These were my Facebook comments from the eve of 112th December 2012 –
I hear a noisy procession on the street- drums and singing; cheering voices and fire works; they are celebrating The Great Lady of Mexico- La Virgen de Guadalupe.
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Wow.. we just ran outside into the night to see what the noise looked like. There were were natives with faces painted and feathers in their hair shaking their decorated sticks into the air.. we tried to get shots of it all but was having terrible luck with the camera!
And these were a few of the shots The Human took that night. Naturally, they are in black and white. What I didn’t mention in the posts was that there was at least one devil character in the back of a pick up truck. He was responsible for launching the cohetes in to the night sky while the ones dressed as natives drummed danced hooted and hollered; the more pious carried their saintly imagery and sang church songs. This was like Halloween with a more cohesive theme!
While were were following this riot band of natives we saw another more modest procession moving in the opposite direction to turn down a different dark street. This was amazing hell for the folks trying to get anywhere in a vehicle.
The evening of December 12th brought out more parading people! We picked up this crew of parishioners and followed their drum beats to a stage setup outside of a church. There was hot chocolate, elote.. oh, all kinds of food available in booths. And the ones dressed as natives danced into the church to bless and be blessed. There was a priest showering everyone with holy water. All the youngsters were changing costumes to continue the folk dance festivities longer into the night. I don’t think I had ever heard such a ruckus of ‘pagan’ noise in a catholic church. I loved it. ALL of my shot came out blurry- but interesting nonetheless. Here are a few of them. Enjoy!
