Throughout our years living in Mexico since 2008, first in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, surrounded by its indigenous Purépecha pueblos, then in Mexico City, with its many originally indigenous pueblos, we have been struck by the omnipresence of rituals.
Religious Rituals
Ritual action, with its symbolic nature, is most obvious in the fiestas held to commemorate each pueblo's or parish's patron saint's day or the various holy days of the Catholic liturgical calendar, such as Three Kings' Day (January 6), Candelaria (February 2), Easter (March or April), and All Saints and All Souls Days (November 1 and 2, celebrated as Day of the Dead). The Catholic Mass, itself, is a highly structured series of ritual actions and words.
Everyday Rituals
But there are also less obvious rituals that are embedded in everyday life. La cortesía—the courtesy, the formalized language and behaviors, based on medieval Spanish court etiquette—is enacted between individuals at every occasion of greeting and parting. There is not only the "buenos días", "good day/morning", "buenas tardes", "good afternoon", and mutiple phrases at parting ("hasta luego", "until the next time", "qué le vaya bien", "may it go well for you", "cuídase", "take care"), but also the "con permiso" | "es proprio" exchange, i.e., "with permission" | "it's proper", upon entering and leaving someone's home, doctor's waiting rooms and even elevators. Then there is the "buen provecho", "have a good meal", said to fellow diners as one enters or leaves a restaurant.
An even less obvious example of ritualized behavior is the daily sweeping or scrubbing of entrance doorways and the sidewalk in front of homes and businesses (and inside business and government offices). We wondered about the stylized quality of this action, which led us to the Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España, The General History of the Things of New Spain, compiled by the Spanish Franciscan friar or brother, Bernardino de Sahagún (lived 1499 to October 23, 1590). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he journeyed to New Spain in 1529. He learned Nahuatl and spent more than 50 years in the study of Aztec (Nahua) beliefs, culture and history. His extraordinary work documenting the indigenous worldview and culture has earned him the title “the first anthropologist." Wikipedia
Reading parts of Sahagún's extensive work, we found that much of it catalogues the daily rituals of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico. Sahagún details the ritualization of the indigenous world, with different gods overseeing each of the eighteen months of twenty days and being honored by the people with their proper, highly structured fiesta, which usually lasted several days. Each day of the year was also under the rule of a god. These monthly and daily acts of ritualized worship were much like those of the Catholic calendar of annual sacred days and daily saints' days. We discovered that at the familial level, one ritual that was required was the daily sweeping of a household's internal patio, the space in front of the household's image of its protecting god and the front entrance to the home. Thus, the sweeping we see daily goes back centuries.
Religious Rituals
Ritual action, with its symbolic nature, is most obvious in the fiestas held to commemorate each pueblo's or parish's patron saint's day or the various holy days of the Catholic liturgical calendar, such as Three Kings' Day (January 6), Candelaria (February 2), Easter (March or April), and All Saints and All Souls Days (November 1 and 2, celebrated as Day of the Dead). The Catholic Mass, itself, is a highly structured series of ritual actions and words.
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| Fiesta de Cruz Verde, Fiesta of the Green Cross, May 3, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán |
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| Procession of Silence, Semana Santa, Holy Week Pátzcuaro, Michoacán |
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| The Lord of Compassion begins his annual summer series of visits to the pueblos of Coyoacán |
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| Mass, Church of Three Sacred Kings, Coyoacán |
Secular Rituals
But there are also ritualized civic holidays commemorating such historic events as Mexican Independence (September 15-16, with its midnight "Grito", Cry of Independence) and the Mexican Revolution (November 20) with its parades of children dressed as revolutionaries and speeches calling for fulfillment of the promises of the Revolution.
All of these celebrations, both religious and secular, are accompanied with the explosion of cohetes, rocket-style firecrackers, and end with a nighttime fireworks display.
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| School Independence Day Parade Father Miguel Hidalgo is portrayed on the banner. Parades like this are still held every September 16, all across Mexico. By Antonio Ruiz Museum of the Secretariat of Hacienda, Centro Histórico |
All of these celebrations, both religious and secular, are accompanied with the explosion of cohetes, rocket-style firecrackers, and end with a nighttime fireworks display.
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| Cohetes set off to announce the beginning of a church fiesta |
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| Castillo, "castle", a wooden tower of fireworks is set off to mark the end of a fiesta. |
Everyday Rituals
La Cortesía
But there are also less obvious rituals that are embedded in everyday life. La cortesía—the courtesy, the formalized language and behaviors, based on medieval Spanish court etiquette—is enacted between individuals at every occasion of greeting and parting. There is not only the "buenos días", "good day/morning", "buenas tardes", "good afternoon", and mutiple phrases at parting ("hasta luego", "until the next time", "qué le vaya bien", "may it go well for you", "cuídase", "take care"), but also the "con permiso" | "es proprio" exchange, i.e., "with permission" | "it's proper", upon entering and leaving someone's home, doctor's waiting rooms and even elevators. Then there is the "buen provecho", "have a good meal", said to fellow diners as one enters or leaves a restaurant.
Sweeping the Doorstep
An even less obvious example of ritualized behavior is the daily sweeping or scrubbing of entrance doorways and the sidewalk in front of homes and businesses (and inside business and government offices). We wondered about the stylized quality of this action, which led us to the Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España, The General History of the Things of New Spain, compiled by the Spanish Franciscan friar or brother, Bernardino de Sahagún (lived 1499 to October 23, 1590). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he journeyed to New Spain in 1529. He learned Nahuatl and spent more than 50 years in the study of Aztec (Nahua) beliefs, culture and history. His extraordinary work documenting the indigenous worldview and culture has earned him the title “the first anthropologist." Wikipedia
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| Sweeping up after a fiesta, The traditional broom is made of twigs. |
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| Preparing to open outdoor restaurants for the day |
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| Street sweepers |
Reading parts of Sahagún's extensive work, we found that much of it catalogues the daily rituals of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico. Sahagún details the ritualization of the indigenous world, with different gods overseeing each of the eighteen months of twenty days and being honored by the people with their proper, highly structured fiesta, which usually lasted several days. Each day of the year was also under the rule of a god. These monthly and daily acts of ritualized worship were much like those of the Catholic calendar of annual sacred days and daily saints' days. We discovered that at the familial level, one ritual that was required was the daily sweeping of a household's internal patio, the space in front of the household's image of its protecting god and the front entrance to the home. Thus, the sweeping we see daily goes back centuries.
Ritual Language
As we have noted elsewhere, a highly ritualized language is also used in discussing political issues or carrying out a demonstration in the streets. The terms often occur in sets of opposites, implying an undelying dualistic world view.
- México tranquilo versus México bronco (Mexico unbridled);
- los indios vs. los pobres (the poor);
- los mexiquenses (people from the State of Mexico) or los de whatever-city-or-región;
- las provincias vs. México (meaning Mexico City)
- los de arriba versus los de abajo (those above vs. those below);
- la autoridad, la imposición, la represión (by those above) vs. la lucha del pueblo (struggle of the people against them);
- el personalismo, el clientelismo, el corporatismo (the control of society via personal connections and distribution of benefits to defined client groups for political ends);
- la corrupción, la impunidad, la mentira (the lie), el sospechoso (suspiciousness), el retraso (the backwardness) vs. la lucha, la justicia. la dignidad and la esperanza (the hope).
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Ritual and Continuity of Communal Identity
It would appear from all these observations and comparisions of contemporaty Mexican popular culture with pre-hispanic indigenous culture, that the ritualistic nature of indigenous life provided a ready structure for adoption of Spanish court rituals and Catholic religious ones. From the indigenous side, Catholic religious rituals also provided a medium though which the pueblo, the people as a long-established community, could maintain and regularly reinforce their ancient communal identity, paradoxically, both in spite of and by means of the Spanish Military and subsequent Spiritual Conquest. The gods and their representations have changed, but the continuity of pueblo life is bien arraigado, deeply rooted, and retains its ánimo, its vitality.
This is explicitly stated on the Facebook page of a group working to maintain traditions in their originally indigenous pueblos. They say, "The popular culture is refined and fortified by the acts of celebration in the fiestas that reflect the very essence of the community."
It would appear from all these observations and comparisions of contemporaty Mexican popular culture with pre-hispanic indigenous culture, that the ritualistic nature of indigenous life provided a ready structure for adoption of Spanish court rituals and Catholic religious ones. From the indigenous side, Catholic religious rituals also provided a medium though which the pueblo, the people as a long-established community, could maintain and regularly reinforce their ancient communal identity, paradoxically, both in spite of and by means of the Spanish Military and subsequent Spiritual Conquest. The gods and their representations have changed, but the continuity of pueblo life is bien arraigado, deeply rooted, and retains its ánimo, its vitality.
This is explicitly stated on the Facebook page of a group working to maintain traditions in their originally indigenous pueblos. They say, "The popular culture is refined and fortified by the acts of celebration in the fiestas that reflect the very essence of the community."
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| Communal identity and pride From final procession of The Lord of Compassion ending His series of summer visits to pueblos of Coyoacán |
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| Members of the Society of Jesus Nazarene, Passion Play of Iztapalapa |
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| Providing tacos dorados, fried tacos, at Carnaval Fiesta Santa María Magdalena Petlacalco, Tlalpan |
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| "Aztec" dance group enacting an indigenous ritual offering of corn. Xaltocán, Xochimilco |
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| Member of fiesta organizing committee, with wife and daughter, San Lucas, Coyoacán. |
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| La Comparsa de Chinelos de San Lorenzo Huipulco The Dance Group of the "Disguised Ones" San Lorenzo Huipulco, Tlalpan |
Passing on Tradition and Identity
Elders of the original villages of the City are most evident in the maintaining of their traditions and, thereby, their community identity, although in some neighborhoods this process has all but disappeared in the face of modern urbanization and homogenization, But in many communities, there is also an active effort to engage youth and children in the ceremonies and thus, invest in the transmission of tradition and communal identity to the next generation.
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| Leading the Grupo de Comparsas Piñas y Pinones. Group of Dance Groups, Pineapples and Pinenuts. a city-wide association of pueblo comparsas- San Lorenzo Huipulco, Tlalpan |
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| Children and youth participate in the Parade of the Axolotls, Salamanders, San Sebastian Axotla, Álvaro Obregón |
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| Candelaria, Candlemass, Xochimilco |
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| Medieval sword fight, Pueblo Candelaria, Coyoacán |
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| Marching band, Pueblo of Three Sacred Kings, Coyoacán |
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| Nazarene youth, Passion Play of Iztapalapa |
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| Passion Play of Iztapalapa |
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| Aztec dancers, Pueblo Xaltocán, Xochimilco |
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| Chinelo dancer, Carnaval, Santa María Magdalena Petlacalco, Tlalpan |
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| Spanish-Mexican dancer, San Mateo Churubusco, Coyoacán |
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