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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



assembled, the young men have to rebuild the 

 bull ring. Anyone not doing his part or pro- 

 viding his materials, as Romero put it, "rests 

 in jail." 



The bulls for the bull riding are sought by 

 the mayor or by a member of the aynntaviiento. 

 Different persons provide bulls for each of the 3 

 days they are ridden. On the Sunday the fiesta 

 begins, the mayor or one of the councilmen 

 takes a bottle of charanda to the house of the 

 person to be invited to provide bulls. If the 

 person accepts the bottle of charanda, he is 

 obligated to provide his bulls for riding (only 

 a few people in town have suitable bulls) . The 

 owner of the bulls then invites others to help him 

 bring in the bulls or, if they own bulls, to bring 

 theirs as well. If they accept, he gives them a 

 drink of charanda. The same routine is fol- 

 lowed for the bulls to be ridden the other 2 days. 



Sometimes bulls are brought from another 

 town. If the relations between the towns are 

 friendly, usually the bulls will be lent, if not, 

 it may be necessary to pay rent for the use of 

 the animals. The rent is paid from the muni- 

 cipal treasury, using some of the money col- 

 lected from vendors in the plaza. 



One other obligation exists which should be 

 noted. The one rancheria of Cheran, Cosiimo, 

 provides a chirhnia band each year (the 

 chirimia is an oboelike wind instrument). In 

 1940, the band was said to be from Carapan. 

 The men from the rancheria also act as police- 

 men during the fiesta. 



The sequence of events leading up to the 

 fiesta and the fiesta itself will now be de.scribed. 

 As already indicated, the first preparations 

 began with the naming of the commissioners 

 by the mayor on August 20. Obviously, the 

 actual notifications on this date were preceded 

 by discussion of suitable persons and the prepa- 

 ration of the letters. The commissioners then 

 sought their assistants, began estimating costs, 

 making up the lists of contributors, and col- 

 lecting money, at the same time making 

 arrangements with fireworks makers, musi- 

 cians, and candlemakers. The commissioners 

 for the moros began hunting for dancers. 

 Meanwhile, every Sunday, the young men 

 practiced bull riding on the tame bulls kept 

 near town. They also began to bring in logs 



during September. Each barrio piled its logs 

 somewhere in the barrio as they were accumu- 

 lated and took them to the bull ring only when 

 the number was complete.^'* 



On September 27 lengthy discussions took 

 place concerning the erection of a grandstand 

 for spectators. This is usually done, but there 

 appear to be no set arrangements. In the 

 discussion, it developed that one year the seats 

 had collapsed because the posts were not well 

 set and no cross bracing was employed. One 

 person was hurt; the only reason more were 

 not hurt was that the entire stand went over as 

 a unit instead of one end collapsing. It was 

 agreed that cross bracing should be used (but 

 it was not) . 



It was finally decided to persuade individuals 

 to take responsibility for putting up the seats. 

 There was some difficulty about this, as the 

 persons approached were suspicious that they 

 would be taxed so heavily that any profits from 

 admission charges would be wiped out. When 

 told that the municipio would not tax the con- 

 cession, the builders at first refused to believe 

 it and kept asking to be told in advance what 

 the tax would be. Moises Valencia, the town 

 "boss," finally had to persuade them. Intense 

 activity now started on the part of the builder 

 (one man finally undertook the task of erecting 

 all the stands) and his assistants, collecting 

 materials and hauling them to the bull ring 

 behind the church. Boards were borrowed 

 from some dealers in town for making the 

 actual seats, but logs had to be cut and hauled 

 for the framework. 



On September 28 carpenters began erecting 

 the first stand or booth on the plaza. Several 

 wooden booths were erected in the following 

 days, mostly for selling soft drinks or ice cream. 



On October 1 the transportable parts of the 

 Castillo or fireworks were brought in two lots. 

 Rockets were fired off upon their arrival. The 

 fireworks maker and an assistant set up shop 

 in part of the old chapel used by the tilemakers. 

 Later, when the pole for the big castillo or set 

 piece was brought in, part of the operations 



^^ About 3 weeks before the fiesta a great deal of activity began 

 in painting, plastering, and furbishing up houses, especially those 

 on the plaza and on nearby streets. This went on right up to the 

 time of the fiesta. The mayor took some part in suggesting im- 

 piovements, but most of tlie householders made them on their own 

 initiative. 



