CHERAN: A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — BEALS 



123 



was transferred to the arcade on the north side 

 of the plaza. 



On October 3 (Wednesday in 1940), men 

 brought their ox teams and plows into town, 

 and all agricultural work ceased until at least 

 Tuesday of the following week. On this day, 

 also, people began arriving in numbers for the 

 fiesta, including the first of the vendors. 



Three or four, indeed, had arrived the day 

 before, including three women with "a little 

 religion" — medals, rosaries, votive offerings, 

 pictures of saints, etc. — who had expected to 

 stay in the house of the priest, but after learn- 

 ing of the change of priests, had to seek lodging 

 in a private establishment. In addition to 

 these women, there were the following: A 

 street vendor, shouting "Milagros, milaciros de 

 plafa, muy barata," who offered votive offerings 

 of various parts of the human anatomy made 

 of what he claimed was silver; a seller of 

 Guanajuato pottery; a few .sellers of cloth; 

 another seller of religious articles ; and a num- 

 ber of hard-faced women preparing to open 

 food and drink establishments. These were all 

 placed together on a street a long block from 

 the plaza. Some or all of the women evidently 

 make a business of following fiestas, as I 

 recognized some of them from fiestas at other 

 towns. Their reputation in Cheran was very 

 bad. 



Some street cleaning began on this day. 

 Trash was burned in the streets and the streets 

 were swept. This is done voluntarily by the 

 owners of property on the streets. The munici- 

 pal authorities had the plaza swept and all sur- 

 plus dirt and rocks from recent construction ac- 

 tivities carried out of sight. The borders of the 

 plaza walks were whitewashed and the benches 

 painted a bright green. The benches were also 

 repaired and set more firmly. The paid police 

 did most of the work. 



October 4, Friday, was the actual Saint's day. 

 Rosary and Vespers were celebrated together 

 the evening before from 7 : 30 to 9 o'clock. The 

 big bell of the church was rung for about an 

 hour afterward. At midnight of the 3d the 

 Cheran band began to play and continued inter- 

 mittently through the night. The members 

 either were calling at the houses of persons 

 named Francisco, who had to feed all visitors, 

 or were hired by such persons to play a piece 



or two. The big bell also began to ring about 

 midnight and was rung intermittently all the 

 rest of the night. Early in the morning there 

 was a Low Mass and at 9 a. m. a High Mass. 

 These were performed by the priest as part of 

 his duties and were not the special Masses paid 

 for by the town. About noon a few members 

 of the Cheran band gathered in front of the 

 priest's house and played for a time, continuing 

 intermittently the rest of the afternoon. 



Much activity was under way in the plaza, 

 although the main market day would not be 

 until Sunday. Vendors of shoes, clothing, 

 cakes, candles, candy, apples, peanuts, chiles, 

 dried fish, and painted wooden bowls in Quiroga 

 style were added to those already present. A 

 gambling game was set up. The booths for 

 the liquor and food shops were mostly set up on 

 this day. Comments implied that the girls 

 running the booths were all prostitutes, but 

 all the booths were completely open. In any 

 case, the booths are the center for most of the 

 drunkards and most of the fights and disorder 

 associated with the fiesta. The castillo was 

 nearly complete (pi. 6, upper left). On this 

 day also, the church was cleaned up and decor- 

 ated. A few began working at the bull ring, 

 digging up old po.sts and clearing away weeds, 

 Avhile others transported new posts and logs 

 from the various barrios. 



All day Saturday vendors arrived. Most of 

 them merely located their space and unpacked 

 their animals, but did not unpack their goods 

 (pi. 5, upper left). A great many people 

 arrived, and the plaza and nearby streets were 

 crowded. A large carousel or merry-go-round 

 was set up in a patio behind the municipio, 

 while a smaller one was placed on one of the 

 side streets. 



In the evening, shortly before dusk, the com- 

 missioners and their assistants went to the 

 calvary, the chapel at the east edge of town, to 

 meet the bands coming from Nahuatzen and 

 Pichataro. The bands had not arrived by dark, 

 when one of the most violent thunderstorms 

 anyone could remember deluged the party. It 

 was said there were no ceremonies of greeting 

 ordinarily and that the commissioners merely 

 greeted their band and led it to one of the 

 houses for supper. Certainly, there were no 

 ceremonies that night. 



