Zincantan y San Juan Chamula

En la vida hay experiencias buenas, malas y regulares. De vez en cuando uno tiene una experiencia extraordinaria, an experience so special and unique it´s almost surreal.

Tuvimos una experiencia asi. En Zincantan y San Juan Chamula hoy es el festival de San Sebastian. Fuimos con un pequeño grupo en un combi con nuestra guia, Maria, a visitar estos lugares. Otra vez, fuimos los unicos gringos. Los otros eran suizos e italianos. Hablaban tres o cuatro idiomas, putting us to shame. I must get back to my French.

Llegamos a la feria, llena de miles de personas casi todas vestidas en rebozos y ponchos de los mismos colores, bordados a mano, mujeres, niños, bebe´s, aun los hombres. A sea of deep purples and blues, the colors of prosperity for this year our guide told us. This was a fertility celebration and there were dancers dressed to represent the jaguar, symbol of the Universe, the bird with an elote en la boca to represent la cosecha, the harvest, el mono to represent the animals and finally a man covered from head to foot in Spanish moss (musgo), the moss I grew up with that hung from trees in Florida, to represent plant life.

This celebration goes on for days. The men drink a type of alcoholic beverage like mescal and sometimes eat halucinogenic mushrooms. Yes, I thought some of them looked quite stoned.

The church in Zincantan fue otra experiencia surrealista, llena de flores recien cortadas y como mil o mas velas. Velas en el suelo, el suelo tapado con hojas de pino, velas en el altar y en todas partes. La iglesia en si´ fue mitad catolica y mitad maya. Las estatuas de los santos tenian listones de todos colores colgados de sus cabezas y arriba habia enormes cortinas de muchos colores de tipo seda estiradas del techo hasta la parte arriba de las paredes. Habia un olor fuerte a incienso porque quemaban mucho. Mucha gente estaba de rodillas, rezando, sobre todo las mujeres con sus niños. Senti´el calor de las velas y una energia de paz. Just being there was soothing. At one point I turned around and saw maybe thirty men streaming into the church carrying large bouquets of white flowers with white candles unlit, which they offered at the altar. It was so beautiful and moving and I said to Teo, "This is very Pagan too, isn´t it?" But then again, the Mayans were and are so connected to the earth. They understand the elements, earth, air, fire and water.

Entonces, fuimos a San Juan Chamula y entramos en la iglesia todavia mas grande con mas velas, mas gente y mas mezclada. Alla´ tocaban musica con cuatro harpas, unas guitarras very crudely made with large pegs, two accordians and a drum. Paramos alli´un buen rato, just taking it all in and feeling the hypnotic sound of the music playing the same tune over and over, una y otra vez, while kneeling women prayed in Tzotzil and a curandera did a ritual cleansing on a young woman. An interesting thing happened to me while I was watching this. For a moment I could feel the candles being passed over my head and I felt cleansed. I wanted to go with the curandera.

One of the musicians, uno de los musicos nos pregunto´ de donde veniamos. Le dijimos que los EE UU y le parecio´bien que estuvieramos alla´observando esta ceremonia. Estaba bien tomado el señor, pero buena gente y tranquilo. Se estrecho´la mano de Teo y de mi tambien y en ese momento ya se iban y le toco´salir con los otros musicos.

I think these experiences take some time to sink in and only just now, several hours later, I´m beginning to feel the power of this day.

And then I saw the moon, mi Luna, a tiny sliver like the tip of my fingernail and below her, the first star of the evening.

The mountains surround this city like a hug. I pass this hug on to all those who read this, and send you kisses from the moon.

Soy Lorena
1/20/07