Getting Out of Town - La Guelaguetza

Mondays on the Hill

It brings together the indigenous cultures from all the regions of Oaxaca to proudly display their unique traditions through music and dance, song and ceremony.

A Zapotec word signifying gift or mutual offering, Guelaguetza was the term used to describe the Oaxacan ceremony and celebration held each year to appease the gods in return for sufficient rain and a bountiful harvest.

This offering of life's gifts took place midway through the rainy season, when it was essential that the rains continue moderately and without excess to bring forth the best crops. The feast of Xilonen, goddess of tender corn, falls in this period on what in the modern calendar is July 16 and is the signal to begin the two weeks of celebration.

When the Spanish arrived in Oaxaca in 1521 they converted the indigenous people and imposed the Catholic religion. One of their tactics was to "convert" to Catholic ways the deeply rooted customs honoring pagan beliefs. For example, razing temples and building churches on the ruins, conserving the holiness of the place but identifying it with the new religion. In the case of the Guelaguetza, the idea was to change it to a celebration of the feast on July 16 of the Virgin of Carmel and that is why the Guelaguetza begins with the traditional calenda parades from the church of Carmen Alto.

The festival endured through Colonial and pre-Revolutionary times. Then in 1932, as part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city of Oaxaca, groups from all the regions of the state paid homage to their capital with a great festival of dance, music and presentation of their particular traditions.

It was held on the hill overlooking the city now known as the Cerro del Fortín, Hill of the Fort, the location of Aztec garrisons in the 15th century. In 1974 a special auditorium was built to accommodate the performances. Tickets sell out fast, but there are a multitude of other activities that take place in the city, many of which are free.

One of these events is the contest to elect the Diosa Centeotl (Corn Goddess) from among the different regional delegations to the Guelaguetza.

There are fairs and expos, concerts, theater and dance in different parts of the city especially in Jardin el Pañuelito, on the Andador Turistico (Macedoneo Alcalá ), at the Zocalo, in the atrium of the Santo Domingo church and the Plaza de la Danza, where at 8:30 p.m. the Sunday evenings before the Lunes del Cerro there is the Bani-Stui-Gulal which is a recreation of the history of the Guelaguetza from prehispanic times to the present.

The city is always an interesting mix of cultures, but during Lunes del Cerro the city is positively vibrating with sights, sounds, smells and excitement. The city center is crammed with arts and crafts, food stalls and parades of fabulously bedecked participants seem to take place constantly.

Both Monday nights feature the presentation of the Legend of Princess Donaji pageant at 8:30 p.m. in the Guelaguetza auditorium. This is the telling of the founding myth of the city of Oaxaca. Donají was a Zapotec princess who was held as a hostage by the Mixtecs to ensure peace and cooperation between the two rival nations.

Like Verdi's Aida, this heroine suffered a tragic destiny: she chose to risk death and forever lose her lover, the Mixtec prince Nucano, rather than betray her people.

Donají secretly aided a Zapotec attack that failed to free her. In reprisal, she was beheaded; her lover Nucano buried her. According to legend, death did not deprive Donají of her beauty, which endures to this day as she rests, beside Nucano, in the temple of Culiapan de Guerrero.

Today the image of the severed head of Donají is the official symbol of the city of Oaxaca.

For a taste of Lunes del Cerro closer to Puerto, visit Villa Tutútepec which stages its own celebration on the sacred "Hill of Birds". Tutútepec is famous for its Fandango de Varitas, which features five or six musicians playing guitar, violin, cajón (a wooden box), charrasca and a cántaro (a kind of bass made from a clay pot).