San Antonio Tlayacpan, Jalisco, Mexico
The town we live in here on Lake Chapala is called San Antonio
Tlayacapan. As we’ve likely said before, many of the towns around here have a
compound name – a Spanish / Catholic saint, and a indigenous Nahuatl name
associated with the town. Tlayacapan means, more or less, “the limits of the
earth” – a lot more interesting than Saint Anthony. There is another Tlayacapan
in Morelos state (we are in Jalisco) that is known among other things for being
the filming location of Two Mules for
Sister Sara. Our town is more known for the Walmart here.
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| Our hometown Walmart |
San Antonio’s saint day is June 13, and like all such days in
Mexico, there is a novena (9 days of events) leading up to the main event.
It was pretty low key here, marked mostly by the ubiquitous cohetes launched every morning around 6
am.
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| Yay, cohetes! |
We decided to take in the events on the final day, and are very glad we
did. Along with the cohetes, there
was a parade that started about 6 pm. Local lore says that the rainy season starts
with an initial shower on the evening of the saint’s day – this time, the
shower came earlier in the afternoon, but not bad timing!
The parade started at the east edge of town, and came down the
main highway (2 lanes) in town – aka the Carreterra. This road is the main
artery between Chapala and Ajijic, and is usually quite busy. But this was a desfile (parade), dang it, and the cars
could just wait! And wait they did.
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| With baby Aztec Jesus |
The parade started with a marching band from
Chapala, followed close upon by indigenously-clad dancers. One of the men, in
breechclout, gourd-based “bells” on his calves, and headdress with long
pheasant feathers danced down the street, carrying – a Baby Jesus with a
feather headdress! It was awesome.
Behind the dancers were several pickups with re-enacted scenes
from the life of Saint Anthony. One included Nicodemus, which we have not really connected yet to the saint. We have confirmed, however, that he had no
connection to Nicoderm, so that helps a little!
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| Portable Mass |
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| Rides |
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| What are you looking at? |
The parade ended in the town square (where else?), which was
clogged with people. There was a big stage for musical acts, a dance stage
below it, and the traveling carnival rides that run the saint fiesta circuit.
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| One of the dance acts |
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| Food tents closed the street |
We bought some 7 peso tacos and 25 peso beers and sat and watched people (and heard lots of drums) for a
while.
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| Beautiful holiday bread |
Eventually we toured the rest of the plaza, and got a cantarita for our US friend ("I ain’t no
saint") Anthony Russo, the only St Anthony souvenir we could find. Not so bad
though, it came full of tequila! (Sorry, Tony, it has been emptied.)
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| The Blue Door (but green inside) Bar |
We visited a couple of new bars with one of our bartenders, Calvin
(aka The Calvinator -- we explained later who Lord Kelvin was, and thus his name
association with Sears refrigerators), and Dennis (aka Pato since he always
wears a California Ducks Unlimited hat), and (Fountains of) Wayne from Canada.
Stacey’s mom was not there, however.
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| Building the castillo (Note the A's jersey!) |
The evening ended on the plaza in front of the church, with cohetes and then a very beautiful castillo fireworks tower.
(13 de junio de 2018)
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