Carrying the Word: The Concheros Dance in Mexico City

3: The Obligations: Framing the Context

3.1. The flower form on completion in a Catholic home. 43 “At a Vigil . . . you will sense what it is that gives harmony . . . for it is the discipline that produces this sense of harmony and a very strong energy.” —Angelica Vigils and dances as events are closely interrelated and both are built up spatially and temporally by means of ritual framing. Whereas the last chapter looked at the personnel of the dance, in this chapter I want to detail the Conchero’s obligations by looking first at a vigil (velación) and then at a dance. Although each dance is inevitably somewhat different from any other and one vigil differs from the next, I will give an idea of the overall form of each. To begin with, not every vigil is followed by a dance just as not all dances are preceded by a vigil. A vigil held after a death will not have an accompanying dance as that would be inappropriate. If a mesa is invited to dance for a cultural event or a town’s fiesta, these more secular one-time dances will not be preceded by a vigil. In general, a dance follows a vigil only for well-established Catholic festivals and the four major obligations (although for the latter, the associated vigils tend to be quite small). A vigil usually has a powerful effect on the quality of the subsequent dance: those who have been awake all night will already be in a heightened state of awareness, which leads easily into the ritualized state for which the dance aims. The vigils are immensely important to the dance and are a prerequisite of it. In the opinion of many dancers, the dance would be lost if the vigils ceased. t h r e e The Obligations: Framing the Context T h e O b l i g a t i o n s : F r a m i n g t h e Co n t e x t 44 A V IGIL IN PUENTE NEGRO Vigils are held indoors in the house of one of the mesa’s dancers or the jefe’s oratorio. A more private and informal affair than a dance, attendance is usually restricted to members of that mesa. Special clothing is never worn, although those involved usually dress warmly in preparation for the long hours of work constructing a flower form which is laid out on the ground usually in the form of a cross and takes most of the night to assemble. On special occasions, such as a vigil carried out after the death of someone of importance to the group or to one of its members, outsiders do attend, such as relatives of the dead person, the owner of the house, friends, and colleagues. The jefe is usually the first to arrive, as was the case for a vigil held in Puente Negro in the house of Roberto Partido (Pando).1 Angelica appeared a little later than usual. Holding up her lit incense burner, she begged forgiveness of the jefe for her late arrival, which, she explained, had been caused by her uncertainty as to whether she was well enough to act as sahumadora. Staying up all night can be hard on the physical body, although vigils are usually cleansing and spiritually uplifting. During the next couple of hours, other participants arrived, bringing with them large candles, nightlights, incense (and their incense burners), packets of cigarettes, and, more especially, bunches of flowers of all types and colors —carnations and pinks, lilies, gardenias, stocks, chrysanthemums, daisies, gladioli, and, if in season, marigolds. Closed flowers are considered particularly appropriate for the Virgin (the focus of the vigil), but in general they should be fresh and new. One early anxiety is whether there will be enough flowers for the construction of the form, but by the time the ritual itself gets underway there are usually plenty. In this house, the altar was a simple table covered with a cloth and adorned with prized draperies. The furniture had been moved back, and the room transformed into an oratory for the duration of the vigil. As the vigil, to be followed by a dance on the next day, was part of the fiesta of the Virgin de la Merced, an image from the local church of Nuestra Madre de la Concepción was present. In addition, there were a stout wooden cross...