“It’s a whole different world here isn’t it?” That was the comment made to me by a total stranger in excellent English as I sat down on the other end of the bench in the town plaza of San Diego de Alejandria.
It was Sunday morning, following the last big night of the annual festival in honor of the Virgin Mary. We had just left that same plaza about 2am, heading home but the party had still been going strong. The party had still been going strong but the vendors were all starting to pack up and a couple of fights had broken out and a few people were crying. It was time.
This was my third year to experience the 10 day festival. Each day more and more people arrive in town to either attend or to work the event. Every night sees a new carnival ride, new games to play and new food vendors. Then towards the end of the week the market on the back street of town starts to set up where you can buy household and kitchen goods, clothing, boots and shoes, toys, jewelry, natural medicines, CD’s and DVD’s.
People come from the countryside and neighboring towns. You see many of them arriving on packed buses with standing room only. It is also a time of year when people who have left return to visit with family and friends. So much activity happens during those 10 days that when it is all over both you and the town feel like a balloon that has suddenly deflated.
This year the festival began on New Years Eve but it seems to me that New Years Eve is a rather quiet time here in town, even with the start of the festival. I really enjoy my Mexican New Years Eve; it is always a fairly low key event. We head to mass at 10 o’clock and then back to the house to light a fire, eat and have a few drinks. This year we arrived at church for 10 o’clock mass to find the adoration being performed with mass eventually starting at 11 and being over around 12:15. Hopefully this makes up for my missing mass on Christmas.
The festival is of course sponsored by the church but wholly supported by the municipality with police and venues. Everyday there are 2 processions through town led by a Mariachi Band and followed by guys tossing giant homemade bottle rockets made with bamboo, rolled up newspaper and gun powder. The processions represent the various religion classes and the different groups that support the church. As I noted many people return to town for the festival and on the final Saturday there is the procession and mass for all those that have moved away and are back to visit. This is a very special, festive mass with the mariachi band leading the people into the church and marching up the aisle to play at the alter while everyone files in. It is also a huge event with standing room only during the 2 hour mass. Last year we ended up sitting on the steps of the alter and even though the mass can last over 2 hours you don’t notice the time because of all the emotion and sense of community going on.
This year I had the honor of portraying St. John the Baptist in the big procession on Saturday night. This procession includes floats portraying different aspects of Catholic life or stories from the Bible with the final float carrying the statue of the Virgin to the main doors of the church. At that point the priest gives a blessing for the town and the Virgin is returned to her place of honor in the church.
It really was an honor to participate and reinforced in me how much faith is a part of everyday life here, especially when the people would applaud as our float passed by. They tell me that people were also exclaiming as we passed “look it’s the gringo”. I guess if they didn’t know me before they know who I am now.
There was drag racing one afternoon out on the highway where it turns into four lanes. 2 lanes for racing, 2 lanes for regular highway traffic with parking and viewing on the shoulders. We did discuss entering the Bronco but never got around to it; maybe next year.
What really is my favorite part of the festival is the nightly fireworks display. Every night, starting between 10 and 11 on the plaza in front of the church, a fireworks tower is set up. The tower is metal and wood but holds different shapes and symbols made from bamboo. As the show progresses different parts of the tower will light up and spin until finally it reaches the top where the Virgin Crown is located. This truly is an ending to the show with the crown spinning faster and faster until it eventually lifts up into the sky towards heaven with the church bells tolling in celebration. Now in years past the crown always leaves the plaza and will drop back to the ground in another part of town. This year there were some technical difficulties and most nights the crown crashed back in the plaza. One night it glanced off the roof of the gazebo in the center and hit a girl in the back of her head not 5 feet from where we stood. The last night which always has the biggest show (lasting almost an hour) the crown was only able to lift up enough to clear the top of the tower and then fall straight down.
Public safety really is your own personal responsibility here in Mexico. You can stand so close to the fireworks display that sparks hit you. At the drag races spectators were standing between the “race course” and the “highway”, basically on the center line of a four lane highway. The vendors all set up with their power cords lying across walkways and “tapped” into the overhead power lines. Rides don’t necessarily have barricades around them I realized when I almost was hit by the engine of the kiddy train as it rounded a corner. The police are visible at all times but seem focused on crowd control, stopping fights mainly. One night we saw 7 State Police vehicles discharge their 8 man crews who proceeded to line up along one corner of the plaza. Being a rather quiet night early in the week they pretty much spent the evening talking or texting on their cell phones. Alcohol is everywhere and on that last big night we commented that not one person in all those thousands attending did not have an alcoholic beverage in their hand.
I mention all this only to express how things work differently here, because the atmosphere is safe and extremely fun. It’s an event where the kids are able to go off on their own and nothing is going to happen to them. If I were to have been burned by sparks from the fireworks it’s my own fault for standing so close, but that’s why I wear a hat.
So many things happen and there are so many characters………………..
The guy with a drink in each hand, pant legs tucked into his cowboy boots, wearing a towel under his ball cap, gold lame shirt under his jacket and singing to my friends sister every time he saw her. He tells us he knows 350 songs, to be exact.
Sitting on the sidewalk outside the house playing Jenga.
The priest with early onset Alzheimer’s who one night wouldn’t allow the church lights to be turned on or the bells to be rung.
You can hear at least 3 strolling mariachi bands playing at any given time.
The inebriated gentleman we watched cross the street in front of the house one morning around 11am – 2 steps forward, 3 steps sideways, 1 step back, and repeat. He eventually made it across the street, fell down on the sidewalk and started to argue with the people in his head.
The 2 rabbits, 2 turtles and 1 duck we ended up at the house with.
Like the guy sitting next to me said “It’s a whole different world here isn’t it?”
And I replied “Muy differente, muy differente”
