The Travels and Travails of La Virgen de la Bala, The Virgin Who Took the Bullet

A while ago, we attended the patron saint fiesta of San Antonio Abad (St. Anthony the Abbot) in the Barrio San Antonio Atípac, in Pueblo Culhuacán, Delegación Iztapalapa. A main event in the fiesta was a procession that went from the church to an intersection that forms one corner of the barrio. There, residents of the other barrios of Culhuacán, as well as other nearby pueblos, were waiting to join the procession back to the church for the celebration of a Mass honoring San Antonio.

Under the Calzada (Avenue) de Taxqueña viaduct, which passes over Eje 3 Oriente (Axis Road 3 East),
a gathering of Saints and some of the faithful of Their barrios
await the arrival of San Antonio. 

In the middle, San Andrés from the neighboring Pueblo Tomatlán;
we were at His fiesta in November 2017.
San Simón, of Barrio San Simón, is at the left.

We recognized some of the saints from prior Ambles to various of original pueblos. Some were new to us. One, in particular, caught our attention, a small version of the Virgin Mary, crowned as the Queen of Heaven and dressed in white. She was contained in a metal-framed glass box. Such small, encased versions of saints, we have learned, are called demanditas, literally 'little demands', i.e. little (therefore easily portable) 'petitions' or vehicles for prayers to the saint. 

La Virgen de la Bala, the Virgin of the Bullet
The crown and circle of stars around Her head
and the crescent Moon of clouds at Her feet
identify Her advocación (role) as Queen of Heaven.

A young woman was holding her. We approached, introduced ourselves and asked what advocación of the Virgin this was. The word advocación (from the verb advocar, to advocate, to speak up on behalf of someone) is used in Spanish to describe each particular "forms" taken by the Virgin Mary to carry out her role as an advocate for the faithful, an intermediary speaking up for them to Her Son, the Christ, and God the Father, the father of Her Son. Some major examples in Mexico are:

• Virgin of Guadalupe, adopting and protecting all the peoples of Mexico;
• Virgen de Candelaria, presenting the Infant Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem;
• Virgen de Dolores, (of Sorrows), bearing Her Sorrows during Holy Week; and  
• Virgen de los Remedios (Remedies), a statue believed to have been brought by one of the Spanish conquistadors, hence Her first presence in the New World..

The woman replied, "She is la Virgen de la Bala" — "the Virgin of the Bullet."

Virgin of the Bullet? We were taken aback by the very peculiar name. In all our Ambles to saints' fiestas, we had never heard of this advocation of the Virgin and wondered how she came to have such a strange name and what advocatión it represented.

The young woman added that this Virgin was not the original statue. The original, she said, resided in the Santuario del Señor de la Cuevita, the Sanctuary of the Lord of the Little Cave, in nearby Pueblo Iztapalapa. We were familiar with the Sanctuary from our attendance at the Passion Play of Iztapalapa the previous Holy Week, as the play developed in the 19th century to honor this figure of Cristo enterrado, Christ buried.

At this point, the procession headed back to the church of San Antonio Abad, and we were left with many unanswered questions. We thought that, at some point, we would have to research more to try and find out the story and significance of this new, to us peculiar, advocación of the Virgin.

The Saint of a Spanish Lady Takes a Centuries-long Path to Turn into a Santo Popular, a Saint of the Common People

In subsequent weeks, we were occupied by other fiestas, including Carnavales (Carnivals), leading up to Lent and Holy Week. Nevertheless, having discovered in the past year that many pueblos in Mexico City have Facebook pages, including for their various saints, we came across not one, but two pages dedicated to la Virgen de la Bala. One stated it was sponsored by the Confradía (Brotherhood) of Santuario del Señor de la Cuevita in Pueblo Iztapalapa, confirming that the Virgin resides there. The other was La Virgen de la Bala Pueblo de Culhuacán, apparently the one we had met below the overpass in San Antonio Atípac. On both pages, the Virgin is photographed visiting private homes in the respective communities.  

Recently, we wrote a blog page on what we call santos populares, a group of saints of the Catholic Church that we have encountered at various fiestas who, instead of being patron saints assigned to a parish, are ones that have been adopted by the people of a pueblo after some miraculous event had occurred, often when they were visiting the pueblo from elsewhere.

El Señor de la Cuevita is one such santo popular, the de facto predominant saint of all of the barrios of the ancient pueblo of Iztapalapa. It struck us that la Virgen de la Bala was evidently also such a santo popular, a saint adopted by the common people. That motivated us all the more to try to find out her story and why she is associated with a bullet.

The contemporary miracle of the Internet led us to the tale. We found a website written by an art historian who had done his undergraduate thesis on la Virgen de la Bala. (Such a thesis of original research is required in Mexican universities to become "licenciado", the equivalent of a bachelor's degree.)  Naín Alejandro Ruiz Jaramillo now holds a Masters in Art History. Here is our translation of his telling of the origin, travels and travails of la Virgen de la Bala.

"Tradition and legend say that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, there was a Spanish couple who lived in the pueblo of Iztapalapa, right on the shores of Lake Texcoco. Their marriage was distinguished by living in harmony and being a great example of sincere love, until the Devil, the enemy of all Christian unions, attempted and managed to sow discord between them, managing to ignite in the heart of the husband the infernal fire of jealousy.

One day, the husband, crazed by hate, decided to kill his innocent wife, took a gun and shot at her. The only thing the helpless woman could do to safeguard herself was to take as her defense and shield a small image of the Virgin under the advocación of Her Immaculate Conception. She had possessed the image since time immemorial and professed great devotion to it. At the moment of the shooting, the bullet was miraculously stopped by the base of image.

According to the Jesuits Fray Francisco de Florencia and Antonio de Oviedo, who later wrote of the miracle, the bullet was embedded in the base 'so firmly that, although it can be rotated, it has never been possible to remove it'. This event was taken as irrefutable proof of the fidelity of the woman, and the husband was thus set straight. It was in this way that the sculpture was named Our Lady of the Bullet.

After this first miracle, the pious tradition narrates that the image was offered in a lottery among the churches of Mexico City. The lot was drawn three times, and each time the hospital for lepers in San Lázaro won the prize. It is recalled that at the precise moment that the Virgin was brought into the hospital, a woman for whom last rites had been said, and for whom a vigil was being held, suddenly revived. For this reason, other wonderful miracles are attributed to Her.

(Translator's note: San Lázaro, St. Lazarus, is the saint of lepers. The hospital was the second one founded by Hernán Cortes in 1524. The neighborhood, which still takes its name from the hospital, is on the east side of what was then the small colonial City of Mexico. It is now the site of the Chamber of Deputies of the federal Congress, commonly referred to as 'San Lazaro'.) 

Several chronicles report one of Her greatest and most improbable marvels: in the year 1666 a woman who had severe problems delivering twin babies, by intervention of the Virgin of the Bullet, managed to deliver them through her mouth. It is obvious that knowledge about pregnancy and human conception was precarious at that time, only in that way can we explain such a peculiar story.

It is also known that the Virgin a cured a typhus fever suffered by the daughter of Francisco de Córdoba, the corregidor of the City of Mexico (mayor, appointed by the King). In honor of the Virgin of the Bullet, a famous confradía (brotherhood) was founded, dedicated to assisting the leprous poor.

Fray Francisco de Florencia was the one who thought that Mexico City was protected by the Virgin Mary on all sides (the archetypical cardinal directions in all primal cultures) by means of four sanctuaries and images of Her: 

'The city of Mexico is favored by the Most Holy Mary with four sanctuaries that surround it: on the

• North by [the Virgin of] Guadalupe; on the

• West by the Virgin of the Remedies; on the

• South by the Virgin of Piedad (Compassion); and on the

• East by the Virgin of the Bullet.'

For this reason, in the viceroy era there were those who invoked Her as a protective Virgin and spiritual bulwark on the east side of the capital of New Spain. During the epidemic that struck Mexico City between 1736-1737, She was included as one of the miraculous images that helped to mitigate the plague. Fray Francisco de Florencia, the priest Cayetano de Cabrera y Quintero, Fray Ajofrin, José Antonio Villaseñor and Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia, were just some of those, among other writers in Nueva España, who wrote about the Virgin of the Bullet.

When the San Lázaro Hospital and its chapel were closed in 1862 (at the time of the French invasion), the historic image of Our Lady of the Bullet was transferred to the chapel of the Hospital of Jesús Nazareno (Jesus the Nazarene) where it remained until 1901, when it was stolen. Her whereabouts were unknown for many years.

(Translator's note: The Hospital of Jesús Nazareno was founded by Hernán Cortés in 1524, ostensibly at the site where he first met Moctezuma the Younger in November 1519. It is still in operation. It is, thus, the oldest continuously running hospital in the Americas.)

Entrance to the modern Hospital of Jesus of Nazareth,
on Avenida 20th de noviembre, 20th of November.

Original inner patio of the colonial period Hospital Jésus Nazareno.

Plaque citing the foundation of the hospital
by Hernán Cortés at the site of his meeting with Moctezuma.
Founded in 1524, it is the first hospital in the Americas,
and in continuous service for more than 400 years.

In the year 1913, the priest Rosendo Perez Yniestra found her in Monte de Piedad. He paid the amount of the debt, and thus, he rescued the Virgin of the Bullet. He decided to attach to the base of the image a commemorative plaque with the name of this figure and the date on which he rescued her. 

Monte de Piedad 
on the Zócalo.

(Translator's Note: Monte de Piedad, Mount of Compassion, is the name of the huge, now national, pawn shop system that was founded on the Zócalo in 1775. It is based on the first Monte de Piedad, founded in 1702 in Madrid. It is used by many Mexicans to get what are, in effect, small loans using whatever they have of value as collateral.) 

As it happened, at that time he was pastor of the church of San Lucas Evangelista (St. Luke the Evangelist) in the pueblo of Iztapalapa, so he decided to return Her whence she had originated. Since that date, the people of Iztapalapa have venerated her and she is jealously guarded by the natives of the pueblo.

Church of San Lucas,
Barrio San Lucas, Iztapalapa.
The Passion Play starts here
on Palm Sunday.

Meanwhile, it was still believed that she was missing; nevertheless, she is now worshiped in the Sanctuary of the Lord of the Little Cave, to the great joy of all her devotees."

Historia de la Virgen de la Bala by Naín Alejandro Ruiz Jaramillo, Masters in Art History

A Santo Popular

Thus, with great thanks to Maestro Ruiz Jaramillo, we have been able to follow the trail and travails of la Virgen de la Bala from the home of a Spanish lady living in Iztapalapa in the early 17th century to Her serving for three hundred years as the saint of two hospitals founded by Hernán Cortés and as the bulwark protecting the East side of Mexico City from all kinds of harm.

These important functions were interrupted by Her disappearance, followed by her remarkable, if not miraculous, rescue by Father Perez Yniestra from Monte de Piedad and Her return home to Her original pueblo of Iztapalapa. In returning to Her pueblo, she became a santo popular, a saint adopted by the common people.

Sr. Ruiz Jaramillo tells us that Her original advocación was as a representation of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (i.e. Mary's ideal, heavenly image before she was born and to which, at Her earthly death, she was to return via Her Assumption into Heaven as the Queen of Heaven). 

He then goes on to detail the changes in her advocación over the centuries, resulting in Her helpfulness to everyday people in a wide variety of everyday, and not so everyday, circumstances.  

"Given the characteristics of the first miracle of the Virgin of the Bullet, She is considered a defender of marriages and helps to reduce marital problems or get a partner. In the same way, she is the patron of pregnant women and those in labor. For this reason she is also asked to bring good luck to their newborn children, or help in conceiving them if there is any problem of infertility.

Also, Her devotees believe that She protects those who have dangerous professions, for example police and soldiers, who are at risk of being hit by murderous bullets. It is believed that she diverts them."

Dare we say, that is quite a list of cargos, responsibilities! No wonder there are so many versions of St. Mary! Each has an equal, if not greater, number of duties. We are grateful that we have gotten to know la Virgen de la Bala and Her story. How Her replica came to be in neighboring Culhuacán, we still don't know. ¡Ojalá! God willing, we may come to meet Her again during our Ambles.

The tiny Virgen de la Bala stands beside San Antonio Abad,
the honoree and host of visiting saints at His patron saint Mass
in the parish church of Barrio San Antonio Atípac, Pueblo Culhuacán.
(The black píg is a reminder that St. Anthony, one of the first hermit monks,
worked as a swineherd to make a living. 

Original Villages | Coyoacán: San Mateo Churubusco's Christmas Posada

Celebrating the Birth of Jesus, the Son of God, Replaces an Indigenous Celebration of the Birth of the God Huitzilopochtli

The celebration of Christmas in Mexico is different from that of other festivals on the Catholic Christian calendar. It is focused within the privacy of the family rather than in the communal space of the parish church or the public space of the neighborhood streets. The central celebratory event is a family cena (dinner) held late on the evening of Noche Buena (literally, Good Night), Christmas Eve, before going to Mass. (Think Thanksgiving dinner in the United States.)

Posadas: Recreating Mary´s and Joseph´s Search for an Inn in Bethlehem

There is, however, a wonderful tradition that takes place in semi-public space, the individual streets of neighborhoods. It is the tradition of posadas (literally, "inns"). Las posadas were evidently created in the mid-16th century by Augustinian friars who came to Nueva España to instruct indigenous peoples in the Catholic Christian faith. Held each of the nine nights prior to Christmas, from December 16th thru the 24th (the nine nights representing the nine months of Mary's pregnancy), each night's posada is hosted by families living in a different street. And they are held outside, in the street (think block party).

They are called posada (inn) because the celebration centers on a re-creation of the arrival of the pregnant Mary and her husband, Joseph, in the town of Bethlehem in response to the census called by Caesar Augustus. They search for an inn in which to stay. In the re-enactment of their quest, children dressed as Mary and Joseph, or statues of the saints, with Mary riding a donkey, approach a series of three homes in the street holding the night's posada.

The pregnant Virgin Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem.
Statues in Church of San Mateo Churubusco, Coyoacán.
St. Matthew stands behind them.

The members of the parish accompanying the Holy Couple sing a petition to the residents of each home on behalf of the Couple, pleading that they be given shelter. At the first two homes, from behind closed doors, the residents reject the plea and the procession has to move on. At the third home, in response to the request, the resident family opens its doors and receives the Couple and those with them. The rosary may be recited. Then, the party begins!

Replacing One Miraculous Birth of a God With Another

The Augustinians had a very clear purpose in creating las posadas. They were a specific tactic in the strategy of Spanish monks that has come to be called the Spiritual Conquest, the conversion of the indigenous peoples to Catholic Christianity. As it happened, in the Azteca/Mexica religion, in the month of Panquetzaliztli, the birthday of Huitzilopochtli, god of the sun and war and their primary god, was celebrated on the equivalent of December 18. (Panquetzaliztli possibly corresponded to December 6 to 25 on the Gregorian calendar; there are scholarly differences of opinion on the precise relation between the two calendars.)

Huitzilopochtli, like Jesus the Christ Child, was also begotten by a miraculous conception, via a ball of eagle feathers entering the womb of the Mother Goddess, Coatlicue. The eagle is both the messenger and symbol of the Sun god, Tonatiuh. The coincidence of the two sacred and miraculous birthdays is tied, of course, to the Winter Solstice, marking the beginning of the northward return of the sun from its southernmost position in the Northern Hemisphere.

A recent Facebook post, by Guardianes Del Patrimonio Xochimilco, on the significance of the winter solstice confirms this coincidence of the birthdays of the two gods:

"From the start of the ‘Spiritual Conquest’ of these lands, the Spanish Friars took note of the celebration of the birth of a ‘god’ at the end of December. The original peoples named this god Xiuhpiltontli, ‘niñito turquesa’ | Turquoise Baby Boy’ (in the Nahuatl language, turquoise is a symbol of preciousness).

Xiuhpiltontli is linked with the birth of Huitzilopochtli (hummingbird of the left/south), as both are a symbolic representation of the Sun. Between the 20th and 24th of December, (seen from Xochimilco) the Sun rises behind Popocatéptl ("Smoking Mountain" volcano)—seems to stand still, and appears much smaller than it does during the rest of the year. 

Sun rising at winter solstice over volcano Popocatepetl

In Xochimilco, there are no coincidences. From time immemorial, there has been a search for answers, communal creativity, devotional dynamism and cultural resistance … there is cultural fusion." Translated from a recent Facebook post on Guardianes Del Patrimonio Xochimilco

So the Augustinians created Las Posadas to replace the celebration of the birth of Huitzilopochtli with that of the Birth of Jesus, the Son of God. (Wikipedia)

Searching for a Posada in Mexico City

When we lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, we were invited every December to posadas in various neighborhoods. Our beloved Spanish teacher, Alejandra, always invited us to the one in her family's street. When we moved to Mexico City, as with other traditions, we wondered whether we would find posadas. In our modern Colonia Parque San Andrés, which has no Catholic parish church, there are no fiestas, let alone the more modest posadas. 

Now that Mexico City Ambles is focused on original indigenous villages in the City and their fiestas, we wondered whether this December we might find a posada to enjoy, photograph (a challenge since they take place after dark) and share. Our ever-informative Facebook page,  Fiestas Mágicas de los Pueblos y Barrios Originarios del Valle de México, Magical Fiestas of the Original Villages and Neighborhoods of the Valley of Mexico, posted videos of multiple posadas that had happened in Xochimilco each previous night, or sometimes live, as they were happening. But there were no prior announcements of where and at what time they were being held, so, short of wandering around the center of Xochimilco in the twilight, there was no way we could find one. 

Then on the Thursday, December 23, the eighth day of posadas, there appeared on the Facebook page of our neighboring barrio of San Mateo Churubusco an announcement of a posada that very evening. Evidently, it was part of a series of nine held by the parish, but we had somehow missed announcements of the previous ones. We could easily attend, and next to the last day that it would be possible this year!

We are also struck by the coincidence ("In [the indigenous cosmovision], there are no coincidences"!) that San Mateo Churubusco and its sister barrio, San Diego Churubusco, were the indigenous village of Huitzilopochco, so named by the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan when they took control of the towns around Lake Texcoco from the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco in 1428.

The causeway the Mexicas built south, across the lake, had one terminus at this village and Huitzilopochtli is a god of the south (perhaps, because He was born with the newborn sun), so it seems likely they chose to dedicate this southern village to their chief god. The churches of San Mateo and Our Lady of the Angels in San Diego were built atop Mexica temples, one or both likely dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. So this posada will take place at a sacred site of the very god which such posadas were designed to replace!

Plaque on wall of a house on Calle Convento
recognizing the original name of the village, Huitzilopochco,
"The place of the hummingbirds of the south".
"Churubusco" was a Spanish replacement,
possibly to erase the name of the chief God of the Mexica.

Posada in la Calle Rafael Oliva, San Mateo Churubusco

The Facebook announcement gave the name of the street, la calle Rafael Oliva, where the posada would be held. It is a block west of the church, less than a ten-minute walk from our apartment. However, it did not give the time. So we posted a message on the page asking the time, and the administrator soon replied. It would begin at 5 PM, with a procession starting from the atrio (atrium) of the church. So shortly before the designated hour, we left our apartment and walked the five short blocks to the church.

Waiting

Chapel of San Mateo, St. Matthew
Archeologist think that a Mexica temple to Huitzilopochtli
may have stood here previously.

We well know that "on Mexican time" is different from "on norteamericano (North American, i.e., U.S.) time". But nearly ten years of living in Mexico have not changed the habits of many decades of functioning as a norteamericano. So we arrive at the church a few minutes before 5 PM. The gate to the atrio is locked. No one is visible inside. So we sit down on a curb across the narrow back street that the church faces and wait. Within a few minutes a woman appears from the church, walks to the gate and opens it. We approach her and ask about the posada. "Sí", "Yes," it is going to happen. 

So we enter the atrio. The pavement is strewn with torn pieces of colored paper. It has the look of a party space the morning after the party. Apparently, a posada had been held in the atrio the night before. With nothing else to do while waiting, we enter the church, which we have visited several times before. 

Chancel of the sanctuary decorated for Christmas

A nacimiento (literally, "birth", i.e., a Nativity scene) is to the left.
A figure of the Infant Jesus is not placed in it until the Christmas Eve Mass.
To the right are Joseph and Mary, in front of St. Matthew.

Poinsettias are native to Mexico, where they are called nochebuenas,
(literally "good nights", i.e.,  "Christmas Eves").

Leaving the sanctuary, we sit down on a long concrete bench lining the north side of the atrio. It is still warm from the rays of the afternoon sun that is dropping behind the houses to the west. We wait.

Arrivals

Soon, a man and a woman, apparently husband and wife, and three youngsters enter from the gateway at the side of the atrio, on calle Heroes de 47, Heroes of 1847, the main street through the barrio (for an explanation of the name, see our post about San Mateo's sister barrio, San Diego Churubusco, Thrice Strategic Over 400 Years). Each carries a traditional Mexican broom made of long twigs, and they begin methodically sweeping up the torn paper into piles. This takes some time. 

When the gentleman is near us, we introduce ourselves as a neighbor from Parque San Andrés interested in traditional fiestas. He takes us by surprise when he says that he recognizes us from the fiesta for El Señor de los Milagros (the Lord of Miracles), in Coyoacán's Colonia Ajusco, held just last month, at which San Mateo was represented. We comment that we had shared our photo of San Mateo from that day on the parish Facebook page. Amiably, he says that he has seen it.   

While the family cleans the atrio, other families begin to arrive. While the adults sit on the long bench and wait, the kids engage in the inevitable running games around the large atrio.

This little boy delights in running the length of the concrete bench
 that starts against the wall of the church
and extends along the north side of the atrio. 

Isaac

Seeing that we are taking pictures of him, the boy runs along the bench to us
and greets us. Asked his name, he says he is Isaac (EE-sahk). And he is three years old.
His parents are sitting not far away, watching the interchange.
He asks if we will play with him.
We have to say we would like to, but are now too old to run around.
We add that we are enjoying watching him have fun. 

Another friendly boy

Isaac´s sister (left) and a friend.

The Procession 

By 6 PM, the atrio is cleaned of all the previous night´s detritus. The sun has set and the light is fading. About then, the cohetero arrives and sets off a couple of cohetes (rocket-style firecrackers) to announce the coming procession. But there is no sign of a procession. The people sitting and standing around the atrio wait without any sign of impatience. 

Then, suddenly, about 6:20, a woman ringing a small bell comes out of the church. Behind her, two men carry the anda (platform) bearing the statues of Mary on the donkey and Joseph. Following them are a small group of women holding lighted candles and chanting a prayer they are reading from small booklets made of newsprint. One woman is carrying a statue or doll representing Niño Jesús, the Child Jesus.

The procession gets underway.
The woman at the right is holding a Niño Jesús, Child Jesus

The procession leaves the atrio of the church,
exiting into calle Heroes de 47, and turns west.
It is now dark.

A short block farther on,
the procession turns north into la calle Rafael Oliva, the site of tonight's posada

As per tradition, the procession stops at a house to petition room
for Mary and Joseph to stay.
From behind closed doors, the family rejects the request.

Mary and Joseph, and the procession
move on toward a second home.

In front of the second house, the request for hospitality is made again,
Again, the family inside rejects the petition.

Finally, the procession arrives at a third home
and repeats its plea on behalf of the Holy Couple.

This time the doors of the home are opened, and Mary and Joseph are invited to enter,
along with participants in the procession.

Mary and Joseph find a place to rest.

The Child Jesus is also given a place of honor.
in the family's nacimiento.

In the street, the cohetero announces the success of the search.

The Party

Quickly, tables are set up in the street
and hot ponche, fruit punch, is served.  

A gas grill is also set up and small tortillas are fried. 

The fried mini-tortillas are covered with a bean paste, shredded cheese and lettuce.
In this form, they are called sopes.

Piñatas

While the ponche and sopes are being served, a small group of men prepare to hang a piñata above the street. 

A rope, one end already tied to the second story of the host house,
is tossed to a young man in the second story of the house across the street.
He will manipulate the height and movement of the piñata.

A piñata is hung from the suspended rope.

Traditional seven-pointed star pinata

The attack on the piñata is seen as representing the struggle of humans against temptation. The seven points of the tradtional star-shaped pinata represent the Seven Deadly Sins. The pot represents the devil, and the fruit and candy inside are the temptations of evil. The person with the stick is usually blindfolded to represent faith and spun around in order to recreate the disorientation that temptation creates, but that is not done here in San Mateo.

The onlookers sing a chant about the effort. When the piñata breaks, the treats inside become the rewards for keeping the faith.

Canción de la piñata, Piñata Song

Dale, dale, dale,

No pierdas el tino,

Porque si lo pierdes

Pierdes el camino.

Hit, hit, hit,

Don't lose your aim,

Because if you lose it,

You'll lose the way.

Dale, dale, dale,

No pierdas el tino,

Mide la distancia

Que hay en el camino...

Hit, hit, hit,

Don't lose your aim,

Measure the distance

That's on the way...

...Ya le diste uno, 

Ya le diste dos,

Ya le diste tres 

Y tu tiempo se acabó.

...You've hit it once, 

You've hit it twice,

You've hit it thrice, 

Now your time is up.

(Canción de la piñata, Piñata Song. From Mama Lisa's World)

A lady of the parish
helps the younger kids
prepare their attack on the piñata.

One after another, multiple piñatas are hung and attacked.
The young man in the upstairs window manipulates their height
according to the height of each child.

Even very young children are introduced to the traditional action.

Our friend, Isaac,
goes at it.

When a piñata is broken,
everyone scrambles for the goodies that fall from inside.

Like other components of fiestas such as fireworks and papel picado (cut paper designs), piñatas apparently originated in China. They are part of the New Year celebration held in late January or early February. The tradition was brought by travelers returning to Europe in the 14th century where it became associated with the Christian celebration of Lent, the forty days of fasting before Easter. In Spain, the first Sunday of Lent is known as "Piñata Sunday". The piñata tradition was brought to Nueva España by Augustinian monks, where they adapted it to Christmastime.

As it happened, and conveniently so for the Augustinians, there was already a similar tradition in Mesoamerica. As part of the celebration of the birthday of Huitzilopochtli, priests would decorate a clay pot with colorful feathers and hang it before a statue of the god. The pot was then hit with a club until it broke, and the treasures inside would fall to the feet of the idol as an offering. The Maya also had a similar tradition, which included blindfolding the participant who was trying to hit a suspended clay pot. (Wikipedia)

So here in San Mateo Churubusco, the ancient village that the Mexica called Huitzilopochco, this fusion of traditions is repeated once again tonight, this Christmas Season.

Traditions That Mark Cycles of Time and Faith

There are still more piñatas to be hung and attacked when our old body tells us it is time to return home. It is about 8 PM. We thank the gentleman whose family was cleaning the atrio for being able to share in the posada of San Mateo Churubusco, wish him and his family "Feliz Navidad y Buen Año Nuevo", "Happy Christmas and a Good New Year", and head back down la calle Rafael Oliva. 

Church of San Mateo Churubusco
Night of the Eighth Posada,
December 23, 2017

We pass the Church of San Mateo, its simple white walls now lit like a beacon in the dark. Just down the street, we pass our beloved Mercado Churubusco (Market). We are surprised it is still open. A few remaining merchants are closing their stalls, which they opened at 7 AM and will open again at 7 AM tomorrow. We cross calle Martires Irlandeses (Irish Martyrs; for an explanation of this anomalous name, again, see our post on San Diego Churubusco) and re-enter modern Parque San Ándres.

Along the way, we reflect on what we have just experienced, as we always do after visiting a fiesta in one of the original indigenous pueblos or barrios of Mexico City. We are particularly struck, this time, by how a Catholic Christian custom was used (this time, evidently created) by the monks from Spain to replace an existing indigenous religious one, but thereby also creating continuity between the two.  

Both represent the birth of a god, and with them, the birth of a faith in the character of the power that rules the universe and is the sovereign of the human life cycle. Both births are tied to the natural phenomenon of the Winter Solstice, that ending and beginning of the ageless cyle of the sun (as seen from the Northern Hemisphere) which we also use to mark the succession of our earthly years.

Another such year is ending, another year is about to begin. The cycle of the Earth's voyage around the sun, the cycle of life and of being human goes on. And, as evidenced by the posada of San Mateo Churubusco, so does the renewing of the human faith that the future offers hope.

Some of la gente, the people, of Barrio San Mateo Churubusco

Delegaciones of Mexico City
Coyoacán is the purple delegación in the center.

San Mateo Churubusco is small, green area just to right (east) of star.
Parque San Andrés is Mexico City Ambles' home base.

Original Villages | Culhuacán: San Andrés Tomatlán, Pt II - The Lord of Calvary, the Saint of Culhuacán-Tomatlán, Goes Visiting

Culhuacán's Lord of Calvary, the Black Christ, Buried

We have written three previous posts about Culhuacán:

• The first focused on its history as an original indigenous altepelt (city-state) that for hundreds of years controlled the southeast side of Lake Texcoco and the north side of Lake Xochimilco before the rise to power of the Mexica of Tenochtitlan in 1430.

• Our second post told of our Amble through Contemporary Culhuacán and its vestiges of the Spirtual Conquest, i.e. the conversion of its indigenous inhabitants to Catholic Christianity by Spanish friars. This led to our first encounter with el Señor del Calvario, the Lord of Calvary, in His Capilla, Chapel, in the center of what is now Pueblo Culhuacán. El Señor is a carved image of Jesus as the Christ during the day and a half He was buried in His tomb—and when, according to the Apostle's Creed, "He descended into Hell." And He is black.

Chapel of the Lord of Calvary, the People's Creation

Chapel of the Lord of Calvary
Note: the space behind the altar is empty.
There is no figure of Christ,
something we wondered about at the time. 

The chapel was built by local residents around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century—that is, it is a creation of religión popular, religion of the people, el pueblo. It is not an establishment of either the official Catholic Church or of any religious order—as were both the nearby former Convent of St. John the Evangelist, built by the Augustians in th mid-16th century as part of their work to convert the indigenous in the so-called Spiritual Conquest, and the adjacent Parrochial Church of St. John the Evangelist, built near the end of the 19th century to replace a church attached to the original convent that had fallen into disrepair.

Nevertheless, despite the chapel's relative newness, the sacred origins of the site go back some centuries. It is located next to a small cave in the adjoining hillside which is the base of a small, extinct volcano called Cerro de la Estrella (Hill of the Star). Volcanic action created many caves in the hillside. The summit of the hill is the site of the Mexica temple of the Binding of the Years or New Fire that we wrote about in our initial post on Culhuacán and its neighbor, Iztapalapa.

This cave was evidently the site of indigenous rituals to gods of the Underworld. In our first post on El Señor, we wrote about the indigenous tradition of black gods, including  Tezcatlipoca, god of the night, hurricanes, the north (cold), the earth, enmity, discord, temptation, sorcery, war and strife.

Legend has it that a couple of hundred years ago, the carving of the entombed black Christ was found in the cave.

Cave of the Lord of Calvary
Note: the glass coffin is also empty.

A large mural on the side wall of the Chapel depicts the religious meaning of this intriguing set of symbols and their location.

The black Lord of Calvary is worshipped in his cave by indigenous people.
There are no Spaniards or Catholic priests 
(although the goat is a European introduction).
Cerro de la Estrella rises at the top, in the background.

Binding el Pueblo, the People of Culhuacán-Tomatlán Together

Our third post on Culhuacán recounted our second encounter with el Señor del Calvario, during the Fiesta de la Santisima Trinidad, the Most Holy Trinity, celebrated in June after the end of Easter Season. That Sunday, after joining in a long procession through all four barrios of Pueblo San Francisco Culhuacán, on the Delegacion (borough) Coyoacán side of greater Culhuacán, we arrived at the Chapel of the Lord of Calvary for an outdoor mass, joined by people from the five barrios of Pueblo Culhuacán, in Delegación Iztapalapa.

The Lord of Calvary lies front and center at the Mass celebrating the Holy Trinity.

At the beginning of the Mass, El Señor del Calvario was carefully carried in his glass coffin from His place above the altar of His chapel and placed on a table at the front, where he was joined by the saints brought from all the barrios of both Culhuacáns. It was dramatically clear that El Señor is The Saint, the symbolic figure, that binds all the barrios of Culhuacán together. He is the unofficial, but very powerful Saint of Culhuacán.

El Señor Visits His Barrios

As we kept track of the fiestas of Culhuacán, (via the Facebook page, Fiestas Mágicas del los Pueblos y Barrios Originarios del Valle de Mexico, Magical Fiestas of the Original Villages and Neighborhoods of the Valley of Mexico) we noted that El Señor del Calvario goes visiting to the various pueblos and barrios of Culhuacán. Thus, He is similar to his counterparts, El Señor de Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion, in central Coyoacán, and el Niño 'Pa in Xochimilco, but unlike these other two, His visits coincide with the fiesta patronal, the patron saint fiesta, of each community. This, perhaps, explains why His place in His chapel was empty the first time we visited.

Thus, when we saw on the announcement of the Fiesta de San Andrés Tomatlán (held the week of Nov. 30, when we participated in its procession) that the final event was el traslado del Señor del Calvario desde San Andrés hasta Santa María Tomatlan, the transfer of the Lord of Calvary from Pueblo San Andrés to Pueblo Santa María Tomatlán, we were determined to return to San Andrés to witness this very significant act. Clearly, El Señor´s presence in the Church of St. Andrew during its fiesta  and His transfer to St. Mary's for that parish's fiesta, celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Dec. 8), meant the Pueblo Tomatlán, just south of Pueblo Culhuacán, was part of the larger Culhuacán commuity, part of a larger pueblo. The transfer was scheduled for four o'clock, Tuesday afternoon.

Waiting

At about twenty minutes to four, we get off the Metro at the San Andres Tomatlán station. From the elevated platform, we can see that the church's gate is closed and no one is in the atrio (atrium) inside. A bit anxious as to whether the event is actually going to occur, we descend to Avenida Tláhuac, cross and ascend the stairs to the church. While the iron gate to the atrio is closed, we find it is unlocked, so we enter and climb the remaining stairs to the front of the church.

Fiesta de San Andres' floral portada.
"Congratulatons, St. Andrew, on your day."
The sun is, of course, one of the most ancient of religious symbols.

The large wooden doors to the sanctuary are closed and locked. So, too, is the door to the Chapel on the right side. Our anxiety growing, we walk around to the other side of the church and find a glass door to the church office. A sign says it is open from 9AM to noon and again from 4PM to 7. The break is a typical one in Mexico for comida, the main meal of the day, preferably eaten at home with the family. As it is now a few minutes before four, we decide to sit on the steps and wait, and maintain hope.

Suddenly, promptly at four, a large suburban vehicle drives in through a second gate that is open to a side street. We recognize the driver as the mayordomo, the head of the mayordomia, the committee in charge of the fiesta. Right behind him is a taxi with three or four other members of the mayordomia. As the mayordomo gets out of his car, we go over and greet him. He remembers us from the procession last Thursday and welcomes us, assuring us that el traslado del Señor is going to happen. Other people arrive on foot. I chat with some of them while we wait for whatever is next.

Meeting el Señor del Calvario

Suddenly, someone inside opens the doors to the sanctuary and everyone enters. The sheer number of bouquets of flowers—predominantly lillies—filling the modern, high-ceilinged space is almost overwhelming—as is, may we add, their scent. In the center rests the glass casket of El Señor. Next  to it rests another, much smaller glass casket.

Casket of el Señor del Calvario

El Señor del Calvario
The wrapping—hand-embroidered by ladies
of the parish—is changed at each transfer of El Señor.
A woman of the parish informs us that the "dressing" was done at 7 AM this morning.

El Señor del Calvario

Two Señores del Calvario
The smaller casket bears an identical, much smaller Señor.
We have seen such smaller duplicates of saints at numerous fiestas;
these copies of the original are referred to as
demanditas, "little demands,"
but we don't know why.

More Waiting

After taking photos of el Señor and His demandita, we take a seat in a front pew and wait for the initiation of el traslado. More people arrive and the pews behind us fill up. Among those who enter are men and women, including youth, wearing black T-shirts embroidered on the backs with Sr Calvario, Mayordomia 2017, Santa María Tomatlán. Members of the committee from the Pueblo and parish of St. Mary Tomatlán, they are evidently responsible for the transfer of El Señor to their community. They all enter a door to the office at the side of the sanctuary, filling the small room to its limits. They remain there for quite some time.

We wait. It is now approaching 5 PM. It is early December. The sun sets now a little before 6 PM. We get somewhat anxious wondering whether the procession will begin before the light drops. If it doesn't, we won't be able to get any good photos.

T-shirt identifying a member of
the mayordomia, committee,
from Santa María Tomatlán.
Such identifying T-shirts
(or sometimes, polo shirts)
are standard dress for mayordomias.

Finally, some minutes after 5 PM, the door to the office opens and members of the mayordomia enter the sanctuary. One member, a woman perhaps in her thirties, has a large, old-fashioned ledger book which she opens. Piled in front of her are various items. She checks off all the equipment needed for the transfer: slender metal poles, long, thick, polished wooden poles, small cushions for the bearers of the casket to cushion their shoulders. Then several members of the committee gather around the two caskets. There is a lot of activity. 

The caskets are covered with
embroidered cloths.

Wooden poles are slid underneath the casket.

The Procession to Santa Maria Tomatlán

El Señor is carried from the Church of San Andrés.

El Señor and His demandita are carried from the Church of San Andrés.
The metal poles we saw being counted inside hold
canopies—born by women—above the caskets.
The saints are given ancient royal treatment. 

The essential banda is ready to accompany the procession.
We note that this one includes a number of women.
Most often, bandas are all male.

Obligatory cohetes,
rocket-style firecrackers,
are shot off,
announcing to the community
that the procession is underway.

Avoiding the many stairs in front, the procession leaves
via the side gate of the church, into the street leading toward
traffic-filled Avenida Tláhuac.

Ancient and modern intersect.
The procession enters Avenida Tláhuac.
A train on Metro Line 12 passes above.

The procession moves down Avenida Tláhuac,
toward Santa María Tomatlán, a few blocks south.

The banner to the left is that of  the Mayordomia
of the Church of the Most Pure Conception of the Virgin Mary of Tomatlán.

Traffic is, of course, brought to a standstill while the procession makes its way.

Archway at the entrance to Pueblo Santa María Tomatlán.
Such archways are common at the entrances to original pueblos.

Procession of El Señor del Calvario
arrives in Pueblo Santa María Tomatlán.

The procession turns off the pueblo's main street and
into a narrow calleja, side street.

We are surprised and puzzled,
as we know the church is directly down the main street,
where we had expected to head.

The faithful...

...await.

The procession reaches a point in the street where two tables stand.
They are covered with pink cloths.
The caskets of El Señor and la demandita are lowered to the tables.

The procession comes to two long tables, covered with pink cloths, and the two caskets are lowered carefully to them. Obviously, some kind of welcoming ritual is going to be carried out. 

Time to Leave, Planning to Return

It is now 6 PM. The sun is down and the light is fast following it. It is time for us to leave and return to Coyoacán. We have already planned to come to Santa María Tomatlán in three days, on December 8, for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, as we expect the parish will have a celebration of its patron saint, the Virgin Mary. So we anticipate that we will find El Señor del Calvario, and His demandita, in the church at that time.

El Señor del Calvario in Pueblo Santa María Tomatlán

Thursday morning, we follow our now routine path to Culhuacán and Tomatlán, taking first a taxi across Avenida Taxqueña then getting on Metro Line 12. This time we go past the San Andrés stop to the next one, get off and descend to Avenida Tláhuac. Walking a few blocks north, we turn onto the street that enters the pueblo. A short block farther on, we come alongside the church—a large, modern concrete structure with a gambrel, "Dutch-style" roof that reminds us of barns in the U.S. Northeast.

A portada of plastic flowers covers the entrance—
"Most pure Conception, protect your pueblo (people/village)"

Mass is being celebrated for the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
Her figure stands at the right, in front of the blue drape. 

Looking for a fiesta

Outside, we search the notices posted on the entrance walls for a schedule of fiesta events. There is only a handwritten sign announcing a series of special Masses today and next Tuesday, December 12, the Fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Mother of Mexico. 

Una señora, a matronly lady, is standing just outside the church door, beside a small table offering candles and other religious items. Clearly a representative of the congregation, she is dressed in an attractive green and white plaid wool coat (it is a brisk December morning), with matching, hand-knit wool scarf and cap. We approach her to inquire about the existence of a fiesta this weekend for the Immaculate Conception.

Lady of the church
and our informant.

La señora informs us that there is no fiesta on this occasion, even though this is a church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. She tells us that their big fiesta is held on Mary's Natividad, birthday, in early September. (At that time, we were at Church of Santa María Natividad Tepetlalzingo in Delegación Benito Juárez.) We tell her that we will put this on our schedule of fiestas, and, ojalá, God willing, be able to attend next year. She adds that the church also has a procession on Holy Friday of Semana Santa, Holy Week. 

We tell her that, on Tuesday, we had followed the procession of El Señor del Calvario from the Church of San Andrés to the streets of Santa María, but, as it got dark, we didn´t follow Him to the Church. We ask if He is inside, since we can´t see His casket in the sanctuary. She says that, yes, he is in a chapel off to one side of the sanctuary. Mass is nearing its end with the passing of the peace among attendees. As we find this tradition meaningful, we shake hands with her and other parishioners standing inside the doorway. Our guide then enters to receive the Host. 

A very small plaza across the street from the church catches our attention, since it is warmed by the late autumn sun shining into it. So we cross and sit on a bench, sunning ourselves while we wait for the end of Mass so we can enter the church.

Sunny plazuela,
little plaza.

Soon, parishioners are leaving the church. 

Parishioners have brought
their images of the Virgin Mary
to be blessed at the Mass.

Meeting El Señor del Calvario Once Again

We enter the now nearly empty sanctuary. To the right, halfway toward the altar, is a large opening, its arch decorated with pink and white gauze, the colors of San Andrés, St. Andrew, the parish from which El Señor came on Tuesday evening. Walking forward, we turn into the chapel.

It is not like any Catholic Church chapel we have seen in Mexico. It is not covered with Baroque gold gilt. Instead, the walls are covered with a mural that melds medieval with modern styles.

El Señor del Calvario
A crucified Christ hangs in the center of the mural.
To the left is Moses with the Ten Commandments;
to the right is the Apostle and Evangelist St. John.

The walls and ceiling of the space are rounded, which, together with the warm tones of the mural, give it the feeling of a cave. That sensation and the mural remind us of where we started this Amble, not many blocks to the north, in la Capilla del Señor del Calvario, and the cave where He was found. El Señor, His Capilla and cave remain sacred to the people of Culhuacán and its neighbor, Tomatlán. With El Señor here in Santa María, newly arrived from San Andrés, we feel the completion of a cycle in the communal ritual which binds the many barrios of the two pueblos together.

Delegaciones (Boroughs) of Mexico City
Iztapalapa is the large, bright green one
on the mid-east side.

Pueblos, Barrios and Colonias of Iztapalapa.
Pueblos San Andrés and Santa María Tomatlán are marked by the green/yellow star. 

Pueblos Culhuacán and Tomatlán

Pueblo Culhuacán, location of la Capilla del Señor del Calvario,
is large red area marked by red/yellow star;
smaller areas around it are its barrios.

Pueblo San Andrés Tomatlán includes both the light blue and the lower red area
marked by green/yellow star.

Pueblo Santa María Tomatlán is green area marked by green star.

Cerro de la Estrella, Hill of the Star
is dark gray-greeen area to the northeast.