Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes

13. Vamos a Rezar a San Marcos: A Tlapanec Pilgrimage

13 Vamos a Rezar a San Marcos: A Tlapanec Pilgrimage Peter L. van der Loo This brief chapter will describe a short Mesoamerican pilgrimage. In the framework of the conference of 1989 we discussed some of Victor Turner's illuminating concepts of pilgrimages in Mexico in his Dramas, Fields andMetaphors. It is not my intent to discuss all possible theorerical implications, but several of the general characteristics of pilgrimage, furnished by Turner in Chapter 5 ofhis book, will be easily discernible in the Tlapanec example: the concept ofliminaliry related to, and intensifYing with, the crossing of space, and the idea of nonutilitarian normative communitas; both are appropriate here. Also present are the development ofthe act ofpilgrimage from voluntary to obligatory, and the communitas resulting from the sharing ofmeals, which for the Tlapanecs begins before the actual pilgrimage. After describing the Tlapanec pilgrimage I will indicate a few areas where I think that Turner's model may be expanded for the Mesoamerican case. The Tlapanecs are a Mesoamerican people living in the northeast of Guerrero state on the border of Oaxaca in the heart of the Sierra Madre del Sur. They speak Tlapanec and share the main features of the Mesoamerican peoples in their culrure. One of their religious observances is a ritual that must be performed to petition the rain deiry for a good rainy season. This ritual is performed roughly one month before the start of the rainy season, on the rwenryfourth ofApril. It is common in the whole Tlapanec region and also in Vamos a Rnar a San Marcos 213 the neighboting Nahuatl and Mixtec areas. It is usually referred to as "going to pray to Saint Mark" or simply "to beg for the rain." The official day is April 25, the ritual taking place during the eve and night before. April 25 is in the Roman Catholic calendar the day ofSaint Mark, who is also the rain god ofthe Tlapanecs. This deity also has a name in 11apanec. We may safely assume that during autonomous times the offering also took place on the eve ofwhat is now called the twenty-fifth day ofApril. The name ofthe appropriate Catholic saint was simply added in early colonial times to prevent conflict with the Roman Catholic clergy. This process may have been facilitated by the fact that in rural European Roman Catholic communities Saint Mark's day is a day to petition for a good harvest. The appropriate place for the ritual is a cave or a mountaintop, both traditional abodes of the rain deity in Mesoamerica. On that prescribed day "all the mountains smoke," as I have been assured by many Tlapanecs. I was granted an opportunity to witness this ritual as performed by the people ofone Tlapanec village, Malinaltepec. In the Tlapanec dialect of Malinaltepec the rain god's name is Wi'Ku. This name is used interchangeably with the Spanish San Marcos. The place to which this village brings its offering is the highest mountaintop in the vicinity: La Lucerna. It is an arduous five-hour walk uphill from Malinaltepec to that mountaintop. The participants leave around noon on April 24, stay overnight, and return the next day. In 1984 the people of Malinaltepec, represented by the mayordomfa ofSaint Mark, graciously allowed me to share and document the experience ofthis short pilgrimage. After having been away from Malinaltepec for visa matters in Mexico City, I returned on April 21st, the day before Easter. I went to see the mayordomo ofSaint Mark to ask for permission to be included in the group that would ascend La Lucerna on the twenty-fourth. I was asked to explain my motivations. I clarified that I wished to document the ritual that takes place for the tain god, because I believe similar rituals are depicted in preconquest codices. I referred to some of my writing on that topic that was available in the city hall of Malinaltepec. The mayordomo listened carefully and told me to come back the next daywhen he would have come to a decision. The next day, I was granted permission and several rules were explained to me. I was to embark on a trip ofcrucial importance to the village 214 Peter L. van der Loo and would have to follow all instructions ftom the petformer (Ndikaa Wi'Ku) of the ritual. I had to understand clearly that any malevolent act or intent on my part could...