Mexico Fiestas: How They Work & What They Mean

Let me tell you about this week after Semana Santa.  Tuesday afternoon we began to hear cohetes (rockets or huge firecrackers) being set off in Ihuatzio.  I was interested to hear the discussion among our albañiles (a family team of workmen) on our roof cleaning and rearranging tejas (red roof tiles) in preparation for the rainy season, which arrives in May.

Following a brief discussion of whether the cohetes came from Janitzio (major island in Lake Pátzcuaro) or Ihuatzio (pueblo straight across the now-dry Lake bed from us), Daniel (father) pronounced definitively that the origin was Ihuatzio, and the cohetes were announcing the beginning of Ihuatzio's annual fiesta honoring their patron saint, San Isidro.

The pueblo's full name follows the custom of the frailes (members of the Catholic Monastic Orders that sent missionaries to Nueva España) to use both the Purhépecha and a Saint's name.  So the pueblo's full name is Ihuatzio de San Isidro.

But this is a three-day fiesta, and last night was the pueblo's baile tradicional (traditional dance). I can attest to the fact that they were going strong at 2:00 AM, when I wakened briefly to enjoy the sounds of Mexican music before putting in earplugs so I could get the rest of my beauty sleep.

Mexican Fiesta Band

The story of fiestas is an excellent example of how cultural understanding builds over time. For me, the first stage was simply enjoying, even savoring, the full sensual impact of Mexican fiesta traditions.

Señoritas in Traditional Dress Bearing Bottles of Tequila
for Champions at the Jaripeo (Bull-Riding Rodeo)

All five senses are involved—sights (families, bright colors), sounds (happy chatter, music and dance, games, cohetes), touch, taste and smells aroused by mouth-watering, soul-satisfying traditional foods—corundas, atole (corn-based beverage seasoned with various fruits), tortillas a mano (handmade tortillas), tacos of all kinds, and much more.

Young men stirring huge pots of Atole

Stage Two began when I first learned how fiestas are arranged. A Mexican friend told me that one person in the pueblo accepts the cargo (charge) for the year's fiestas, which includes not only arranging, but paying expenses associated with the fiesta as well:  bands; religious services; food and drink for assistants; adornments for the Saint's image (frequently a statue); cohetes (rockets) and Castillos (towers of fireworks)!

Castillos, Fireworks Towers, are a standard element of fiestas

My initial reaction was disbelief ("But how can that be?"), followed quickly by mild censure as I learned that sometimes a family will send a son to the U.S. to earn the money to pay for the fiesta. What?—asked this incredulous extranjera (foreigner), still trying hard to understand.

My Mexican friend further explained that it has been known to happen that upon receiving money from the government, a pueblo's Elders have chosen to pay for their fiesta rather than make infrastructure improvements to the pueblo. The mild censure of this civil engineer's daughter yielded to outright disbelief:  "How can this possibly be?  How can the Elders choose to 'waste' these funds on a fiesta?"  

Over time, that is, in an ongoing Stage Three, I am coming to learn, and far more than merely learn about, but to appreciate deeply the wisdom of, this culturally-based reasoning. As my understanding increases, so does my respect.

As it turns out, a pueblo's fiestas are much more than an annual 'party'. In these communal societies, continuity of family and community is top priority. In this context, fiestas are essential social rituals for reinforcing familial and communal identity essential for preserving millenia-old cultural traditions rooted in Mesoamerican culture.

Community members living afuera (outside the pueblo, either in other regions of Mexico or in the U.S.) make annual visits—one might say pilgrimages—to attend their pueblo's fiesta. At this time and in this way, communal identity is affirmed in a traditional reaffirmation of: Who I belong to, and Who belongs to me.

Sign reads: "Employees of Tzintzuntzan 2009"
"Lord of the Rescue"
"Commission of the People and Migrant Brothers (25-year tradition)"

These traditions are built on ancient Mesoamerican customs of mutual responsibility and mutual obligation described by Gustavo Estefa and Guillermo Bonfil Battalla (México Profundo), among others.

A person's invitation to accept the cargo for the pueblo's fiestas is, in fact, one of the highest honors the pueblo can bestow. It singles out the carguero as a person who not only knows what must be done to maintain the ancient cultural tradition, but how to do it.  The role of carguero brings prestige and honor to himself and to his entire extended family.

From an early age, children begin to assume responsibilities in the larger community; that is, they begin to act in ways that acknowledge and honor their obligation to the community. As they mature, responsibilities become increasingly significant until, as adults, they may choose to participate in the sistema de cargos (hierarchy of public tasks).

It is by their service to the community over many years—even decades—that the individual develops a variety of specialized capacities for maintaining the community and assumes increasing responsibility and authority for community governance.

A majority of roles (cargos) are annual. In some situations, acceptance of a charge is voluntary; in other situations, a cargo is imposed either by designation or by election. In either situation, the social pressure to accept is intense. 

The sistema de cargos formalizes the authority of the community in three inextricably linked spheres: civil, religious and moral.  A person who successfully performs all the "laddered" tasks is admitted to the community's circle of "principles" or Elders, in whom the ultimate authority of the community resides.

This closed circle of Elders is charged with maintaining the group's cultural—that is, indigenous—heritage with its Mesoamerican roots. Participation in the sistema de cargos implies a fundamental orientation of one's life toward service to the community. For that reason, it is one of the basic norms underlying identification with and membership in the community's circle of Elders.

Council of Elders for Pueblo on shores of Lake Pátzcuaro

There is a visible congruence among seemingly diverse cultural aspects of these indigenous communities:

• Orientation of production toward self-sufficiency is congruent with a society that recognizes prestige (rather than, for example, material success); these core values—self-sufficiency and prestige—tend to equalize material gain and discourage accumulation of wealth. 
• Neighborly and familial connections based on networks of reciprocal relationships (mutual obligation—similar to the farming communities that settled the Midwest and West) are the same as those required for the acquisition of authority by means of prestige described above.  
• Communal property and restrictions placed on the acquisition of private property are congruent with roles,  relationships and values described above.

In sum, the community profile describes a society in which full realization of the individual is achieved by means of service to the community, which in turn, gives back prestige and authority to the individual who undertakes to participate in the sistema de cargos.

For this extranjera, raised in a culture that values individualism, individual effort and material success, the placement of family and community, including an ancient cultural heritage, at the center of one's effort and care involves a growing acceptance of a radically different way of thinking about all the possible ways we might consider living together on our Planet Earth.

Jenny's Update: 2014 

If you're up to having basic assumptions challenged, I strongly recommend Naomi Klein's recently published (2014) "This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. the Climate"; reviewed in New York Times by Rob Nixon, "Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’." (The review is exceptionally useful for understanding the thrust of Klein's argument.)

The first generous third of this highly researched and vetted work reviews climate science. I plowed my way through the science, which Naomi presents in the most accessible way possible. Becoming increasingly pessimistic, I was completely unprepared when Naomi Klein sprang a surprise on this trusting reader. A Canadian, she introduced a discussion of Canada's First Nations as best positioned to take on and stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Even more, she discusses the worldview underlying their way of life.

* * * * * Most Highly Recommended.