San Francisco Tlaltenco, Tláhuac | Carnaval of Disguises and Faces

San Francisco Tlaltenco is one of seven originally indigenous pueblos in the Delegación/Alcaldía of Tláuac, in southeastern Mexico City. Until the latter part of the 20th century, it was still rural, with residents raising crops on chinampas, man-made island gardens in the former Lakes Xochimilco and Chalco. San Francisco Tlaltenco was originally on the south side of the Iztapapalpa Peninsula, on the north shore of Lake Xochimilco. Some chinampas and remnants of Lake Chalco still exist in eastern Tláhuac. (See our post: Tláhuac: Crossroads Between Two Lakes and Two Cultures.)

Each spring, during the Catholic season of Lent, between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week, many of the pueblos in Tláhuac and its neighbor, Delegación/Alcaldía Iztapalapa, hold Carnavales. They can be extended over several weeks, with various comparsas (troupes of parade dancers) marching through the streets each weekend, accompanied, of course, by the music of brass bandas.

Carnaval in San Francisco Tlaltenco

We have been to four of the other pueblos of Tláhuac, usually for their patron saint fiesta or some other fiesta. We haven't been to one of their Carnavales, so we are doubly eager to get to the one in San Francisco Tlaltenco. It turns out that this weekend is devoted to a parade of comparsas de disfraces, of disguises.

Arriving via taxi from the nearby Tláhuac Metro Station to a corner where the Carnaval's Facebook page says it will pass, we find it is in front of a small chapel where mass is being held. In the blocked-off street, people are standing or milling about, some are wearing disguises of all types: princesses, Aztec death warriors, chinelos (Moorish-style costumes), space creatures, cartoon characters. It´s quite a conglomeration. 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.

Lower Left is the shirt of a committee member of the Comparsa (parade troupe)
called los Cupamaros (cupar is to suck, a maro is the seed of a lavender plant
considered medicinal).
Second from bottom right is a chinelo, a frequently seen style of parade comparsa
in Mexico City and in the State of Morelos, where they are said to have originated to spoof the Spanish.

Egyptian Princess

Anubis, Egyptian Dog God of Death and the Underworld

A large float appears, decorated with peacocks, a favorite symbol of royalty. 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. 

Princess Dayan (Dah-yahn)

Dayan tosses candies to the crowd.

The Parade Gets Underway

A  golden angel leads the way.

Followed by esqueletos, skeletons.
The vivid contrast of eternal life and death is a central theme in Mexican culture.

One esqueleto is holding a michelada, a beer with chile added and salt on the rim.
The salt actually cuts the picoso or piquante hotness of the chili.

A large float appears, decorated with peacocks, a favorite symbol of royalty. 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. 

There is a Greco-Roman god, Neptune, and an indigenous one.
The jaguar is a traditional indigenous symbol of the sun god at night,
on his journey through the Underworld.

A comparsa with more explicit and elaborate Mardi Gras-style Carnaval disfraces is next. 

Then some more ominous figures, including the appearance of two angels of death.

They are followed by some comic relief.

Then there are the inevitable vaqueros, cowboys.

This is a charro (fancy-dressed cowboy) of death.
We have seen many fiestas
with large comparsas of such charros.

More death, but in more ordinary vaquero dress.

Then another dramatic change of theme:

Two Hydras.

Followed by some sci-fi figures.

Finally, just sheer beauty!

We feel like we have been at a Halloween parade, with the wide variety of disguises presented. But this is springtime Carnaval, when Mexicans can discard their ordinary identity and disguise themselves as anything they wish to represent, be it angels of light or darkness, monsters or Greek gods, cowboys of death, cartoon figures, sci-fi heroes, or princesses. Their imagination and inventiveness is remarkable. 

When the parade is over, happy that we have come to San Francisco Tlaltenco for this holiday from daily routine, we hail a cab to take us back to the Tláhuac Metro station and la cotidianidad, daily life. 

Delegaciones or Alcaldías of Mexico City
Tláhuac is the dark brown one
in the southeast. 

Seven Original Pueblos of Delegación Tláhuac

(Each pueblo is divided into various barrios)

San Francisco Tlaltenco (red/yellow star) is in the northeast corner.

Gray-green areas marked by rectangles are chinampa fields.
Other gray green areas to the north and south are volcanic mountains.
A remnant of Lake Chalco remains to the east.

Original Villages | Tláhuac: San Juan Ixtayopan - The Virgin of Solitude and Rites of Initiation

Often in our Ambles, if we are using a taxi to get to or from a pueblo, the drivers are curious as to why an extranjero, foreigner, is visiting a pueblo or barrio popular (of the common people, i.e. a working-class neighborhood) far off the tourist track. When we tell the driver of our project for visiting original pueblos during their fiestas to experience their traditional customs and photograph and write about them, they often tell us of other fiestas in the same delegación.

Thus, while returning from one of the three of seven original pueblos in the still mostly rural Delegación Tlahuac that we have visited so far, the driver told us that we should visit Pueblo San Juan Ixtayopan, near the southern end of the delegación. He said that its biggest fiesta was not for its patron saint, San Juan Bautista, St. John the Baptist, on June 24, but for the Virgen de Soledad, the Virgin of Solitude, on January 3, which was only a few weeks away.

When we got home, we marked the date on our schedule of fiestas and did some research on this Virgin of Solitude to understand why She is apparently more important to Pueblo Ixtayopan than its patron saint, St. John the Baptist.

The Virgin of Solitude | Una Santa Popular

Happily, Wikipedia en español has a very informative article about San Juan Ixtayopan and the Virgin of Solitude. According to the oral tradition, she evidently arrived in San Juan sometime in the 1770s, carried by pilgrims from the Pueblo San Miguel Topilejo, on the slopes of Mt. Ajusco in what is now Delegación Tlalpan.

Arriving the night of January 2, on their way to the City of Puebla, quite some distance farther east, the pilgrims stayed the night in a private home. Residents noted that the Virgin's vestimenta (attire) was gastada (worn out), raising doubts about the quality of Her care by Pueblo San Miguel Topilejo.

The next morning, to everyone's amazement, the Virgin was dressed in entirely new clothing that emitted a sweet fragrance. The local priest declared this to be a miracle and a sign that the Virgin should remain in San Juan Ixtayopan. The pilgrims agreed, promising to return every January 3rd to honor their Virgin.

A chapel was built especially for the Virgin, where She resides and is venerated to this day. She is a santa popular, a saint chosen not by Spanish friars or the official church hierarchy, but by el pueblo, the common people, who celebrate her fiesta on January 3 in the pueblo's main church, San Juan Bautista.

La Fiesta

January 3, 2018, is a Wednesday. While the feast days of most saints inevitably fall on a weekday, usually their fiestas are primarily celebrated on the nearest weekend. However, as the Christmas Season (and school vacations) in Mexico lasts through Día de los Tres Reyes, Three Kings Day, on January 6, the fiesta for la Virgen de Soledad is always held on January 3. So on that morning, we set off for San Juan Ixtayopan, taking Line 12 of the Metro to its end in San Pedro Tláhuac, then a taxi to the pueblo, a fifteen to twenty minute ride that included a pleasant chat with the driver.

As usual, as we near the church, we find the street closed off for the fiesta, but as a taxi, the driver is allowed to pass and deliver us to the rear of the church. Paying the driver and getting out, we hear a banda playing, so we know the fiesta is in progress. Walking up the street beside the church, we come to the church's typically fenced-in atrio (atrium) and find it full of families, adults and young boys all dressed in white suits, standing in line around the perimeter, evidently waiting for something to happen. A group seated on folding chairs in the central walkway leading to the church door is apparently the overflow attending a Mass already in progress in the sanctuary.

Church of San Juan Bautista,
St. John the Baptist,
Ixtayopan, Delegación Tláhuac.

The caption at the bottom of the portada reads:
"Virgin of Solitude, bless your children."

Pastoral de las Doncellas

In the plaza in front of the atrio, the banda is playing while nearly twenty girls—ranging in age from about four or five to teenagers, all dressed in pure white and holding over their heads small arches decorated with blue and white ribbons—perform a kind of circle dance, weaving in and out between one another in various patterns. Three elderly women guide them in some of the choreography, especially the youngest ones. 

The white dresses and the arches remind us of dance-dramas we saw in pueblos near Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, in southwestern Mexico, where we lived for three years before moving to Mexico City. Performed between Christmas and Candelaria (Feb. 2) by prepubescent girls (doncellas—dohn-CEY-ahs—maidens) and boys, the climax of these Michoacán dance-dramas was a confrontation with several devils ultimately subjugated by the Archangel Gabriel, played by a young boy. Called pastorales, these dance-dramas are clearly a form of initiation rite for youth about to enter puberty and begin facing the temptations of adulthood.

This "banda" is different from any we've seen before at a fiesta.
With two saxophones, an amplified guitar and a double bass, it is virtually a jazz band.
Their melodious playing is very appropriate for the andante tempo of the girls' performance.

Happy guitarist

Serious saxophonist

When the dance ends, the girls pair up and approach an image of the Virgin, where they kneel and recite a kind of declaration of devotion to Her. 

The Virgin of Solitude

An adolescent girl
recites her declaration of faith in the Virgin.

La Señora directing the dance.

When the ritual is over, we approach la señora who has clearly been the one in charge. We introduce ourselves, thank her for the dance and ask what it is called: "Una pastoral," she replies, thus confirming our hunch.

As with the pastorales of Michoacán, we see this ritual—although it included very young girls—as one of initiation, due to the declarations made by the girls at the end. For ourselves, we wish this dance-drama had included devils. But we are nonetheless pleased to see a pastoral in Mexico City for the first time.

First Communions

Portada over the atrio entrance
displays an image of the Virgin of Solitude 

With the pastoral over, we return to the church atrio to see what is happening with all the waiting families of boys. We notice a printed sign at the entrance saying "Authorized Photographers Only" are allowed inside. We wonder what that is about and whether our unauthorized photo-taking will be challenged.

We wend our way around the perimeter of the atrio, past the waiting parents and sons, many of whom are wearing white suits, to the entrance of the church. As it happens, the first Mass is ending and the families, parents and daughters in white dresses, leave. It obviously was a Mass of First Communion for the girls and now there will be one for the waiting boys.

Two women stand guard at the door, not allowing the boys and their parents to enter until the sanctuary is empty. We cannot enter, but catch a glimps (and photo) of the interior. It is a veritable flower show!

One of the doorkeepers

Sanctuary filled with flowers.
(The magenta ones hanging from the ceiling are phalaenopsis orchids!)

It appears that only a painted image of la Virgen de Soledad
is above the altar. We wonder where She is.

"Unauthorized" Photo Shoot

When the sanctuary is finally empty, the doorkeepers begin to allow the boys and their families to enter. With them are also the boys' padrinos (godparents). Other family members must remain outside and take seats in the atrio walkway.

We realize that, for us, this controlled entry process provides a wonderful opportunity to engage in one of our favorite photographic endeavors, taking informal retratos, portraits. As the boys, their parents and padrinos file past us at the doorway, we avidly click away, Neither the doorkeepers nor anyone else stops our "unauthorized" photo shoot.

Some family members

"Authorized" Photo Shoot

Once the families are inside and Mass is underway, we turn toward the atrio. A bit tired from our rather frenzied activity, we seek a place to take a rest. The wall of the atrio is constructed as a row of low, horizontal semi-circles of brick, with recessed, wrought-iron fencing filling the space inside each. The south side of the atrio is in full sun, so the semi-circles make a perfect place to sit and asolearnos (sun ourselves).

Taking a seat, we then see that several photographers, each wearing a badge around his/her neck, are taking formal portraits of the children and their families. These are obviously the "authorized" photographers, charging for their professional photos. (Later, outside the atrio, we see that a veritable photo print shop has been set up to instantly produce and deliver the portraits to the families.)

Inveterate lover of Mexican rostros (countenances, faces) that we are, even as we warm ourselves in the sun, we take advantage of the posed subjects and once again click away.

Apparently, the first Mass included some boys,
perhaps because they were joining sisters or, possibly, primas (girl cousins).

Familias mexicanas

Más gente en la plaza | More people in the plaza

Somewhat rested and toasty from the sun, we decide to look around for a programa, a printed announcement of fiesta events which is virtually always posted around the host church atrio or in the plaza outside it. So far today, we have seen none nor does our amble into the plaza lead to one. 

Questioning several people sitting in the plaza about other possible events today results in learning that evidently the only remaining event will be the quema, the "burning", i.e. igniting of the castillo (castle) of fireworks about 9pm tonight. While we love such quemas del castillo, we aren't able to hang around that late. But we can't resist taking additional informal portraits of people in the plaza.

The two boys, bottom center, were selling craft items from a table.
The one on the left was hesitant about having his picture taken.
The one on the right, a veritable model!

Roots of el Pueblo Ixtayopan

Nothing more is scheduled for the daytime and we have already been here for some hours, so we decide it is time to leave. We retrace our steps on the street the taxi drove us in on with the goal of getting to where we can hail a cab to return to the Metro station and travel on home. However, along the way we happen upon two surprises that reveal more of the history of Pueblo San Juan Ixtayopan.

Chapel of the Virgin of Solitude

While we walk, as always, we scan the streetscape—a typical working class Mexican neighborhood of simple cinderblock homes and small businesses. Our attention is caught by a small handpainted sign hanging on the corner of a building across the street. It announces "Plaza de la Soledad" and points into a wide alleyway. 

We have been wondering about the paradero (whereabouts) of la Virgen de Soledad during Her feast day. Curiosity aroused, we enter the passageway. A few yards along, the alley opens into a small but attractive plaza.

On the far side sits a chapel, simple in its classic Colonial design. It is the Capilla de la Virgen de Soledad, Chapel of the Virgin of Solitude, built by el pueblo in the 18th century!

Unfortunately, its doors are closed and locked behind an iron gate. So we are left to ponder whether on this Her day of honor, the Virgin is alone inside. It seems highly unlikely, but Her paradero remains unknown.

Capilla de la Virgen de Soledad

Ancient Ixtayopan

Pleased with our chance discovery of the chapel, we continue along the street, but quickly notice another sign, "Museo de Ixtayopan", outside a simple, one-story building set at the back of a small, unadorned entrance plaza. A woman is sweeping the plaza, thus maintaining a millennial-old custom. In indigenous culture there was a religiously mandated daily household ritual of sweeping the space around the shrine of the family god and the patio. 

Intrigued by what the museum might house, we walk in, greeting the lady as we pass. Inside, a man sits at a simple table with the inevitable sign-in book. There are no other visitors listed today. We greet him, sign the book and ask about the museum. As we do, we look around and see that it consists of one moderate sized room filled with a few glass cases containing pieces of pottery and tiny clay sculptures. The man tells us all these pieces were found here in Ixtayopan. 

Walking around the room, we see three large maps hanging on the walls. The maps show the lakes that existed in the Valley of Anahuac before the Spanish arrived and subsequently drained them. Together, they cover the period from 1,800 BCE to the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 CE., a period of over 3,000 years. Ixtayopan appears on all three, which means that it is among the oldest continuously inhabited pueblos in the Valley of Mexico!

Localities (settlements) of the Preclassic period
of the Basin of Mexico (1800 to 100 BCE).

Ixtayopan lies in the extreme south,
on the shore of Lake Chalco.
(Ixtayopan is its Nahuatl name,
its original name and language spoken are unknown.)

Many of the settlements shown, such as Cuicuilco
(wiped out by a volcanic eruption in the first century CE),
either no longer existed when the Mexica (Aztecs) arrived in 1225 CE,
or had been taken over and renamed by other Nahua tribes.

When the Spanish arrived in 1521,
the Mexica had taken over all of the Valley.

Miniature masks and a whistle in the shape of a bird.

The top left is Tlaloc, God of the Waters, central to an agricultural society.
(All are from the Postclassic period, 800 to 1521 CE.
All are no more than four inches in height.)

All the figures are from the Postclassic period, 800 to 1521 CE.

Top row, third from left: Anthropomorphic figure of a dog or coyote-man
The fourth figure is a woman with a baby.

Bottom row: The three figures to the right puzzle us as they are stylistically
 unlike any other figures we have seen in any Mexican archeological museum.

The first has an unusual headdress and is wearing a cross.
The second is a woman dressed, not like her bare-breasted indigenous sister above her,
but like a post-Conquest indigenous woman, in a pleated skirt and rebozo (shawl),
as required by the Spanish friars.
The last, with his beard and long knife, looks very much like a Spanish soldier.
We suspect they are post-Conquest figures, reflecting the change of cultures.

Reflections

San Juan Ixtayopan's fiesta for its adopted Virgin of Solitude has not been the usual fiesta, with a procession of the saint through the streets. Her whereabouts, in fact, remains unknown to us. Nor were there danzas Aztecas or of chinelos.

The central event was First Communion for young girls and boys, highlighted by the girls' pastoral dance.

Nevertheless, the fiesta day was delightful, as it gave us the opportunity to take many informal retratos (portraits) of beautiful children and their proud families. Family is central to Mexican culture, and this was a day when that centrality was celebrated and the young people took a significant symbolic step into their culture and toward their lives as adults.

Regardless of one's religious beliefs, the lives and development of those children and their families is certainly something to celebrate and savor. We are very glad we were given the opportunity to share in it.

Delegaciones of Mexico City
Delegación Tláhuac is the chocolate brown area in the southeast.
Coyoacán, our base, is the purple in the middle.

Delegación Tláhuac
and its Pueblos

San Juan Ixtayopan is marked by the green/yellow star.
To its west is Delegación Xochimilco;
To its south is Delegación Milpa Alta;
To its east is the State of Mexico. 

Original Villages | Tláhuac: Santa Catarina Yecahuitzotl - Where Cowboys and Cowgirls Roam

A Rural World Inside Mexico City

Delegación (borough) Tláhuac, as we have described previously (Tláhuac, Crossroads Between Two Lakes and Two Cultures) is both physically (about fourteen miles as the crow flies) and culturally far from el Centro of Mexico City and from the 20th century neighbohoods of Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo and Benito Juárez that surround Centro. It still consists, essentially, of its seven pueblos that were there when Hernán Cortés and his troops passed through in 1519 on their way to Tenochtitlan. Yes, the buildings are mostly 20th century, although simple, and the people have all the basic modern accoutrements of cars, TVs and cell phones and there is the new Metro Line 12 to reach "the City", but the pueblos still feel like small towns somewhere in the countryside.

This rural feeling is most evident in the most easterly of the pueblos, San Andrés Mixquic, which we recently visited in the delegacion's southeast corner, bordering the State of Mexico. It is surrounded by chinampas, agricultural fields, rooted in what remains of Lake Chalco, one of the five original lakes in the Valley of Mexico, whose causeway we crossed to get there.

Our inquietud  (desire, curiosity) 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. It lies in the northeast corner of the delegación, set apart equally from the other pueblos, and the City, as is Mixquic.

We were especially excited to see that the fiesta was to include a cabalgata, a horseback ride, in Mexico City! We had seen many cabalgatas in rural Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, when we lived there. In one of our former lives we were riders of horses, so we love them, their beauty in form and motion and their animal strength. Mexican horses are trained in the Spanish style and show excellent, beautiful conformation, form. So we were more than eager to head to Santa Catarina Yecahuitzotl on a recent Sunday morning.

Looking for the Horses 

It actually isn't difficult to reach Santa Catarina. The Metro takes us to the center of the delegación, San Pedro, the first pueblo we had visited in June. From there, a taxi driver is happy to take us out of the village and across the fields to Santa Catarina. He drops us off a block or so from the church, as the streets around it are closed for the fiesta. Paying him and thanking him, we get out and walk the short distance to the church.

Parochial Church of Santa Catarina
(St. Catherine)
sits within an atrio (atrium), filled with pine trees.

Entering the atrio, we see a very pretty, charming church facade, painted white with bright blue trim. There are only a few people, mostly ladies, around a table near the entrance. To the left of the entrance is a tarp-covered space with a flower-bedecked altar and folding chairs, obviously set up for an outdoor Mass, typical during a fiesta.

We approach the ladies, introduce ourselves and ask about the cabalgata, which the online announcement said would begin at noon. It is nearly 12:00. They say they know nothing about it, but one woman says she just saw a horse down one of the side streets outside the atrio. We head off and two blocks along, come across a muchacho (teenage boy) sitting astride a pony, talking to a friend.

We approach and ask if he knows about the cabalgata. He says that yes, there is to be one, but he is vague about when and where it will occur. With that, he trots off towards the church.

We try to follow him, but when we reach the corner by the church we see him disappear aound another corner farther on. We can´t keep up, but walk in that direction. It takes us past the side of the church to where we find a small plaza. It is attractive, but unusual to be behind the church instead of in front.

Side entrance to the church.
The overall rough stone construction gives it the look of a Spanish fortress,
attesting to its colonial origins.

The Plaza
contains a new kiosk
and three ahuehuete (old man of the waters) trees, Moctezuma cypresses,
a waterside tree that was sacred to the Azteca/Mexica

Ahuehuete (old man of the waters),
provides wonderful shade from the Mexican sun,
warm even in November. 

Along one side of the plaza is a long, one-story stone building.
Its rough stone, like that of the church, speaks of its age.
The numerous doors lead to various offices providing services from the Delegación. 

When we arrive at the far corner of the plaza where we saw the muchacho disappear on his horse, we see no sign of him or of any horses. It is now after 12:00. Where, we wonder, is the advertised cabalgata?

A woman is selling "fair bread", another fiesta tradition, from a stand at the intersection. We ask her if she has seen any horses. "No."

Here Come the Horses!

Just at that moment, as we are about to despair of seeing any cabalgata, we suddenly hear the familiar clippity-clop of horse hooves coming up a side street.

Four horses with riders,
a woman in front and another in the rear,
appear. 

We hail the riders and, muy amable (very kindly), they stop. We ask about the cabalgata. Yes! There is to be one, but they aren't sure when exactly it will begin. They are headed for the plaza to wait. This is all very Mexican. 

We once owned a chestnut similar to this one.
Brings back such wonderful memories of riding
(although English style, not Western). 

This "flea-bitten grey" (what a horrible name)
has perfect conformation,
as does the rider. 

Once back in the plaza,
other horses and riders gradually show up.
Everyone is very relaxed; no hay prisa, there is no hurry.

We tell this caballero, horseman, gentleman,
that his horse is Plata, Silver,
so he must be el Llanero Solitario, the Lone Ranger.

Muy guapo vaquero
Very handsome cowboy.

"El Llanero Solitario"
has his five-year-old grandson with him.
Tradition is passed on.

We are curious about the tradition of horses in the Valley of Mexico. The Spanish brought the horses, of course, but the Valley of Mexico was full of lakes and its people were agricultural farmers, tending their fields and chinampas. There wasn't room for cattle, or, therefore, much use for horses. The Spanish developed cattle country, with its horses and vaqueros (cowboys) farther west and north.

So we ask "The Lone Ranger". He tells us that a lot of open land was created after the Spanish drained the lakes to reduce flooding of Mexico City. Some of this open land was used for herds of cattle. Hence, the need for horses to herd them. Besides, he adds, it is now a very long-standing tradition in these rural delegations to own a horse and ride for pleasure. Confirming this, another rider tells us he owns a hacienda, a ranch, right here in Tláhuac, where he raises and sells horses. He gives us his card and invites us to come visit. The card lists American quarter horses, Spanish horses, Frisians (German) and Percherons (huge French draft horses)!

We recall seeing horses in the mountainous Pueblo Santa Magdalena Petlacalco, on the slopes of Mt. Ajusco, in the southern Delegación Tlalpan. We also saw them recently in ancient, but urbanized Culhuacán, where they participated in a parade and one family, at least, kept a horse in a stall behind their house. Most surprisingly, there were horses in the procession for the fiesta of Santa María de la Natividad in the modern, urban Delegacion Benito Juárez. The ladies there were in full Spanish dress and rode sidesaddle! We don't know where they came from. 

Waiting

It is now close to 2:00 PM. We wonder if the cabalgata will ever begin. We ask why the wait.

"We're waiting for la banda!"

It makes perfect sense, since there cannot be a procession in any form without a brass band! Eventually, another muchacho pulls up on a motorscooter and says something to the riders. They all gather themselves and prepare to ride off. We manage to ask one what is happening. Apparently, la banda has shown up, but is some blocks away. We ask how long the cabalgata will last.

"Oh, we're going to ride around the entire pueblo, so a couple of hours. We'll probably be back by 4:00."

They all trot off.

We wonder whether we should wait for their return. We have already been here for two hours. It is a beautiful, sunny, warm day. The plaza is a most pleasant, tranquil space, with places to sit in the sun or shade. So we decide to wait. It also gives us time to explore the church.

Walking back around to the front of the church, we find two castillos (castles), being constructed, tall wooden towers for the fireworks show that will take place that night. We chat with a young man who is holding a thick rope, wrapped around a tree for leverage, the other end tied to the top of a castillo to stablize it as it grows. He tells us the company constructing it is from Toluca, the capital of the State of Mexico, west of Mexico City by at least an hour. They have traveled a bit to get to Santa Catarina. They are clearly very professional as they stack wooden frames one atop another, then begin to add the wheels and other forms that hold the fireworks. 

Two fireworsk castillos.
They are among the tallest
we have ever seen,
and this is a small pueblo!
It will be quite a show,
but too late for us to wait and see.

Walking sombrero shop.
Unfortunately, we aren't a customer,
as we had recently
purchased a new one.

The outdoor Mass is nearing its end,
with the display of the Heavenly Host. 

The church sanctuary
is colorfully, but simply painted.
There is no Baroque excess.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, per Christian tradition,
was martyred by the Roman Emperor Maxentius around 305 in Alexandria, Egypt,
for refusing to give up her faith.

A side chapel is equally simple.
We love the vaulted brick dome.

St. James, the Apostle who reputedly came to Spain to preach the Gospel,
and who miraculously appeared centuries later as the Moor Slayer—
a common theme in Catholic Mexico
of Christian vs. "heathen"

The indigenous (now Saint) Juan Diego sees the Virgin of Guadalupe
The quintessential image of Mexican Catholic identity.

Small medieval image,
probably of saints.
Its style and apparent age lead us to wonder
if it were brought by Spanish friars
early in the history of this church.
It seems to be a hidden treasure
of St. Catherine's Church

Adios, Farewell to the Horses and Santa Catarina Yecahuitzotl

It is now after 4:00 PM. There is neither sign of the cabalgata nor sound of a banda. The Mass is long over, and nothing else is happening except the construction of the castillos. Juegos mecánicos, "mechanical games", i.e., fair rides, wait in the streets for the evening's carinval. 

Merry-go-round
waits for its riders
in the street beside the church.

So we decide to call it a day, quite a productive and satisfying Amble, nevertheless. We got to see some wonderful horses, meet and chat with their riders about horses in Mexico City and experience the beauty and tranquility of a rural pueblo situated within the City's boundaries. All on a gorgeously sunny November day, under that incredibly blue Mexican sky that does occur at times in Mexico City, especially this "dry season" of the year.

So we ask one of the ever-present vendors awaiting the evening crowd where we can catch a taxi back to the Metro in San Pedro. He says that we only have to walk a couple of blocks, back past where we first met the muchacho on a pony, to the main boulevard to San Pedro. Taxis are always going by. A few minutes later we are settled in a cab on our way back to urban modernity. 

Delegaciones of Mexico City
Tláhuac is the chocolate brown one
in the southeast

Pueblos of Delegación Tláhuac
Santa Catarina Yecahuitzotl
is upper right (red star)