. . |
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| Four Lords of the Miracles along with other versions of the suffering Christ, line one wall of the sanctuary. |
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| Two Niños Jesús, St. Francis and the Virgin of Candelaria stand at the front. |
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| The Church's Lord of Miracles is carried up to his place of honor above the altar. |
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| The Lord of Miracles, returns to His Sanctuary. |
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| Outside, in the atrio, la banda rests after their major contribution to the procession. |
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| Resting dancers |
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| As always, some of el pueblo, the people |
The Place of the Church of the Lord of Miracles in the Development and Life of Colonia Ajusco
Seeking to understand more of the history of Colonia Ajusco as a new neighborhood with old customs, we did our usual online research. Not expecting to find much about a relatively new, working-class area of Mexico City, we were surprised to find a good article on the colonia in Wikipedia en español. It, in turn, referenced an academic paper specifically on the religious institutions and life of Ajusco, including that of the Church of the Lord of Miracles: El Pluralismo Religioso en la Colonia Ajusco (México, D.F.) ("Religious Pluralism in Colonia Ajusco, Coyoacán, Federal District").
Its author is Dr. Hugo José Suárez, a professor of sociology at UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, whose University City campus, not coincidentally, is located on the Pedregal of Coyoacán, immediately west of Santo Domingo and Ajusco. The paper has also been published as a freely downloadable book, full of illustrative photos, Ver y Creer: Ensayo de sociología visual en la Colonia Ajusco (Seeing and Believing: Essay of Visual Sociology in Colonia Ajusco). Dr. Suárez uses his photos to illustrate his observations about Ajusco. Depicting the everyday life of the community, they are worth looking at.
Rural Mexicans Moving to the City Bring Their Faith With Them
Dr. Suárez documents the origins of Ajusco (and its neighbor, Pedregal de Santo Domingo), beginning with the occupation of some of the barren pedregal by people from neighboring Pueblo Candelaria in the 1950s. Then a second wave took place in the 1960s as a result of the country's population explosion (see our page: How Mexico City Grew From an Island to a Metropolis), when people moved in from rural Mexico.
Rectory of the Resurrection is another major Catholic church in Colonia Ajusco. It was organized by Jesuits beginning in the early 1970s. As a Jesuit congregation, it has a strong social activist focus and has been a leader in addressing multiple major community needs. Another large congregation in Ajusco, the Rectory of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is operated by priests of the Congregación of Oración of San Felipe Neri (Congregation of Prayer of St. Philip of Neri), who arrived in the neighborhood in the 1960s. Its focus is more on the personal religious life of its members, with prayer and study groups in members' homes.
Notably, since both congregations were founded (and are hence governed) by religious orders, they are termed 'rectories', in contrast to parochial churches. Parish churches are governed by the Metropolitan Diocese of Mexico City, which supplies their congregations with 'secular', or diocesan, priests. As such, the two religious orders present in Ajusco are maintaining the tradition of such orders founding churches in the original indigenous pueblos five hundred years ago.
It is also noteworthy that the Church of the Lord of Miracles was neither founded by the diocese as a parish church, but nor was it initiated by a religious order. Instead, it is a chapel founded by lay residents of Ajusco in 1958, making it the oldest Catholic church in the colonia. With the arrival of the Jesuits in the 1970s, the congregation sought affiliation with the Rectory of the Resurrection. But as Dr. Suárez relates, theological differences led the congregation instead to seek affiliation with the Parochial Church of the Three Holy Kings, Tres Reyes. Hence, the church is officially a chapel of Tres Reyes and is served by a priest of that parochial church. Calle Moctezuma, a mere half-block north of the chapel, is the boundary between Ajusco and Tres Reyes.
This relationship explains why even though Ajusco is not an original indigenous pueblo, Tres Reyes' Señor de la Misericordia, Lord of Compassion, visits the Lord of Miracles as part of His summer tour of pueblos. For us, it also explains why the procession for the Lord of Miracles—with its large number of visiting saints on their flower-bedecked andas—is so elaborately similar to that of the Lord of Compassion. It almost equals the procession for the return of the Lord of Compassion at summer's end to Tres Reyes. This is the fiesta where, as a resident told us, "echamos las casa por la ventana" ("we throw the house out the window")—i.e., there are no limits to what is expended in producing the fiesta. That is to say, it bears the full devotion and pride of el pueblo, the people of the village.
Religión Popular
So it is that la Fiesta del Señor de los Milagros—sponsored and executed by a community that came into being only in the late 1950s—nonetheless carries equal importance and pride, hence style and size, in colonia Ajusco as do the three Fiestas del Señor de la Misericordia (His saints' day in April, His departure for other pueblos in late May and His return the first Sunday in September) in Tres Reyes, Ajusco's adoptive parish. It is an expression of what Dr. Suárez calls religión popular, religion of the people. It is not organized and managed by priests. It is organized and maintained over the years by a mayordomía, a committee of lay persons who, in reality, run the church and determine its role in the community. Our hunch is that this religión popular identity of the members who created the Chapel of the Lord of Miracles is what led to their not allying with the Jesuit-led, social gospel oriented Rectory of the Resurrection and their alliance with Tres Reyes.
Their role, for the Chapel of the Lord of Miracles, as for the Parochial Church of the Three Holy Kings, is, first and foremost, to maintain the traditional practices. First and foremost, this means the fiesta for the patron saint, but also other fiestas first established by the Franciscans and other religious orders as a means of evangelization and conversion of the indigenous inhabitants of what is now Mexico—whether it was in the pueblos around Lake Texcoco, or by an unusual bishop in the pueblos around Lake Pátzcuaro. The outcomes of the Spiritual Conquest live on in Ajusco, as they do throughout Mexico.
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Delegación Coyoacán (purple)
sits in the middle of Mexico City. |
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| Pueblos and Colonias of Delegación Coyoacán Colonia Ajusco is light red area just southwest of center (blue Star) Colonia Pedregal de Santo Domingo is yellow area just west of Ajusco. Pueblo Tres Santos Reyes is the large green area immediately north of Ajusco. Pueblo Candelaria is yellow area north of Ajusco and east of Tres Reyes. The National Autonomous University of Mexico University City campus is just west of Santo Domingo. |
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