Carnival is a Catholic festival traditionally celebrated before Lent, six weeks before Easter. In Mexico it combines masquerade, dancing, music and mucho mezcal and is usually a two-day event that goes long into the night.
Here in Teotitlan del Valle, the rug weaving village located about 15 miles outside of Oaxaca city in the Tlacolula valley, Carnival begins the Monday after Easter and continues for five days. The Teotitecos believe the time to let loose is after Easter Sunday. Each of the five districts in the pueblo will host a daily festival that begins around 3 p.m. Oaxaca time. If you come, look for the big red and blue striped fiesta tent that will cover the patio of the host home.
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We were told the festivities start in the municipal plaza at 5:00 p.m. Teotitlan time. This can be very confusing since Oaxaca city goes on daylight savings time but in Teotitlan time never changes. So, Oaxaca time is one hour later than Teotitlan time. I have found it is important to clarify an appointment hour by asking: Oaxaca time or Teotitlan time? Otherwise, you run the risk of being too early or too late. The ancient Zapotecs believed that whomever controlled time controlled the world. They adopted this from the Mayan concept of time. They were right!
My friend Merry Foss and I arrived in the plaza at 5:15 p.m. to find it empty. The benefit was that we got a prime seat at the top of the steep stairway that was once the foundation of the ancient Zapotec temple. We had a vantage point high above the plaza. Soon, the abuelas with their grandchildren arrived and filled in the seats around us. Merry had a conversation with the woman next to us who was wearing a traditional 20-year-old silk rebozo with an extraordinary hand-tied punta (fringe). The discussion focused on the merits of weaving and wearing rebozos in cotton, silk or art silk/rayon, and how well they drape. It was a good way to pass the time.
By 7:00 p.m. Teotitlan time, Carnival was in full-swing. Vendors selling bags of potato chips seasoned with salsa and fresh-squeezed lime juice made their way through the crowd. Ringing the plaza were street vendors whose carts were filled with cakes, cookies, churros, cream cones, nieves with fruit flavors like tuna and limon, corn cobs on a stick smeared with mayonnaise and sprinkled with chili, and aguas de sandia or horchata or lemonade.
Nearly the entire village was present represented by all the generations. The ceremonial aspects include honoring the village leaders who volunteer for one to three-years to keep the services operating. They sit in prominent reserved seats. The volunteer police force are present in new green manta cotton shirts and symbolic clubs. They are watchful that every one behaves themselves.
The band tonight was in fine form and the music was definitely perfect for toe-tapping from the bleachers.
Oaxaca Photography Workshops offer cultural immersion, too.
- Market Towns & Artisan Villages starts June 28
- Day of the Dead Expedition starts October 28
Carnival in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca: Continued
Carnival in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca is a five-day festival that begins on the Monday after Easter. Why is this? Carnival is celebrated around the world, and other places in Mexico and Oaxaca before Lent begins. I asked several local residents who said they did not know. It’s the way it has always been, they replied. Perhaps this timing of Teotitlan’s Carnival predates the Spanish conquest and goes back to an ancient pueblo springtime ritual. Does anyone out there know the answer?
Meanwhile, Day Two, hosted by the Mendoza Ruiz weaving family for their section, continued with the same fervor as the first day. The family invited me as a guest and to take photographs.
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Cooking teacher and chef extraordinaire Reyna Mendoza Ruiz prepared an incredible mole amarillo , traditional for Teotitlan del Valle fiestas, with the aid of an army of women. (I’m linking you to a recipe, but for the most authentic experience, come to Teotitlan for a cooking class with Reyna.) Her brother, weaver Erasto “Tito” Mendoza and owner of El Nahual gallery with his wife Alejandrina Rios, told me the meat was toro when I was served a bowl laden with the sauce covering a succulent meat, fresh potatoes, green beans and choyote squash.
The women had been up since 6:00 a.m. preparing for about 100 people who gathered for the 2:00 p.m. Teotitlan time midday meal. Alejandrina said the beef had been stewing in an olla since the early morning hours. Reyna offered me a spoon but I preferred the Zapotec way of dipping the fresh made tortilla into the spicy mole and tearing off a bit of the toro to eat together accompanied by fresh horchata.
As is tradition, the men are seated separately and served first. Then, a section of the table is cleared for the abuelos, mothers and children to sit together. Everyone drinks beer and mezcal as the band plays, the host family begins the bailando, the Zapotec line dance that is de rigueur at every function. Then, the masquers who danced in the plaza the night before (and all the next night) make their grand entrance.
Late in the afternoon, around 6:00 p.m. Teotitlan time, the group will exit the Mendoza Ruiz home and begin its procession to the plaza outside the municipal building in front of the rug market.
Again, the crowd will gather to watch the masquers make merry, eat nieves and cream-filled pastries, and sit mesmerized as sun sets. (Oaxaca time for the celebration is 7-10 p.m. through Friday.) Best estimates were a crowd of 500-700 people, so get there early to snag a front row seat!
We made our way there by various modes of transportation: by foot, by tuk-tuk, by car and by truck. I didn’t see anyone on the back of a donkey.
The merriment will continue through the night and into the morning, when the troupe returns to the Mendoza Ruiz family at 6:00 a.m. for another meal to fortify themselves for Day Three. As I write this, it is Day Three and I can hear the band in the distance. Today, the festival is in our section of town and another family will host the meal and merry-making. To be continued: food, beer, mezcal, dancing, music, processions, clean-up, and interconnected community.
P.S. I managed to take over 700 photos between 3:00 and 9:00 p.m. and culled them down to what I am showing you here using Lightroom, my new lifesaver! thanks to the Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop we just finished.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Oaxaca travel, Photography, Teotitlan del Valle, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
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