QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MTIlSriCIPIO BRAND 



205 



day for the Pueblo Nuevo district of Quiroga 

 adjacent to the Cerro de la Cruz. 



Corpus Christi. — In many respects this is the 

 most interesting festival in Quiroga. The fiftieth 

 day or 7 weeks from Easter is Pentecost or Whit- 

 sunday, and a week later is Trinity Sunday. 

 On Trinity Sunday there is much shrilling of 

 chirimias, beating of drums, and setting off of 

 firecrackers. During the next 3 days prepara- 

 tions are made for Corpus Christi on the follow- 

 ing Thursday. The most apparent changes in 

 the landscape are the lines of colored paper stream- 

 ers hung over the main streets, and the arrange- 

 ments in the churchyard and the Plaza de los 

 Mdrtires. Three henequen ropes are stretched 

 between trees, and suspended on each rope is a 

 Catherine wheel or rueda grande. Each Catherine 

 wheel is an open framework of wooden rods, canes, 

 and cords, about 6 feet in diameter and 2 feet 

 wide, on each side of which are about 480 fire- 

 crackers or bombas, which are connected by a 

 continuous fuse. Each bomba consists of a section 

 of hollow cane about 4 inches long, explosive 

 filler, paper and henequen cord used to wrap and 

 tie it into its place on the wheel. When ignited 

 the Catherine wheels go off with the roar of a 

 machine gun and a dense pall of gray-black smoke 

 soon hides the rotating wheels from view. The 

 wheels are made in Quiroga, and each one took 

 three men about a week to complete. In addition 

 to the wheels in the churchyard, numerous strings 

 of firecrackers are strung between and around 

 trees. In the Plaza de los Mdrtires an aisle is 

 marked off from the side entrance of the church to 

 the Calle Nacional by erecting two barriers of 

 rope and criss-crossed cattails, and one or more 

 orchids are tied at every intersection of the cat- 

 tails. In addition to the Flor de Corpus orchids 

 on the barriers there are hundreds more in festoons 

 above the church entrances, and altogether there 

 must be used more than 2,000 orchids in the Corpus 

 Christi celebration. All day long and far into 

 the night of the day before Corpus Christi (May 

 30, in 1945), there was the sound of chirimias 

 and drimas and the explosion of firecrackers. 

 On Corpus Christi the flutes and drums were 

 reinforced by four bands and orchestras from 

 Ihuatzio, Santa Fe, San Jer(5nimo, and Teremendo. 

 The musicians played and firecrackers were ex- 

 ploded sporadically throughout the day, but the 

 real celebration did not commence untU after- 



noon. About 1:30 an orchestra and several 

 batea dancers congregated in the municipal palace 

 where they gossiped and rehearsed. This prob- 

 ably is not a normal occurrence, but in 1945 the 

 presidente municipal was a batellero. The batea 

 dancers were several young batelleros (apparently 

 in theii- late teens) attired in normal holiday dress 

 (best "straw" hat, store pants, shoes, colored 

 blouse, serape), each with a huacal (framework of 

 pine slats) on his back. Entwined with the 

 framework of the huacal were ash leaves, orchids, 

 and bougainvillea, and upon this background were 

 eight or nine finished bateas and various items 

 symbolic of the life and food of the batelleros. 

 A common assortment contained three yellow 

 chiles, one to three onions, a honeycomb or nest 

 ijpanal) of the little black wild bee, a huaje (gourd 

 for water), a strip of dried meat, and one or two 

 chichonas (a bread made for Corpus Christi and 

 the festival of San Diego, in the shape of an 

 eight-pointed star with small protuberances or 

 tits). The principal events of the day took place 

 between 5 and 7 in the evening. First was the 

 rosario or afternoon prayer in the church. This 

 was followed by fireworks in the churchyard 

 (Catherine wheels, strings of firecrackers, giant 

 firecrackers, and skyrockets). Next, about 6:30 

 p. m., was the much abbreviated Corpus Christi 

 procession, which under the present laws should 

 not make use of public streets. In Quiroga an 

 open-air procession "within the law" was obtained 

 by leaving the church through the side entrance, 

 and winding around over and along the Plaza 

 de los MdrtLres and the adjacent churchyard, 

 and going back into the church by the main 

 entrance. The procession route was marked by 

 two rows of women holding candles. The order 

 of the procession was: three boys in vestments of 

 red, cariying a cross and two large candles; two 

 drimimers and one flutist; men carrying several 

 huge candles preceding the image of San Diego 

 on a handled platform decorated with seasonal 

 fruits, orchids, and chichonas around the base of 

 the image; an arch festooned with fruits and 

 chichonas; and finally the batea dancers. After 

 the procession thick flat breads were thrown down 

 to the crowd by boys in the belltower. This was 

 followed by the dance of the batelleros before the 

 side entrance of the church. These batea dancers, 

 in two groups, danced a simple Indian jogging 

 step to the music of an orchestra. Because of 



