The new fire, part 2

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February 1, 2023, Late entry

It’s been a whirlwind here and I’ve fallen behind. But being awake at 3 am is a kind of gift too.

I awoke late, at 7:30, due to some exhaustion an excitement-fueled restless sleep. But there was still time to get up and walk down to the Plaza Grande in Patzcuaro, get my morning cafe latte from Loretta’s cafe and get a little walk before taking in the the excellent prepared breakfast at the hotel. Balam, orignally from Chiapas, prepared chile rellenos in a nice tomato sauce after the usual fresh fruit and yoghurt. I skipped the sweet bread. Almost everything is too sweet here.

This would be my last day in Pátzcuaro, so I decided to get some shopping done in the morning before heading back out to the New Years festivities, which would really not get going again until around noon. I learned from Don Mario, the village elder, which stores were operated by his family and had the deepest connections to the local indigenous people. So I went to those two stores and quickly found beautiful clothing and jewelry at very reasonable prices. Done.

With that completed, I walked down to the plaza chica where I found a combi going down to informal bus stop by the lake. There I picked up a direct combi to Erongaricuaro. It’s about 25 minutes by little local VW bus ( the combi) to the town. I had to get off before the town as the whole place is blocked down for the festival, and walk in a few blocks. While on the combi, I sat across from a university student who was traveling with his ball game stick, which is like a makeshift hockey stick made from some random piece from a tree cut from a place where the branch turns at an 80 degree angle in the shape of a hockey stick. He had asked for a day off from his biology studies to compete in the day long tournament of teams from every little town and school. He had a friend there who had recently completed the Camino de Santiago and wanted me to meet him, so later we connected and chatted.

I walked over to the play fields in the church yard. I imagine the church officials were not enthusiastic about every square inch of the church yard being divided up into informal play fields, both on cement and open dusty fields, now completely turned to dust and dirt.

The young men play on this stretch of sidewalk. No fancy ball fields here. Anywhere can be adapted, like alley ball in my youth.
The young women aren’t playing second fiddle to the men. Their play is aggressive and the traditional clothing doesn’t slow them down. The sticks were not bought at a big box store.

I headed back up to the main square to see what was going on. A variety of musical presentations were going on , but at 12:30 they all stopped and the vendors where shooed off the court for the sacred proceedings of the new fire. Photographers were banned from photographing the most sacred moments which were to occur onout of adobe bricks. I could not take photos but will add some audio from the event.

The invocation from the mud brick pyramid

Before and after the lighting of the fire, thousands of people had arrived, each dressed in the typical native dress.

This town emphasizes the color blue, a narrow multicolor rebozo and flowers embroidered on the huipil
Another variant, this time with gold, black and red rebozo, and carrying a conch shell

Musicians waited for their turn to play in orchestral pieces, all of the music being indigenous

A saxophonist
A collection of town representatives, I suppose beauty queens, posed.
Men also have their distinctive dress…. But with some accomodation to the cell phone
Food can figure in the costume, such as this beautiful girl.
The elder, Don Mario
Another musician
Boys have put down their instruments to get a bite to eat
“Los veijitos” or old men are a type of dance mean to mimic the Spanish conquistadors. In this case some men dress up as women in an odd form of cross-dressing. I was told it was because, everyone knows that men are better dancers. I’m not convinced, but sometimes takes a while to scratch below the layers.

I took a break to get some food as the sun was hot and I wanted to wait for the big procession to start

Very regal dress in these men
This girl dressed in a coyote skin, carrying a sign with the name of her village
A beauty queen, crowned with the kind of local laque red decorative bowl made in her village

This village’s residents decorate their hair with a crown of a local plant.

Well that was just a taste, But I needed to find the combi and get back to Patzcuaro, to be able to say good by to the retired couple, Bernard and Eileen who introduced me to all this. It was an amazing week, but time to get ready to depart.