EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



21; 



and see the tears flowing copiously from the 

 red eyes of Natividad. The din is ahnost ear 

 splitting. Altogether it is a remarkable psycho- 

 logical manifestation, and many of the women 

 undoubtedly feel real grief. Parenthetically one 

 may say that it is an interesting example of how 

 the individual can experience the emotions that 

 his culture expects him to under circumstances 

 which will have no effect whatsoever on a mem- 

 ber of another culture. Tlien everybody files out 

 of church, and later the Santo Entierro is placed 

 in its glass case, ready for the night's vigil. At 

 midnight there is a silent candlelight proces- 

 sion around the atrium. 



Los Penitentes. — One of the most remarkable 

 demonstrations of Holy Week is that of the pe- 

 nitentes. During the course of the year an in- 

 dividual, always a man, may find himself or a 

 member of his family gravely ill or in great 

 danger. He promises Christ to do penance on 

 the night of Good Friday if only he will be 

 saved from the danger or illness which threatens 

 him. Penance takes two forms; the penitent, 

 naked except for a white loin cloth and a white 

 hood with eye-holes, may either carry a heavy 

 wooden cross on his bare shoulder, or may wear 

 grillos — an iron bar with rings for hobbling 

 the ankles. In both cases the individual is aided 

 by two cirineos, symbolic of Simon of Gyrene 

 who at the fifth station aided Ghrist with his 

 cross, who go along, one on each side. The 

 penitents first visit the church, next make the 

 rounds of the atrium, stopping at some of the 

 little stone shrines, and then follow a stated path 

 through the streets of the town, stopping in front 

 of each of the several crosses. If the penitent 

 is wearing the hobble, he may be seen hopping 

 through the church door, his cirineos supporting 

 him by the elbow to make each jump longer. In 

 front of each shrine or cross he bows, advances 

 and retreats, and lashes his bare chest with a 

 small whip. Then the cirineos help him on to 

 the next post, and so on through the rounds of 

 the town. A penitent with cross is more spec- 

 tacular. The large wooden cross trails on the 

 ground behind him, echoing as it bounces on 

 stones as he rushes at full speed from station to 

 station. If a penitent falls during his journey, 

 he must return to the church and start anew. 



There is a certain amount of fear at the sight 

 of the penitents, and few people go out of their 



way to see them. This stems from the belief 

 that a person who fails to comply with his pro- 

 mise or who, if the promise is for a definite 

 number of years, dies before expiration of the 

 time, must come back after death and make the 

 rounds. These ghosts appear exactly like any 

 other penitent, hence one is not sure when one 

 is looking at a ghost or a living man. "Has a 

 dead person ever come back to fulfill his vows, 

 Garmen?" I asked. "Thanks to the goodness 

 of God, we have never had to experience this 

 in Tzintzuntzan." But there is always a first 

 time for everything, and so in general it is con- 

 sidered to be very bad to look at penitents. 



On a dark night the clanking of the hobble 

 and the rattling of the heavy cross are enough 

 to fill any superstitious person with terroh Nev- 

 ertheless, a purely objective analysis suggests 

 that the custom of the penitents has degenerated 

 to an empty shell of its former significance. In- 

 formants' statements led us to believe that we 

 would see shoulders cut to the bone and ankles 

 so gashed that the penitents would have to keep 

 to their beds for several weeks. Gareful obser- 

 vation revealed only one person showing blood, 

 and, who knows, for in the dark of the night, 

 cock's blood and human blood look very much 

 the same. 



There are a number of devices by which the 

 flagellation may be minimized. In the case of 

 the hobble, two strong cirineos can carry most 

 of the weight of the man throughout the journey. 

 A certain amount of bruising is inevitable but, 

 though some penitents may limp the next day, 

 few are forced to take to their beds. In the case 

 of the cross, likewise, the cirineos can support a 

 great deal of the weight. And in the dark side 

 streets the cross can be removed from the shoul- 

 ders of the penitent, to be replaced only when 

 there is the possibility of being seen. The lash- 

 ing with the whip is scarcely even symbolic. It 

 might serve to shoo flies, but hardly would cut a 

 man's chest to ribbons. Those who suffer the 

 most are first-time penitents who have not as yet 

 learned the trick of manipulating properly the 

 cross or hobble. In subsequent years, the jour- 

 ney may be a nuisance, but it is hardly a thing 

 to be feared. Gertainly the penitential rites of 

 Tzintzuntzan can in no way be compared to those 

 of some of the cults of southwestern United 

 States. 



