Many Mexicos, many passions
In Itzapalapa, the 167th annual re-enactment of the Passion drew an estimated 800,000 visitors to watch Francisco Gerardo Serrano, in the role of Jesus carry a cross through the city streets and re-enact the Crucifixion and Resurrection that define the Christian faith. Itzapalapa was the location of the Aztec Cerro de la Estrella, where the New Fire Ceremony was held to mark the Resurrection of the Aztec calendar and their faith in a continuing world.
Photo by Adrian Hernandez, El Universal
In northern Sinaloa, where the Jesuit missionaries introduced Christianity in the 17th Century, but, after the expulsion of the Jesuits from all Spanish possessions in 1767, the people adapted Roman Catholicism to their own needs. The dance of the Pharisees may have its roots in medieval Spanish anti-Semitism, but the Yoromi people, in their celebrations at San Miguel Zapotitlán Church in Ahome, see their comic devils slightly differently than the Jesuits might have.
Photo: El Debate
And, here in Mazatlán, Acapulco and other cities by the sea, Semana Santa is Mexican Spring Break. The passion is for play. And beer, sand, beer, surf, beer, sun, beer, sex… and beer.
Photo: Saúl López, Cuartoscuro
Photo: Noroeste (You didn't think I was going to put up a picture of the college kids pissing in my parking lot, did you?)
mexfiles.net 
Hopefully you can help out with this Semana Santa related question — what is the origin of the “capirote” (the KKK-style hood worn during parades)? Does it have any relation to the conical hats put on folks during the Inquisition in New Spain? Also, were there public burnings of people in Mexico during the colonial period?
Thanks,
Antonio
I have no idea about the capirote, other than it was a Spanish custom imported to the Americas. The Inquisition burned “heretics” — at what is now Parque Alameda in Mexico City — until the 18th century, but it was a fairly rare event.
Bartolome de las Casas, the saintly “protector of the Indians” had a landowner consigned to the flames after the landowner ignored the Papal Bull recognizing the native people of the Americas as persons who couldn’t be enslaved. William Lamport, an Irish mercenary that some say was the model for Zorro, was to be publicly burned in 1659 (his heresy being publishing anti-inquisition pamphlets. Lamport “cheated” managing to hang himself from the pyre. There’s a story about a haunted house in Mexico City, supposedly being the ghost of a Jew who — when told he’d have to pay for own pyre — had everything he owned piled up around him and then cursed his house so it couldn’t be sold by the Inquisitors.
The late Skip Lenchik, who wrote a history of the Jews in Mexico, points out that the Inquisition wasn’t nearly as powerful, or as efficient in Mexico as elsewhere. Indigenous people and slaves could not be tortured (the first under the “Law of the Indies” were legal minors, the latter were property) which cut down on the potential victims; the Mexican Inquisition had too much territory to cover (including the Philippines) and Mexicans have always been inclined to stay out of their neighbor’s affairs — and, of course, don’t like cops much.
Wow. Thanks. That’s a very interesting answer…I love the bit about William Lamport. I am of mixed Mexican/Irish heritage, living in Mexico, so I really appreciate the Irish-in-Mexico content on this site. Any other reading suggestions on the Irish in Mexico?
Thanks again,
Antonio
I THINK I have the answer to the capirote question.
A very common Catholic sect, particularly in the northern areas of New Spain, the Penitentes, was subject to excommunication until the latter half of the 20th century. All of their “penance” during the Easter season was crude, bloody and dangerous, followed by a more-or-less “real” cruxificion.
Since the practices of the sect offered complete and total absolution for acts in the preceding year, many members were common bandits, thieves and killers, who could be forgiven all their illegal and immoral acts with the penance done during Semana Santa.
But since excommunication was faced if the local priest “recognized” the participants, the capirote (and even a KKK style toga/sheet) was worn. Of course everyone in the village knew who they were, but as long as anonymity was practiced, there were no repercussions. They even had their own little windowless chapel in or near their village.
The Church and the Penitente sect finally reconciled in the mid-twentieth century, with the sect agreeing to tone things down a bit and to only have “mock” crucifictions.
Remnants of the sect still practice their Easter penance, capirotes and all, particularly in the northern areas of New Spain, now called New Mexico.
Mazbook: Thanks so much for that info. Do you have a source you can share?
-Antonio