This Month in Puerto

Easter is observed by the churches of the West on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or following the spring equinox (March 2I). It is based on the Hebrew lunar calendar, that's why Easter is a movable feast. which can occur as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.

Easter also has roots in pagan festivals, traditions that continue in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored Easter eggs, painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of Spring.

My point is that the Rites of Spring should serve to bring us together, united by our common humanity. But in the troubling times we live, our beliefs, our credos and dogma tend to further divide us; to breed hate, not foster love.

So, Happy Holidays and a Joyous Spring, regardless of the symbols you choose to express it. Can't we all just get along? And, what's so funny about peace, love and understanding?
-- Warren Sharpe, editor

Friday 17 - Monday 20
Fiesta of Saint Joseph
Countless towns and neighborhoods are named for San José, the great biblical patriarch, Joseph, husband of Mary and father of Jesus. His feast day is normally celebrated on March 19, which is also Day of the Carpenter (for obvious reasons). but this year that date falls on a Sunday during Lent, so the official day of veneration is Monday the 20th. Many of these communities will celebrate their annual fair to honor their patron saint this week. Traditional saint's fiestas include calendas, lively processions through the streets with brass bands, huge papier-mache puppets and candle-lit globes inviting participation in the festivities. There are fireworks displays and jaripeos (bull riding rodeo competitions), dances with live bands and sports events, including often cockfights and horse races. There are also carnival rides and a midway, food stalls and huge bazaars with itinerant vendors offering all kinds of household goods.

The closest San José to Puerto is San José Manialtepec, about 10 minutes beyond the recreation areas around Manialtepec Lagoon. Here you can rent horses and take a leisurely ride to the Hot Springs of Atotonilco. San José del Progreso about an hour's drive further west on the Coast Highway is close to the vast lagoon complex of Chacahua National Park. San José del Pacífico is a three-hour drive into the cloud forests of the high Sierra. Stunning vistas, romantic fire-warmed cabins, but dress warmly!

Saturday 18
Anniversary of the Nationalization of the Oil Industry
The great populist president Lázaro Cárdenas signed the proclamation declaring Mexican ownership of this important national resource on Mar. 18. 1938, after the foreign oil companies refused to accept arbitration to end a long and bitter strike by oil workers. The anniversary is celebrated with civic events and rightfully extolled as a critical milestone in Mexican economic history.

Monday 20
First Day of Spring
It begins officially at 12:26 p.m.

Tuesday 21
Birthday of Benito Juárez
Among its many illustrious sons, Oaxaca produced two dominant figures in Mexican history. One is Porfirio Diaz, the president who didn't know when to quit and whose excesses gave birth to the Mexican Revolution. The other is Benito Juárez, the Zapotec Indian who rose from humble origins to become the most revered leader in Mexican history and, indeed, all of Latin America.

Benito Pablo Juárez García was born on March 21, 1806 in the village of San Pablo Guelatao, Ixtlán, Oaxaca. Orphaned at age four, he learned to speak Spanish and to read and write at the age of 12, when he was sent by his impoverished relatives to Oaxaca and taken into a seminary for an education.

He went on to study law and at age 28 began his career in public office as a councilman in the town. He later served as state deputy, a civil and finance judge, secretary of state, governor and, seven times, president of Mexico.

During his long political life he suffered jail terms and exile. He led the resistance to the French invasion under the Emperor Maximilian and guided the country through a time of vicious internal struggles to establish La Reforma, the series of reforms that limited the powerhold of the church, foreign business interests and the old ruling class.

Most of all, Juárez is remembered for his honesty, unimpeachable integrity and humanity. His quote Respect for the rights of others brings peace (El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz) is the motto on the seal of the state of Oaxaca.

A national holiday, banks and government offices are closed. A civic ceremony to honor the great man will be held at 8 a.m. at the Juarez monument on the highway. Also in the evening, some of the local preschools traditionally hold Spring parades.

Friday 24
Friday of the Good Samaritan
Part of the lent observances, this day marks the kindness of the Good Samaritan woman who gave Jesus water during his 40-day ordeal in the desert. It is customary for people to set up decorated stands to offer flavored waters to neighbors and passersby.

Fourth Friday of Lent
San Andres Huaxpala celebrates the Day of Jesus the Nazarene with a bustling, colorful fiesta which transforms this Mixtec town, midway between Jamiltepec and Pinotepa Nacional, into a huge country fair and bazaar. This long-established fair and market brings together not only the local Mixtec Indians from the coast, but also Chatinos, Amuzgos and Mazatecas, each group sharing their space beneath the abundant shade of the ceiba trees, where they cook, sleep and socialize.

Monday 20 - Sunday 26
Annual Fair
San Gabriel Mixtepec
The official feast day for Saint Gabriel the Apostle is actually in September. But, because this is often the wettest month of the year, and nobody wants it to rain on their parade, this town's big fiesta in early Spring.

San Gabriel Mixtepec is an attractive coffee-growing community, perched in the foothills amid rich vegetation and abundant wildlife. Its riverbanks and waterfalls are popular picnic sites. San Gabriel is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Puerto, it's where you would leave Highway 137 for Santos Reyes Nopala (see El Sol de la Costa, Jan-Feb, 2006). The fiesta will include the full complement of activities, both sacred and profane. Here's a partial program of events:

Monday 20
Dance Contest 6 p.m.
Tuesday 21
Social-Cultural Program 6 p.m.
Wednesday 22
Convite parade 2 p.m.
Song Contest 4 p.m.
Calenda parade 9.30 p.m.
Thursday 23
Guelaguetza traditional dances of the region 7 p.m.
Castillo Fireworks display 9 p.m.
Friday 24
Procession bearing patron Saint Gabriel through the streets of town 8 a.m.
Dance with Internacional Mar Azul and Super Ciclón
Saturday 25
All-star Jaripeo bull-riding rodeo, music by Los Gabys, los Márquez and Caliente 4 p.m.
Dance with Los Conde, Alvaro Monterrubio and Sonido Azteca. 7.30 p.m.
Sunday 26
All-star Jaripeo 4 p.m.

Monday 27 - Sunday 9
Red Cross Fund Drive
They say that nobody's too rich to have need of them, nor too poor to be able to contribute something. The annual national collection for the Red Cross kicks off locally with an inaugural event at 10 a.m., at either City Hall or the Red Cross facilities on 7th north street. There'll be volunteers soliciting contributions all over town, including on the beaches. Help out the local Red Cross delegation and keep those aging ambulances on the road.

Sunday April 2
Homage to Alvaro Carrillo
Oaxaca's best known composer of popular music, Alvaro Carrillo, was both the Lennon and McCartney of his generation. A brilliant poet and melody writer, his 300 or so songs include some of the great classics of Mexican popular music

His best known composition was the international hit Sabor a Mi, "A Taste of Me". He also wrote numerous chilenas, the upbeat music that reflects the cultural soul of the coast, his native Costa Chica. But it is his romantic boleros, ballads and songs of love that capture the depth of human emotion: Each sweet encounter, every bitter farewell, the tears and sorrows of lost love and and abandonment. He was the embodiment of cool in his day; the quintessential Bohemian

Alvaro Carrillo Alarcón was born in Cacahuatepec, Oaxaca, on Dec. 2, 1921 and died tragically young in April 3, 1963 in a car wreck, just as his star was on the rise.

Every year on the anniversary of his untimely death, Pinotepa Nacional, a city he did so much to immortalize with his Pinotepa, perhaps the best-known chilena of them all, pays tribute to this native son and his musical heritage.

A host of musicians, trios and bands, including his son Mario and the excellent Trio Costa Chica, will interpret his music in this annual festival which begins at 6 p.m., Municipal Square, Pinotepa Nacional.

Sunday April 9
Palm Sunday
No shortage of palms here for the faithful who mark Jesus' triumphant return to Jerusalem with processions and religious observances, officially ending the 40 days of Lent. In the Mixtec market town of Santiago Jamiltepec (profiled in last month's El Sol de la Costa and other recent issues), this is a major feast day with an elaborate parade and activities.

Monday 10
Anniversary of the Death of Emiliano Zapata
Lured into a treacherous ambush by Col. Jesús M. Guajardo in Chinameca, Morelos on April 10, 1919, the hero of the Mexican Revolution died with ten of his followers.

Time has not diminished the appeal of Zapata, nor the power of his political message. Flags are flown at half mast on public buildings.

Monday 10 - Thur 13
1,649th Anniversary of the Founding of Villa Tutútepec
At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Oaxacan coastal region had long been under the control of a Mixtec dynasty based in Tutútepec. The town was founded by Mixtec invaders in 357 A.C.

The county (municipio) of Tutútepec includes the thriving commercial town of Rio Grande and the Chacahua Lagoon wetlands area. The town boasts a fine modern museum to house the relics of this ancient zone. The great stone carvings that were on the grounds of the town church - - once the site of the Mixtec Temple of Heaven - - plus tools, weapons and ceramics that span the centuries can be seen here.

Tutútepec is also famous for its Fandango de Varitas, a kind of chilena music played by a group five or six musicians on guitar, violin, cajón (wooden box), charrasca or guacharasca, donkey's jaw and the cántaro, (a bass made from a clay pot).

The anniversary celebration this month will offer lots of opportunities to see the Fandango. You will also be able to sample some of the local culinary specialties such as chicken mole, encaladas, suspiros and bolitas, which are sweet turnovers.

Local crafts and artwork will also be on sale, including elaborately embroidered blouses, bead work and figures carved from coconuts.

The road to Villa Tutútepec is just beyond the town of Santa Rosa de Lima at about Km 66 of the Coastal Highway towards Acapulco.

Thursday 13 - Sun 16
Easter Week
Although it officially starts on Palm Sunday, it generally refers to the Thursday-through-Sunday Easter holiday weekend, the busiest tourist period of the entire year. This is when thousands and thousands flee the chaos of the cities for Spring vacation, and in the process bring some of that same urban chaos to us.

There will be lots of impassioned religious observances taking place during the holiest week of the Christian calendar, along with plenty of worldly diversions to occupy the hordes, who will descend on Puerto Escondido -- and every other resort in Mexico.

It's not the best time to be traveling, since accommodation is almost impossible to find. bus and air tickets are sold out and stores and restaurants are packed.

So stay put and try to enjoy it.
For more on Holy Week and the Rites of Spring, keep reading.

Read This Month's Feature Articles:
Taste of Oaxaca
Rites of Spring-Faith, Ritual & Pageantry
Rites of Spring-Spring Break