Tláhuac

Tláhuac | Crossroads Between Two Lakes and Two Cultures

In 1222 CE, a Nahua group founded Cuitláhuac—the present San Pedro Tláhuac—on a small island between lakes Xochimilco and Chalco. After Cortés' defeat of the Mexicas in 1521, the Franciscans built the church of St. Peter the Apostle on the site of an indigenous temple on the island. Until the 1980s, Tláhuac was a rural borough of concisting of San Pedro Tláhuac and six other original indigenous villages that originally stood on the shores of the two lakes, surrounded by chinampas, man-made islands for growing crops. During the last thirty years, the demographic pressure from Mexico City has resulted in the borough's rapid urbanization, but the seven native pueblos from pre-Conquest times remain its core. So during the fiesta of San Pedro, St. Peter, at the end of June, we head east, via the Metro's new Line 12, to its final stop, Tlálhuac, or more precisely, San Pedro Tlálhuac.

San Andrés Mixquic | Preparing for Day of the Dead in a Rural Pueblo

At the end of this October, we decided to undertake the trip to San Andrés Mixquic for Day of the Dead, for which it is locally famous. However, because it was beyond the limits of our previous Ambles, in a far corner of the City, and its reputation for "strangeness" from the point of view of the rest of the City, our attendant anxiety led us to decide to visit on October 31, one day before Day of the Dead. We thought it would be a good idea to check out how much of a challenge it would be to get to Mixquic and to familiarize ourself with the layout of the pueblo before attempting to attend the night-time vigil in the panteón (cemetery). 

Santa Catarina Yecahuitzotl | Where Cowboys and Cowgirls Roam

Our desire to visit more of Tláhuac's pueblos was recently given the opportunity to be satisfied when we saw, on Facebook, an announcement of the patron saint fiesta of Santa Catarina Yecahuitzotl in mid-November. It lies in the northeast corner of the delegación, set apart equally from the other pueblos of Tláhuac and the City. We were especially excited to see that the fiesta was to include a cabalgata, a group horseback ride, in Mexico City!

San Juan Ixtayopan | the Virgin of Solitude and Rites of Initiation

Returning from Santa Catarina via taxi to the Tláhuac Metro Station, the driver tells us we should visit the Pueblo San Juan Ixtayopan on January 3, as that is the pueblo's biggest fiesta, even though its patron saint, St. John the Baptist, is celebrated in June. This fiesta is for la Virgen de Soledad (Solitude) who many years ago, was being carried by pilgrims from another pueblo on Mt. Ajusco to the City of Puebla farther to the east. They stayed the night of January 2 in San Juan and the next morning found the virgins' previously tattered dress to be replaced by a radiant new one. The village priest say this as a miracle and declared that the virgin had chosen San Juan as her rightful home. The pilgrims accepted this. Ever since then, the fiesta of the Virgen de Soledad had been celebrated on January 3. 

San Francisco Tlaltenco | Carnaval of Disguises and Faces 

Tláhuac is noted for their Carnavales, held not on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty-day period of Lent before Easter, but during Lent itself. We have learned that, often, the carnavales are held over a series of weekends, with different groups from the community participating in each one. We get our first chance to a Tláhuac carnaval in Pueblo San Francisco Tlaltenco. It turns out that this weekend is devoted to a parade of comparsas de disfraces, of disguises.

Arriving at a corner where the Carnaval's Facebook page says it will pass, we find the street blocked-off and people standing or milling about, some wearing a conglomeration of disguises of all types. It looks like Halloween in the U.S. We wait un rato, a while, before anything happens.

Then, suddenly, a banda appears and begins to play. Apparently, the parade is about to begin. A large float appears, decorated with peacocks. A beautiful young woman with flowing blond hair, dressed in a sequin-covered evening gown and crown is assisted in mounting a tall podium from which she will preside over the parade. The float moves off and soon organized groups in disfraces begin to march by, each led by a banda. There are skeletons, Arab princesses, Aztec warriors, chinelos (in their Moorish-style robes), space creatures, cartoon characters. Everone has a good time. It's a wonderful carnival.