CHERAN : A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — BEALS 



131 



saint's image. At each stop the priest prayed 

 and there Avas an alms collection. A band 

 plaj-ed intermittently nearby, and while the 

 procession moved it was accompanied by two 

 chirimias and a drum. The dancers formed 

 part of the procession, wearing heavy elaborate 

 crowns. 



On August 10, part of the fiesta was observed 

 at San Lorenzo. There were four moros, the 

 last one to enter the large atrium of the church 

 being preceded by two chirimia players and a 

 drum. After entering the atrium, the band 

 played, and the horse of one moro, a beautiful 

 animal, danced to the music. Groups of men 

 carried cuelgas to the church. These were long 

 ropes wrapped about with plants and hung with 

 fruits and bread. Accompanying the cucUjas 

 were women with cornstalks and elaborate 

 paper decorations. At the church a minor 

 crisis developed when one of the two priests, a 

 young man, tried to prevent some of the men 

 from entering because they were obviously very 

 drunk. "God does not wish it, the Saint does 

 not wish it, and I do not wish it," he exclaimed, 

 quite unconscious apparently of the implica- 

 tions of the order of his statement. The 

 groups barred from the church waited patiently 

 outside until the Mass began and then went 

 quietly in. 



After Mass, the images of the patron saint, 

 San Lorenzo, the Virgin, and Christ were 

 brought from the church, decorated elaborately 

 with the cuelgas and the cornstalks and paper 

 ornaments. The moro dancers dismounted and 

 paid their respects to the saints one at a time. 

 Then they danced in pairs before the images, 

 mostly walking back and forth in complex 

 figures between the images and the big stone 

 cross and clashing their spurs. Women threw 

 handfuls of small candies over the dancers as 

 they passed, and they shortly were wading 

 thigh deep in small children scrambling for the 

 candies. 



The fiesta at Ahuiran, in September, was 

 visited by many Cheran residents. Quantities 

 of at >Ie de cam, atole made with the juice 

 from the stalks of green corn, is served. The 

 principal item in the market is pottery, and it 

 is believed in Cheran that pottery purchased in 

 the market at Ahuiran does not break easily. 

 It should be noted that Ahuiran does not make 



pottery and the goods on sale are made at the 

 same pottery-making villages that supply the 

 other markets. 



The fiesta at Cheranastico for the Assump- 

 tion of the Virgin is considered a large and 

 important one. Services are held in the church 

 at Cheran on this day, and the date is also 

 observed as a fast day by many Mestizos, in 

 Uruapan, for example. 



At Capacuaro the patron saint is San Mateo. 

 Small jars of atole are offered for sale and are 

 purchased, together with the containers, as 

 offerings to the saint. At Capacuaro it is said 

 that copal smoke is the food of God and that 

 when He eats He smells the smoke. For this 

 reason, it is said, the priests wave the censers 

 Vv'hen copal is burning. 



The only town visited where no fiestas or 

 ■moyordomias are celebrated is Urupichio. All 

 the fiestas in this town had formerly been given 

 by cargueros or mayordonws. People took 

 their duties so seriously that many sold their 

 lands in order to give the mayordoniias prop- 

 erly. As a result, a few wealthy people came 

 to own all the land. When the revolution came, 

 the town became a supporter of Zapata and 

 later an agrarian town. After the revolution 

 the lands were seized and divided up and the 

 mayordomias and fiestas were abolished. The 

 church, which was burned down during the 

 revolution along with the rest of the village, has 

 never been rebuilt. Instead of a religious 

 fiesta. Independence Day, September 16, is 

 celebrated with bands and a castillo. The 

 town is planning to have its own band. What 

 the effects of this will be cannot be determined, 

 but if the band is hired out to play at fiestas in 

 other towns it may serve as the entering wedge 

 for reviving the fiestas. 



Data on the fiestas of a Mestizo town, 

 Chilchota, are given in Appendix 2. They 

 afford interesting comparative material. 



MAYORDOMIA ORGANIZATION AND THE 

 CULT OF THE SAINTS 



Approximately 13 saints exist in Cheran 

 which belong to groups only indirectly or not 

 at all connected with the church. Each of 

 these saints is in charge of an individual known 

 as a cargucro or viayordomo during a year or 

 more and is associated with special procedures 



