At the Guerrero Mountain Gate, hundreds of residents of San Juan Bautista Acatlán and Zitlala offer dances and sacrifices to the god Tláloc and the Christian cross for rain, seeds, health, and peace.
Proceso was able to access the ritual performed by the residents.
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“We natives depend on the land. We ask our lord god Tláloc for blessings so that the people do not lack food,” the participants express.
According to the agricultural calendar, the ritual begins on April 25th. In San Juan Bautista Acatlán, in the municipality of Chilapa, authorities, prayer leaders, and women bless the seeds.
The tekuanes (jaguars), tlacololeros (peasants), and kojtlatlas (wind men) appear at the village house (the police station), in the streets, and around the village to announce the beginning of the ceremony.
On May 1, they gather at the atrium to venerate the Christian saints and gods. They also announce that the following day they will ascend to venerate their god of rain and fertility.
In the early hours of May 2, some 500 natives, from children to the elderly, walk uphill for 12 kilometers to reach Cruzco (Hill of the Cross). Along the way, they place flowers and candles on the crosses that guide the way to the ceremonial center.
On the esplanade of Cruzco, the penitents place their tekuanes masks and costumes on sacred stones and light candles.
A man appointed by the village sacrifices dozens of chickens, whose viscera will be placed in the mexcaltin (maguey leaves) and raised to a tree to be offered to the vultures.
Then begins the preparation of a red chicken broth with vegetables, bean tamales, and white tamales, which will be offered to those present. Mezcal is also offered.
“We come to this site to venerate the crosses because of a tradition the Acatecos have. It’s to practice year after year the prayer for rain,” explains Commissioner Gumaro Nava Hernández.
He adds that the natives depend on the land, so they cannot ignore the ritual.
“The entire village participates with their presence or contributions in kind. What is offered here and shared belongs to everyone, and that fills the Commissioner and his team, who are in charge of the village, with great pleasure,” explains the Tlayacanqui.
Offerings, Prayers, and Smoke
At midday, the sound of an ancient flute and a drum can be heard in the distance. A chirrión breaks the sound of the wind, and shouts are raised to the sky. It is the entrance of the tlacololeros, an ancient dance that represents the work of farmers preparing their land and protecting their crops from predators like the jaguar.
The figures wear wooden masks and carry heavy ixtle sacks, a wide-leaf hat with hanging colorful ribbons, a satchel, and a chirrión.
Later, children, women, and adults dressed in tekuan costumes and masks burst into the area to engage in hand-to-hand combat. They wear boxing gloves on their fists.
There are also prayers, copal smoke, and processions with the heavy wooden crosses carried by the devotees.
Some tekuanes give their betrothed wives a branch from the Tomoxóchitl tree, the flower of the heart of the hills.
The branch is placed on one of the altars to ask for a blessing for the marriage and that the new family will not lack health or food.
Before sunset, about 50 kojtlatlas—men of the wind—descend from the tops of other hills to the ceremonial center with powerful guttural cries. They are guided by the sound of a teponaztli.
They dance in their colorful clothing and masks with long, colorful braids. Lying face up and with their feet pointing to the sky, they juggle a multicolored tree trunk.
The task of these pre-Hispanic figures is to make offerings to all the crosses that have protected the town since the beginning of the ritual in April.
“This gathering of tlacololeros, kotlatlastin, and tekuanes is intended to ask for rain. We ask our lord god Tlaloc for blessings so that the people of Acatlán will not lack food,” says professor and former police commissioner Teófilo León Zeferino.
The next day, the ritual moves to the Komulian ceremonial center, where the springs that supply fresh water to the village are located.
After the offerings, there is a feast of moles, broths, tamales, drinks, tekuanes fights, and dances such as muditas, goats, maromeros, and mecos azules. The ritual culminates on May 4th with the Colozapan, or the changing of the steward.
Tekuanes Fights
Armando Sandoval Salmerón is a native of Acatlán. From the ages of 15 to 24, he fasted and trained to participate in tekuanes fights.
Today, at 42, he is a merchant in the State of Mexico, married, and has two children.
Every year, he returns to his community to participate in the ritual, in addition to praying for his business and the health of his family and fellow villagers.
“During those years, I fasted for the mask. I lit his little candles, his cigarette, his mezcal. It helps a lot, it helps you endure more,” he says after praying to his gods and the cross, dressed in an orange suit with black spots.
His sons, ages 10 and 5, as well as a nephew, have joined the ritual and fight as a sacrifice so the village has rain and food throughout the year.
“It’s an example so that the roots of the village aren’t lost,” he says.
Zitlala
Five kilometers from Acatlán is the village of Zitlala (Place of the Stars). There, the rain-pleading ceremony is part of the fights between children, women, and jaguar men on May 5th.
The tradition is of Olmec origin.
Zitlala, according to former Captain Arnulfo Tecruceño Valle, is part of an ancestral jaguar circuit that begins in the north and extends to the south-central part of the state.
It begins at the Teopantekuanitlan ceremonial center in the town of Tlalcozoltitlan, in Copalillo, passes through a place known as Mapijlio in Zitlala, from there it continues to the Oxtotitlan caves in Acatlán, in the neighboring municipality of Chilapa, continues to the Juxtlahuaca grottoes in the municipality of Quechultenango, and ends in Tlaltizanapa, he explains.
On this route, he asserts, members of the Olmec culture left vestiges and cave paintings where the jaguar appears as the central figure, worshipped for its strength, agility, and wisdom.
The ritual was already performed since the first human settlement in Zitlala, says fighter Arnulfo Tecruceño, who has a background in anthropology.
There is a legend in the town that continues to be passed down to new generations.
In ancient times, the inhabitants had an abundance of food and water, but they forgot to keep track of time and to thank the god Tlaloc, who, angrily, sent drought and calamities as punishment.
Two rulers, Zitlalin (the Star Woman) and Acatl (the Reed Man), prayed without being heard. Exhausted, they transformed into nahuales, their animal being the jaguar.
They planned to climb the Tonacatépetl hill to steal the corn, bean, and squash seeds from Tlaloc and thus feed his people.
As they fled, they rolled and scattered the seeds in the fields, which caused a fight among the Tekuanes.
Without intending to, the hill turned green, the river returned to its full flow, and the sun shone once more. The sacrifice pleased Tlaloc.
Therefore, every year the people of Zitlala commemorate their ancestors’ odyssey with the jaguar-men fights. In the days leading up to the event, they offer flowers, food, and dance to their gods and to the cross on the Zitlaltépetl and Cruzco hills.
In the May 5th ritual, the entire population participates, whether as mask-makers, in making costumes, in cooking, in music, or in fights.
In the morning, afternoon, and evening, the jaguar captains of the three main neighborhoods and one community offer pozole, beef mixiotes, beer, and mezcal to each other.
From midday, the sounds of wind music can be heard along the steep streets, lined with cement or white earth, calling the jaguars—from children, women, and adults—to participate in the main battle.
Each year, more participants are represented. Native people living in other cities come to be part of the tradition.
One by one, they join in to first dance in the upper and lower areas where the two alliances are concentrated.
At 3:00 p.m., they dance, letting out roars and battle expressions in Nahuatl, toward the central plaza, where thousands of people eagerly await the pre-Hispanic spectacle.
Protection of traditions. Photo: Miguel Dimayuga.
In the plaza, the whips crash against the tanned cowhide masks, the backs, and the legs of the combatants until one of them surrenders or falls to the ground.
The sounds of blows, the strains of wind bands, the shouts of the crowd, and the sounds of an ancient drum and flute mingle.
The fierce battles end with a handshake, a hug, or a celebration for the opponent. The blows, wounds, and blood shed are part of a sacrifice. The more sweat and blood, the more rain and good harvests are expected.
These manifestations from remote places in Guerrero have resisted the spiritual and military conquest of Spain, as well as the criminal violence that has reigned in the region for more than a decade.
In May, when the first drops of rain fall, the hearts of the natives will rejoice.
Source: proceso
