Chamula y Tuxtla

13 May 2005

I am still in wonderful cool, crisp San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico. This is Mayan country and the state used to be part of Guatemala, but somehow Mexico got it. it is a state rich in resources. It has jungle, pine forest, tropic plains, and water, water, water. This has to be the most valuable resource they have considering the majority of the country is suffering from shortages. All in all, Chiapas is a beautiful place and I have gotten to know a few parts of it well in the past couple of weeks.

The first place (outside of San Cristobal) that i got to know is a community called San Juan Chamula. This where I went on the horseback riding tour, but the place was so interesting and my guide so inept, that I went back with a guide who is an anthropologist/sociologist. San Juan Chamula is an amazing place where the Mayan spiritual traditions are very much alive. The women and the men still wear the traditional outfits...heavy wool skirts and tunics with embroidered blouses. The main attraction of San Juan Chamula is the church. Like every other populated area in Mexico the center of town is the catholic church, but unlike every other town, the catholic church in San Juan is anything but catholic.

There are three green crosses outside that are adorned with flower garlands. These crosses are the same crosses that the Spanish found when they came to conquer the people. I would be really interested to know what the Spanish thought when they saw these Mayans praying to a cross. According to my guide, they thought that the conversion process would be easy. All they had to do was put a Jesus on the cross and ya...however it wasn't that easy. The crosses mean something totally different in San Juan and other similar communities. The Mayan people pretended to accept Catholicism. It was kind of easy for them. The saints that the Spanish brought coincided with the deities they already had as did the cross. They pretended to be praying in the catholic way, but instead kept with their own traditions. They hid statues of their deities inside the statues of the saints and built the church. Today, the church does not hold mass and does not have a resident priest. A priest comes from San Cristobal like three times a year to do baptisms and that's it.

The inside of the church is always packed with people. The walls are lined with statues of saints and the floor is covered with candles and offerings...sodas, flowers, poche, eggs, incense, chickens. People kneel in front of the saints chanting their prayers, sometimes with a Mayan priest sometimes not. The church is a sacred place where the people come to do ceremonies...they ask for protection, health, love, fortune and they tolerate the streams of tourists that come in to watch. I wish I could have taken a picture, but it is forbidden inside the church. It was an amazing thing to see...everything on the outside looks so catholic, but everything else even down to the position of the saints in the church is so Mayan. It was awesome.

The other thing that San Juan Chamula has that no other town has is poche. Poche is Mayan whisky and is made from corn and caña, which is sugar cane I think. It is totally a bootleg, moonshine type of whiskey. Where as mezcal from Oaxaca has competing labels and such, poche is only sold in reused water bottles without labels. It tastes exactly like whiskey and I will definitely bring home a bottle or two for all you scotch/whiskey drinkers out there.

It rained yesterday in San Cristobal hard for about an hour. it's funny how amazing rain can be. Even here in San Cristobal where it is chilly and fresh, the rain comes and purifies the air. but, it's in the really hot, land-locked places of Mexico where the rain really is a god send; in places like Oaxaca, Palenque and Tuxtla.

We're now in the part of the story where this white girl tourist strayed from the tourist route and got to know Tuxtla...the hot, hot, hot capital of Chiapas. It's funny because San Cristobal is cold most of the year and Tuxtla is only an hour away, but it is hotter than hell.

So, I met a boy in San Cris, a really nice, cute, artisan boy who makes jewelry and sells it in the market. He asked me out one night and I said yes and now we are dating. His name is Kike (pronounced Kee-kay) and he is tall with long curly hair, dark skin, piercings and tattoos...just my style. He is from Tuxtla, originally, and is also a soccer fanatic. well, fanatic may be too strong of a word, but he loves the sport. After about a week of hanging out in San Cris he asked me if I wanted to go to Tuxtla with him to meet his mom, go to the annual fair and catch a real live professional futbol match. I said, "simon, ese."

Now, a little bit about Chiapas's futbol team, Los Jaguares. at the end of every season here in Mexico, the last place team falls back down to the minor league and a team rises to the professional level. Los Jaguares rose up to the professional level two years ago, so their fan base is very loyal, large and enthusiastic. Even though at the end of this season (the quarter finals are tonight) Los Jaguares finished 14th out of 18 teams, everyone is proud that they weren't last.

Going to the soccer game was a blast. We sat with Kike's banda in the section for all the cheerleaders. There were flags, streamers, drums and songs throughout the entire game. They sang songs that came with dances. They ran around in circles. They drank and of course shouted obscenities at the visiting team. It was awesome and Kike lent me his Jaguares jersey so that i was wearing orange because you can't got to a game without wearing orange. Los Jaguares ended up losing, but they were playing a team that is in the finals, so it's not that sad.

That night we went to the city fair and i got to see another totally Mexican event...the Lucha LIbre. I don't know how many of you are familiar with it, but it is the Mexican version of WWF, but the wrestlers wear elaborate outfits and masks. The match is officially over when one team de-masks their opponent. It is exactly like WWF, fake and ridiculous, but once again I was the ONLY white girl for meters and surrounded by Mexicans screaming obscenities. also very fun.

The most important part of the Tuxtla adventure was going to see Kike's house and meeting his family. He has two sisters, three nieces, two nephews and a mom. His dad died four years ago. It was interesting because whereas in Guatemala I got to see rural poverty (that wasn't that extreme), in Tuxtla I got to see urban poverty. Now, I have no idea what images are running through your heads when you read "urban poverty Mexico" because it isn't that bad. Kike's family is definitely not lacking for any of the basics. They have electricity, cable, cel phones, a steady supply of water, nice clothes, but they live in a semi-dangerous barrio, definitely don't have cars and don't think about traveling. I was welcomed with open arms even though they couldn't quite grasp the fact that I spoke Spanish. They kept asking Kike questions about me and he kept responding, "I don't know. Ask her. She speaks Spanish."

I think the family liked me because they kept asking me when Kike and I were going to get married. One afternoon his mom made me get drunk with her and some of her friends. During that time she introduced me to the lady who would preside over our wedding and another lady who would be the godmother to our children. Kike and I just laughed. I ate a ton of REAL Mexican food. Lots of shrimp, soups, chili, chicken liver (which I didn't eat) and I was almost served tripas which is cow intestine, but we left for San Cristobal before that blessed event. It was a really enriching experience. As Kike said, I got to see how the "normal" Mexicans live and they got to meet and get to know a real, bonafide gringa. It was fun.