Xochimilco

Xochimilco sits south of Iztapalapa and southeast of Coyoacán. It is perhaps the best-known delegación for its fiesta. It is said it has a fiesta every day of the year. 

Xochimilco: Field of Flowers Still Blooms

Xochimilco—“field of flowers” in Nahuatl—is now a delegación, or borough, in southeastern Mexico City. A UN-designated "World Heritage Site" famous for its canals and chinampas, these so-called "floating gardens", man-made islands used for growing flowers and vegetables for sale in city markets. These chinampas have a thousand-year history. But their current fame centers around the canals and the trajineras, flat boats, that carry tourists though parts of the labyrinth. On weekends they create a kind of floating fiesta, with supporting trajineras providing fresh-cooked meals, beer and singing mariachis for the visitors. But behind this very Mexican-style show for tourists, Mexican as well as foreign, there is a long history and a very different side to Xochimilco.

Candelaria and el Niño Pa: Caring for the Infant God

El Niño pa is an image of the Child Jesus venerated since Colonial days in Xochimilco. It is a wooden sculpture carved in the sixteenth century from the wood of a native Mexican tree. Verified to be over 400 years old, it is one of the oldest images of Catholic worship in the Americas. El Niño pa is cared for by a committee of representatives from the barrios of Xochimilco, under the leadership of a mayordomo, the traditional head of pueblo fiestas. Each February 2, on the feast of Candelaria, there is a major fiesta at which a new mayordomo takes responsibility for El Niño for the coming year. 

Xaltocán's Virgin of Sorrows, Flying Men and Aztec Dancers

Xaltocán (shahl-tow-KAN) is a barrio southeast of the center of ancient and contemporary Xochimilco. Its fiesta is two Sundays before Ash Wednesday. So on that recent Sunday morning, we take the Tren Ligero to the Xochimilco station. Asking directions from people on the street, we soon reach a plaza full of fair rides and food stalls. At the rear a church steeple rises. We don't know what saint is being honored, but the entrance to the church atrio is marked by a portada, a colorful, temporary arch that tells us the Virgin of Sorrows is the honoree, Mary in her status as the suffering mother of the Christ during his Passion. Despite the sad context, it is a lively fiesta in full swing, with a Mass, flying men from Veracruz and lots of Aztec dancers. 

Santa Cruz Acalpixca's Fiesta of the Holy Cross

Exiting the Xochimilco Light Rail station, we hail a cab and tell the driver our destination. He responds, "Oh, yes, the feria (fair) in Santa Cruz", and we head east from the center of the delegación. When he finally stops, he directs us down a narrow side street. A block along, we find the plaza and the church. Entering the atrio, we see a row of three large crosses, made from substantial poles and freshly painted in blue, lying on the walkway. They are covered with wide white cloths forming a 'V' shape and numerous other strips of brightly colored cloth. A group of men seems to be preparing them for some activity. They all wear T-shirts identifying them as volunteers for the fiesta. We are soon to witness the traditional veneration of the Holy Cross. 

Barrio de Belém - Dancing Through Bethlehem

The announcement posted on the Facebook page of the Fiestas Mágicas de los Pueblos y Barrios Originarios del Valle de México (Magical Festivals of the Original Pueblos and Barrios of the Valley of Mexico) caught our attention for two reasons. It was an invitation to a "Brinco de Chinelos"—a "Jumping" (Dance) of Disguised Ones, those colorful, masked, inventively Moor-like costumed dancers who frequently appear at fiestas in and around Mexico City. And the event was to occur in the Barrio de Belém, the small neighborhood of Bethlehem, in the Delegación Xochimilco. This combined two things that nos encantan, enchant us: chinelo dancers and an old neighborhood in Xochimilco, one of the delegations or boroughs most connected with its indigenous past and traditions. 

Santa María Tepepan: Drama of the Christians vs. the Pagans

On a hill called Tepepan, in Xochimilco, where once there stood a temple to the Aztec Mother Goddess, in the 1500s, the Franciscans built a church to St. Mary the Virgin. Attending its recent fiesta celebrating the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven, we are rewarded with a dance/drama we had never before seen in our years in Mexico. It was a recreation of the Battle of the Christians vs. the Islamic Moors.