Cuernavaca,
April 15, 2006, 10:50 pm
Hello from Taxco and Cuernavaca - An Interview
with a Penitente and My Final Day in Mexico
Yesterday I had spent my day in Taxco
for the famous happenings of Semana Santa. I watched two religious
processions: at noon time there was the Las Tres Caídas
procession and at 5 pm I watched El Santo Entierro (The
Holy Burial).
These processions in Taxco are famous
for the penitentes - repenting sinners - who walk through
town in black robes with their heads covered with black hoods. The
mostly female animas are shackled with chains at the feet,
carrying candles and have to walk in a bent over position for a
good portion of the procession which lasts for hours. Men either
carry heavy bundles of thorny blackberry bush stalks (encrucijados)
or they carry heavy crosses and flagellate themselves until their
entire back is bloody (flagelantes). Last night there was
one more procession at midnight, but I simply didn't have the emotional
stamina to get up in the middle of the night to watch what was going
to be a rather eerie performance involving pain and suffering.
Statues of the 3 types of penitentes in Taxco
This morning I got up and sat a bit on my hotel's balcony and just
enjoyed the beautiful view of Taxco, this old mining city that is
patched up against the hillside. I enjoyed my breakfast buffet in
the restaurant at the Posada
de la Mision, looking right at Taxco's panorama, and started
strolling into town.
The town was alive again. Yesterday, on Good Friday, the town had
this really somber atmosphere, all the stores were closed, there
was no music, traffic was shut down, hardly anybody spoke. Today,
the town was back to normal. Stores were open for business, people
were out in full force, children were laughing and the VW Kombi
busses and beetle taxis were back to transporting locals to and
from their errands. The city was alive again.....
After downloading my photos at a local Internet café I strolled
through the markets to pick up a couple of presents for my two local
friends - Marta Elena and Roxana who had been so kind to me during
the last couple of weeks and we had developed a real closeness.
Street scene on the Zócalo in Taxco
Taxco is a great place for shopping. Being a silver city it is
of course most well known for its handcrafted silver jewellery that
can be bought in what seems like hundreds of retail stores or street
market stalls. But jewellery is always a question of personal taste,
so instead I decided to pick up two beautiful very large painted
ceramic plates with a design of the Aztec calendar which I thought
would be a beautiful addition in a living room or even on an outside
wall in one of Cuernavaca's beautiful tropical gardens.
With my shopping spree completed, I headed back to the Posada
and met Fabiola again who had shown me around town last week when
I first visited Taxco. She asked me how I enjoyed the processions
and I told her that I found them extremely interesting but rather
eerie. She commented that for a local person from Taxco these processions
are just a normal part of their lives, they grow up with them and
the locals are not affected by them emotionally as I was yesterday.
She said that she knows someone who actually participates in the
procession every year and she was wondering if I would want to interview
this person to get a better understanding of this unique Tasqueñan
ritual. Of course I said yes, so she made a phone call and said
I would be able to meet this person at the hotel at about 1 pm.
I was really excited about her suggestion, because this would allow
me to find out more about this unusual tradition.
Traffic chaos in Taxco
With a couple more hours to spare I went into downtown Taxco again
and took one of the VW Kombi buses up to the top of the mountain
to enjoy the wonderful panoramic vista over this beautiful city
one last time. I hadn't counted on traffic though, which was really
bad, especially since Saturday is market day. The city was just
hustling and bustling with merchants, shoppers and general onlookers.
What had taken me 15 minutes in a VW Kombi bus last week took me
45 minutes today with the enormous traffic jam that had unfolded
all throughout the city of Taxco. I got back to the Posada 15 minutes
late and my interview partner, "Lauro Castillo" was already
waiting for me. He told me that this was not his real name, and
that the participants in the processions, which are all part of
Roman-Catholic "hermandades" (brotherhoods) do
not use their real names since they have to preserve anonymity.
So Lauro started educating me about the ritual of the penitentes
in Taxco. He mentioned that you can enter one of the hermandades
at age 18, and reaching full membership takes a multitude of steps.
Of course you have to be Roman-Catholic, pay an initiation fee and
perform various community duties and fulfill particular educational
obligations, including bible study. You must also agree to adhere
to a certain honourable code of conduct.
Two little angels are watching the procession
Lauro went on to explain the different types of penitentes
that appear during Taxco's Semana Santa processions. He mentioned
that animas can be male or female, while encrucijados
and flagelantes are exclusively male. Lauro has participated
in the processions over the last 20 years and has covered all 3
versions of penitentes. He said that when he participated
for the first time as an encrucijado, when his helpers
lowered the heavy roll of thorny blackberry stalks on his back and
it touched his skin, a sharp pain radiated throughout his entire
body, but his body actually became numb to the pain after a while.
The thorn bundle itself weighs between 50 and 70 kg, so it is indeed
extremely heavy.
As our conversation continued, Lauro also told me about his first
time participating as a flagelante. He said that the first
time he participated, flagellating himself every time the procession
stopped, he felt nothing, no pain whatsoever. He figures it was
the adrenaline and nervousness that prevented him from feeling any
painful sensations. Every year since then, however, he says that
every strike of the nail-studded whip actually hurts.
I asked him what people do after they participate as flagellants,
and he said they clean the wounds very carefully and sleep on their
stomach for several days. He also explained that the animas,
the men and women who walk the procession in shackles, have to walk
bent over most of the way. When they finally stand up straight again,
the spine actually makes cracking sounds since it has gotten used
to that bent-over position. Afterwards the animas have
to get massages to placate their back muscles to get back to normal
again.
The self-flagellation had just started...
He explained that not all the participants of the procession actually
finish it, they may actually disappear in one of the churches along
the route and be replaced by another penitent who continues to carry
the thorn bundle or the heavy cross. And since everybody is wearing
hoods and there are hundreds of participants, the audience never
actually knows that a participant has been replaced.
Lauro continued that there are about 12 brotherhoods in Taxco and
that there are several hundred members. According to him, membership
in these hermandades and participation in the processions
is actually growing. During Easter Week there are numerous processions,
some as short as one hour, and some lasting up to five or six hours.
Participating as a penitent in Taxco's Easter processions is considered
a great honour, and he said people from all walks of life participate,
from peasants to senior city officials. But the key is that everyone
remains anonymous.
When I asked him what motivated people to participate in these
somewhat masochistic traditions he explained that when you grow
up in Taxco, it is just part of your surroundings and you are exposed
to these processions every year since you are a child. He said that
some people participate because they might have a sick family member
and they consider their role as penitent an offering to god. Others
might have committed acts that they regret and they are literally
trying to repent for their bad deeds. Lauro also explained that
the traditions of pain, physical suffering and religious offerings
pre-date the Spanish era all the way back to the ancient Indian
tribes of Mexico who also practiced human sacrifices.
The Santo Entierro procession is just about to leave
In his case he explained that he was always impressed with the
strong men who carry the thorn bundles or the heavy crosses. And
their psychological ability to handle pain was another factor that
made them almost seem like super-heros, and that's why he decided
to join one of the brotherhoods himself and become a penitent. Even
last night Lauro participated in the Santo Entierro (Holy
Burial) procession as an encrucijado, carrying the heavy
bundle of thorns, and today he was back to work and you would never
even know. He said you can participate in up to 2 Easter week processions
every year, and this year he has also participated in two different
ones. With around 20 years of experience as a member of one of the
brotherhoods, Lauro has participated actively in about 40 different
processions and he is now a very respected senior member of his
hermandad.
I felt very privileged to actually be able to talk to one of the
participants in these processions. These Semana Santa rituals in
Taxco are a very mysterious and time-honoured
tradition and the religous brotherhoods are almost like secret societies,
so I considered myself very lucky to have had a chance to find out
more from one of the actual participants in these unique rituals.
Well, my time in Taxco had come to an end, as was the case with
my time in Mexico in general. I was waiting for my bus back to Cuernavaca
which ended up being delayed by 45 minutes because of the heavy
traffic in the city. I arrived about 40 minutes late in the Cuernavaca
bus station and I already saw Marta Elena's jeep in the parking
lot. She had come to pick me up which was such a nice gesture.
Having to say goodbye to beautiful Taxco
We spent a couple of hours in the garden of her
lovely B&B and we caught up on everything that has been
going on. She was very interested in hearing about my experiences
in Taxco and I think she appreciated the ceramic plate with the
Aztec calendar that I had brought for her.
Marta Elena had invited me to spend my last night at her beautiful
house and I said that it would be my pleasure to invite her out
for a nice dinner and it would be her pick. So Marta Elena chose
one of the well-known restaurants in Cuernavaca, called "La
Gaia", just minutes from the Palacio de Cortés.
"La Gaia" is an upscale restaurant that is located in
an antique villa with an interior courtyard that is centered around
a pool. The architecture features rounded arches, stuccoed walls
and columns and the restaurant is decorated with beautiful paintings
by local artists. The atmosphere was wonderful.
Both Marta Elena and I chose the ravioli with portobello mushrooms
as the main course which ended up being delicious. I also had a
house salad with Roquefort, pears and walnuts to start and we capped
our dinner off with a dessert sampler which included a variety of
tasty treats.
Our dessert sampler at La Gaia
After our noble dinner we strolled across the street to the mercado
de artesanía (the Cuernavaca craft market) and had one
last look at the local Mexican crafts and I purchased a few more
small ceramic souvenirs for my friends back home. I was just slightly
sentimental at the thought that my wonderful time in Cuernavaca
and Mexico in general had come to an end. On the other hand I had
already started to look forward to my life back in Toronto.
Well, it's time to head to bed, I'll be up tomorrow morning at
4:30 am, bright and early to catch my Pullman de Morelos bus back
to Mexico city for my flight home. Marta Elena, being the ever gracious
hostess that she is, offered to drive me to the bus terminal early
in the morning and two new friends will have to say goodbye. (But
we promised to reunite when Marta Elena
travels up to Toronto in September to visit her son. Then I will
have a chance to show her through my city...).
It's been a wonderful, eventful and action-packed 18 days and it'll
take me quite a while to process it all.....
Useful Books:
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Hello from Mexico City - First impressions
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Hello from Taxco during Semana Santa - The
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Hello from Taxco - An eerie experience: Visiting
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Hello from Taxco and Cuernavaca - Interviewing
one of the penitentes and enjoying my last day in Mexico
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Helpful links:
Mexico
Tourism Information
State
of Morelos Tourism Organization
Official
website of the City of Cuernavaca tourism
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