Original Villages | Coyoacán: Santo Domingo Welcomes the Lord of Compassion

The Savior Who Goes Visiting His People

A little over a year ago, on a sunny Sunday morning in the spring, we were drawn onto our apartment's balcony by the sound of exploding cohetes, rocket-style firecrackers. They were announcing a nearby fiesta, so we decided to investigate their source, a pueblo not far to the south of us in Delegación Coyoacán, Following the sound of the explosions led us to the pueblo originario, the original village, of los Tres Santos Reyes, the Pueblo of the Three Sacred Kings, aka Los Reyes. It's full name is Tres Santos Reyes Hueytlilac. Hueytlilac (place of the swampy waters) is its original Nahua name, now rarely mentioned. It was first inhabited some 3,000 years ago.

When we arrived at the parish church, we wondered what saint was being honored, as the Three Kings of the Christmas Story are the formal patron saints of the pueblo and are celebrated on January 6. But on this Sunday in April, shortly after Easter, it was honoring el Señor de la Misericoridia, the Lord of Compassion, a figure representing Christ in His Passion—His suffering during Semanta Santa, Holy Week. He, in fact, had become the pueblo's main protector because he was seen as the source of a miracle a few centuries ago, after the Spanish Conquest, in which prayers to him had saved el pueblo, the people, of the various indigenous villages in what is now the borough of Coyoacán, from an epidemic,

Versions of such miracles against plagues are common throughout Mexico. The Spanish brought many diseases, such as smallpox, to which the indigenous had no immunity. Each miraculous salvation has its own representation of the Christ that performed the miracle. We recall that in Tzintzuntzan, a Purépecha pueblo in Michoacán, near where we initially lived in Pátzcuaro, he is el Señor de la Rescate, the Lord of the Rescue.

Intertwining Communal Roots

That day at Tres Reyes, we also learned that every summer, El Señor is carried forth from el pueblo to visit several of these other pueblos and barrios, where he is received by their respective saints, gives his blessing on the people and receives their adoration and thanks. He spends one to two weeks asentado, seated, in the church of each pueblo before moving on to the next. Hence, a series of bienvenidas and despedidas, welcomes and farewells, to El Señor are festejados, celebrated, across Coyoacán from late May to early September.

El Señor de la Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion,
ready for his departure from Los Reyes in late May, 2016.

We spent many Sundays last summer meeting up with El Señor as he was transferred, with much communal animo, spirit, from one pueblo to the next. The climax came on the first Sunday in September, when el Señor was returned with much ceremony to Tres Reyes. Through these encounters, it became very clear to us that the function of this ritual journey is to link together the borough's original villages in a manifestation of common belief, custom and history which maintains the bonds of a shared identity that is muy arraigo, very rooted, in their pre-hispanic past.

However, for various reasons, including our energy level, we did not attend every transfer. So this summer, when we learned that one Sunday in August the Lord of Compassion was moving between two pueblos in southern Coyoacán that we had not visited last year, we were excited to have the opportunity to renew and add to our experience of them.

Colonia Pedregal Santo Domingo and the Church of the Holy Founders

We learned that a procession going to meet and receive el Señor was scheduled to leave la Parroquia de los Santos Fundadores, the Parochial Church of the Holy Founders, in la Colonia Pedregal Santo Domingo, at 10 AM. Last year, we had learned the hard way, when we arrived late at one such transfer, that these events occur pretty much on time, as two pueblos are coordinating the meeting and transfer of El Señor. Pedregal Santo Domingo is just southeast of Pueblo Tres Reyes, and not far from our base in Parque San Andrés, so we call for a taxi at 9:30 and arrive at the church just before 10. 

Portada of fresh flowers at entrance to the church atrio
 honors two priestly saints and the Lord of Compassion,
who will be received here today.
"First, contemplate, then teach, and preach, always."
Motto of the Dominican order

Clearly, the procession is about to begin. The statues of two saintly friars and the Virgin Mary are in place on an anda, movable platform, covered with fresh flowers, waiting below the floral portada at the entrance to the church atrio, atrium. A priest is moving among the crowd, checking that all is ready. He is wearing the green robes of the Season of Trinity, the summertime period between Pentecost, the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the disciples after Christ's Ascension to Heaven, forty days after His Resurrection on Easter, and Advent, in the fall, preparing for Christmas.

When we first learned that the name of the church was the Holy Founders, we were puzzled, as a single saint is usually the patron of a parish. So we approach one of the men attending the anda and ask about the two saints: "This is St. Francis (in the front) and that is St. Dominic." 

               

St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic,
with the Virgin Mary

Parish priest
in Trinity's green robes

Tapete de asserín, sawdust carpet.
crosses the atrio to the church entrance.

Sanctuary
The church is obviously 20th century modern,
a replacement of  the original
but filled will flowers, as is traditional.

As has happened so many times with us in our ambles into an original pueblo of Mexico City, the light dawns on us. Of course, St. Francis was the founder of the Franciscans, the first religious order to come to Nueva España to evangelize, i.e., convert, the indigenous people into Spanish Catholics. St. Dominic was the founder of the Dominicans in the early 13th century. His order was the second to arrive in the New World. So the Holy Founders are the founders of the first two orders to come to save souls in Nueva España, the initiators of that massive socio-cultural transformation now called the Spiritual Conquest. We are here today to witness yet another still living manifestation of that process.

St. Dominic's feast day is August 8; hence this fiesta in mid-August in this, his Colonia Pedegral Santo Domingo. (Pedregal is the name of the stony area in southwestern Coyoacán, consisting of volcanic rock that resulted from the eruption of the volcano Xitle about 100 CE. which buried the nearby first city in the Valley, Cuicuilco.)

Los Indios

Just outside the atrio are a group of women and girls dressed in long red skirts edged with rows of wooden tubes, a form of ceremonial dress we haven't seen before in our adventures. Inveterate questioner that we are, we ask one young woman about her attire. She shyly directs us to speak to a middle-aged woman wearing the attire and a grey shirt, instead of a white one which all the others wear.

Los Indios Danzantes
In addition to the wooden tubes on their skirts that sound as they dance,
they carry rattles and miniature bows and arrows.
The leader is front and center.

The lady politely tells us they are "Los Indios Danzantes¨, the Indian Dancers. Knowing that such groups participating in processions often come from other pueblos, I ask where they are from. "We are of Santo Domingo", she says with that quiet but firm Mexican pride. I ask about the traje tradicional, the traditional dress, as it is new to me. She tells me that it originates from the state of Zacatecas, far to the north of Mexico City. She then excuses herself to begin the dance. Los Indios (yes, the masculine form of the noun) have the major responsibility of leading the procession. 

As I watch them begin their obviously well practiced moves, I recall having learned from seeing many other traditional indigenous dances at such fiestas, that they arrived in a more Europeanized Mexico City from las provincias, the provinces, i.e. the outlying, more traditional states, only after the Mexican Revolution, which opened up of the issue of Mexican identity rooted in the complex of indigenous civilizations now known as Mesoamerican. So here is yet another such dance, apparently brought to the city from Zacatecas, another indigenous element in the mixture that is Mexican Catholic ritual.

The Procession 

The priest blesses all the participants with holy water (including this observer and our camera) and the procession starts off, led by Los Indios, with the tempo set by a drummer. There is no usual brass banda.

Drummer sets the tempo for the dancers and the procession.
His rhythms vary and at times are complex.

The men of the parish cofradia, brotherhood, lift and carry the anda forward.
The empty space below the circular canopy is reserved for 
the Lord of Compassion.

"Family that prays is united."
(Carnival rides for the fiesta's evening fun can be seen to the rear.)

Two representations of the Christ in his Passion, follow:

"The (crucifed) Lord of Chalma"
Chalma is a shrine several miles west of Mexico City, in the State of Mexico,
to which peregrinaciones, walking pilgrimages, are made.
Pueblos from Coyoacán participate in them.

To the rear is the Lord of the Column,
Jesus, tied to a post, where he was beaten before being crucified.

The red shirts worn by the bearers of the Lord of Chalma
indicate, on the back, that they have participated in this year's pilgrimage to the shrine,
thus earning the right to bear his image in this prosession.

At one street corner in the colonia,
another saint, el Niño Jesús,
the Child Jesus,
joins the procession.

This young man,
who is supervising
el Niño, tells us, with pride,
that his group is from
a town in the state of Puebla,
miles to the east.

The network of indigenous pueblos
spreads far and wide.

As the procession winds through the callejas, narrow streets of the colonia,
Los Indios keep up their disciplined dance.

When they stop, while the bearers of the heavy andas are resting,
they shoot their miniature (cross) bows and arrows.

The words on the bow say,
"Long live Santo Domingo"
We are sure this refers not just to the eternal saint,
but also to his pueblo, this community of the faithful.

If you have any doubts about
the strength of tradition and belief,
this leader's face should end them.

       

 

Bearers of the anda of St. Francis and St. Dominic
show their pride during a rest stop.

Some of el pueblo, the people, attending the procession.

More signs of pride in indigenous tradition

As we follow the procession winding through the colonia's steets, at one point, we happen to look away from the march to the buildings around us. There, painted on walls are murals of ancient images.

We think this is either
the Nahua "Old" god,
or the god of fire.

The harvesting of maiz, corn, the basis of indigenous and contemporary Mexican life.

The modern version of grinding corn
to produce masa, corn dough, to then press into tortillas.
Maiceria is a corn grinding mill.

"Without corn there is no country!
(This is a basic Mexican declaration.)

It is our sacred food
gift of the Mother Earth,
root of our culture;
We are men and women of corn!

...it arrives at the mill,
green white, red and various colors.

From early in the morning until the nightime,
the torillería (tortilla-making shop) of Migueil "The Paleface"
supplies the population of Santo Domingo.
Fernando Díaz Enciso

Catty-cornered across the street from the torillería stands the likely source of the murals:
The Center of Arts and Trades, Union of the Residents of Santo Domingo.

The man portrayed to the right, holding a rifle, is Emiliano Zapata, who led the Mexican Revolution
in the state of Morelos, just south of Mexico City, seeking return of land from Spanish hacienda owners to his indigenous people.  

The Center of Arts and Trades, Union of the Residents of Santo Domingo.
The red banner, adds: "The Little School of Emiliano Zapata"

The mural on the interior wall intrigues us, as it represents a continuation of the
post-revolutionary Mural Movement, which we explored in depth earlier in our Ambles.
Apparently, vestiges of the Revolution and the Mural Movement still live here in
Santo Domingo. We will have to return someday to explore it further.

Meeting the Lord of Compassion

After about an hour and a half of walking through the streets of Santo Domingo, with many stops for the anda bearers and the dancers to rest, we finally come out onto a wide avenue filled with a crowd of people, a long tapete de asserín running some distance up the middle and the usual temporary puestos, stalls, selling food that come with a fiesta. This is where the pueblo of Santo Domingo will meet the adjoining pueblo of Ajusco, who will deliver the Lord of Compassion into their caring hands.

Calle Mixquic, part of the boundary between Colonias Santo Domingo and Ajusco.
Ready and waiting the Lord's arrival.

Tapete de asserín
The Lord of Compassion awaits under the canopy
at the far end. 

The people of Ajusco protectively await the transfer of el Señor.

El Señor is brought forward.
Ajusco's patron saint, The Lord of the Miracles,
another crucified Christ, stands to the rear left.

He is carefully set in His place of honor, beneath the circular canopy,
on the Santo Domingo anda.

The Lord of Compassion,
together with St. Francis.

The Saints begin their return to the Church of the Holy Founders in Santo Domingo.

The anda from Ajusco,
now without the Lord of Compassion,
follows behind.

The procession from the Colonia of Ajusco is led by a brass banda.

And a comparsa, dance troupe of concheros,
Aztec-style dancers we have seen at other fiestas.

Concheros del Señor del Chalma

It's All About el Pueblo, the Community of People Sharing and Passing on Their Traditions

Rostros, faces of el pueblo.

Delegaciones of Mexico City
Coyoacan is dark purple area in the middle.

Colonias, Pueblos and Barrios of Coyoacán

Colonia Pedregal Santo Domingo (green star)
is just southwest of Pueblo Tres Santos Reyes (dark green area), home of the Lord of Compassion;
Colonia Ajusco is light reddish area to southeast of Santo Domingo.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
is just west of Santo Domingo.

Colonia Parque San Andrés (upper right) is Mexico City Ambles' homebase.

Original Villages | Venustiano Carranza: Santa Magdalena Mixhuca

Islands in a Lake

We learned in our earlier exploration of the original barrios of the island city of Tenochtitlan, that the Mexicas actually built their island capital in Lake Texcoco by cobbling together five islands (yellow areas on the map below), by inserting wood pilings into the lake bed and filling them with soil (light orange). Around this more or less solid land, they extended chinampas (dark orange), similarly filled pilings used to create small man-made islands for agricultural land to supply the city. The city itself and the chinampas were crisscrossed by canals. 

The most southern island incorporated into the city was that of Tultengo, at the southern end of the quarter of Tenochtitlan known as Teopan-Zoquipan. It was totally surrounded by chinampas. We visited Tultengo's urban remains earlier this year. To the southeast of Tultengo, but not connected to the city, lay another island, Mixiuhcan. It is now the core of Pueblo Magdalena Mixhuca, in Delegacion (Borough) Venustiano Carranza, named after the first president after the Mexican Revolution. Except for Mixiuhcan and some other islands, the delegación was originally all lake bed. We have been eager to explore Magdalena Mixhuca for some time.

Características edíficas y ecológicas presentes en la isla de Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco.

Soil and ecological characteristics of the Island of Tenochtitlan-Tlatlolco
(based on data from Calnek 1972, 1976; González Aparicio 1980,
Reyes García et al. [eds.] 1996, Filsinger 2005, Sánchez Vázquez et al. 2007)
from:
SAN PABLO TEOPAN: PERVIVENCIA Y METAMORFOSIS VIRREINAL 
DE UNA PARCIALIDAD INDÍGENA DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO
by ROSSEND ROVIRA MORGADO
San Pablo Teopan: Survival and Metamorphosis
of an Indigenous Quarter of Mexico City
During the Viceroy Period
by Rossend Rovira Morgado

Pueblo Santa María Magdalena Mixhuca

A few months ago, we went on an Amble to some of the city's larger indoor markets located near the former La Viga Canal which, for centuries after Lake Texcoco was drained by the Spanish, was the main supply route from the chinampas of Lake Xochimilco to the south into the central city. While in the area, we realized that we were near Pueblo Magdalena Mixuca. So we walked a couple of blocks from the Mercado de Peces (the market for aquarium fish) to the Church of Santa María Magdalena Mixhuca. As it was a Saturday, the neighborhood was quiet.

A small, pleasant plaza, with a kiosk, stands in front of the church, 
whose bell tower can be seen at the rear, center.
The plaza and church are typical components of the center of an original pueblo.

Church of Santa María Magdalena Mixhuca
An enclosed atrio, atrium, stands in front of the church.

A plaque to one side of the front door speaks of the age of the church.
"The Pueblo of Lloalatzinco Anepantla Mixhuca of the Aztecs
on the 15th of September, 1528,
dedicate their chapel to Santa María Magdalena."

Original Location of Mixihucan

The Valley of Anahuac and its lakes,
at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in 1519.

In Lake Texcoco, southeast of Tenochtitlan,
was a group of islands (blue star).
Mixihucan was one of them.

The church is under the patronage of Santa María Magdalena, one of Jesus' few named original female followers. Our ambles have taught us that the best way to experience a pueblo at its liveliest is to return on the patron saint day—in this case, at the end of July.

So on July 22nd, we returned. We recalled the entrance to the pueblo, a block north of el Mercado de Peces, to be a typically nondescript calleja, side street, leading into a working class neighborhood. This time we were surprised to catch sight of a permanent archway at the entrance to the calleja just west of the one we had entered the first time.

Celebrating Indigenous Roots

A young man stands at the top of a scaffold, left, painting ancient symbols onto the arch.
The sign on the righthand column says the arch was erected in 2012 to commemorate the pueblo's ancient history. The street is filled with carnival rides.

The young artist is creating the Nahua symbol of Ollin,
(Oh-YEEN),
the eternal, cyclical energy of the universe

Another Ollin is on one side of a pillar of the arch.

Tlaloc,
God of All Waters

Mictlantecuhtli 
God of the Underworld
with his xoloitzcuintle,
the hairless dog that leads
the dead to the underworld

The watery world that once was Mixhuca
is portrayed on yet another side of the archway.

Although the painting of the archway is obviously a work very much in progress, it is a strong statement of the pueblo's continuing awareness of and pride in its indigenous roots.

After taking our photos, we pass under the arch and make our way up the street, filled with the carnival rides and food booths typical of a fiesta.

Making tortillas, a millennial-old activity.

As we reach the plaza, we realized that a comparsa, a troop of Aztec or conchero dancers (from the lute-like stringed instruments they play, originally made from armadillo shells) has just finished its dance and is leaving. But we manage to capture the rostros, countenances, of some of them as they walk from the plaza in formal procession.

The woman, top row, second from left, holds an incense burner filled with copal,
a resin burned for religious ceremonies since indigenous times.
The man below her wears the helmet of a jaguar warrior.

We are always struck by the participation of men and women of all ages in these comparsas.

Indigenous Gods Stand in Front of Christian Saints

Moving through the small, crowded plaza toward the church atrio, we are stopped in our tracks by another representation of Mixhuca's indigenous heritage. Over the atrio entrance, instead of the usual floral portada arch, is a truly stunning work of indigenous art and ancient symbology created solely with beans and seeds. The arch is a striking echo of the painting currently underway on the gateway at the entrance to the pueblo.

The mural, made entirely of beans and other seeds, is at least 15 feet wide and 6 feet tall.  

A Nahua god

Mictlantecuhtli, God of Death
holds center place.

Another Nahua god

We wish we could find someone who could explain the symbology of this mural, but the people in the plaza are busy selling and buying food, the temporary tianguis, street market, that is another ancient part of a Mexican fiesta, and seem oblivious to the masterpiece above their heads.

The Franciscans and other religious orders that came from Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries to transform an autochthonous "pagan" people and their culture into a Spanish Catholic European one employed a strategy of establishing parallels between Christian rituals and symbols and indigenous ones. The resulting combination or syncretism of belief systems has come to be called the Spiritual Conquest.

This "conquest", and the conflict of cultures which it attempted to resolve, is quite literally apparent in the juxtaposition of the indigenous mural, centered on the God of Death, and the traditional floral portada, archway, around the church doorway, about 75 feet behind it, across the church atrio. This second portada celebrates the pueblo's patron Catholic saint, Mary Magdalene, one of the first to witness the Christ who had risen from the grip of death. This stark juxtaposition of Death and Life remains central to Mexican culture.

Beyond the mural, the entrance to the church is visible,
with a more traditional floral portada.
The church is built of tezontle, red volcanic rock
typical of the Valley of Mexico.

Ancient Rites Transformed into Catholic Christianity

"Saint Mary Magdalene, bless us."

     

A wedding is about to begin.

          

The sanctuary is decorated for the fiesta,
including the traditional abundance of flowers.

       

St. Mary Magdalene
For her patron saint day, 
she is removed from her usual niche
behind the altar
and specially dressed.

A simpler portada stands above the altar.

"You are the bread of eternal life."
"Thanks for your protection and shelter,
St. Mary Magdalene."

The wedding is immediately followed by a first communion,
the initiation into the faith.
(Who could not be delighted by these pubescent boys?)

Another Meeting of Indigenous Beliefs and Spanish Catholicism

So here, in Pueblo Santa María Magdalena Mixhuca, on what was once an island in Lake Texcoco and is now a working class neighborhood of a contemporary metropolis, we once again encounter the present-day manifestation of the Spiritual Conquest, that synthesis of ancient, indigenous beliefs and symbols with Spanish Catholicism.

We are always amazed and humbled by how this five-hundred-year-old dynamic continues to be maintained and, even more, celebrated with great animo, spirit and orgullo, pride, in over a hundred originally indigenous pueblos and barrios that are now often virtually hidden but still alive within the City called Mexico.

Delegación Venustiano Carranza
is the lime green area
in northeast of the City,
just east of Delegación Cuauhtémoc,
site of Centro /Tenochtitlan.

Delegación Venustiano Carranza
with its Pueblos and Colonias

Pueblo Santa Magdalena Mixhuca is lower left (green/yellow star)

The Mexico City International Airport takes up most of the eastern portion of the delegaciön.

Mixhuacan 
(here labled Mixlucan)
is immediately southeast of Tenochtitlan.

Map from magazine Arqueología Mexicana