Lenten Season

Last Sunday we went to "Jardin Borda" (Borda Garden)

I was looking for a friend that I needed to see and there was a lot going on.
Lots of people and celebrating.
I took pictures for those of you that like México :)

This is a view from the garden to the entrance, there's a cloister with a fountain and there were papel picado banners everywhere! This little one is a zoom into the cloister.

There was an offering at the entrance of the garden and I loved this fruit stand with handles shaped like snakes.

The offering also had candles that are decorated with flowers and leaves made with wax, I love those candles, there are some very pretty ones and I want to show you what this one looked like.

Papel picado banners over the offering

Cuexcomate

This is typical from the state of Morelos, where I live, and it's used to store grains inside it. They pour them in from the top, and the little hole at the bottom is where the grains come back out later on as needed, they close it with a corn cob, or several cobs tied together. This is a miniature, the real life size ones are much larger.

More papel picado banners over the cuexcomate

The entrance to the actual garden, 

there are several fountains everywhere and an artificial lake where you can go rowing on rented boats. 

Once I saw a wild heron standing right next to the lake, it actually stood to my right, just a couple meters away from me, it was fishing..

I'll never forget it! The heron was so tall and slender! And extremely intelligent, not afraid of us at all. 

He took some food that was floating on the water that the fish were eating and flew with it a few feet away to where the boats are kept under a roof. 

Then I understood that the fish wouldn't come out because they could see his shadow on the water!

There was no sun by the boats so he simply threw the food back into the water and out came  the fish, 

he ate a huge one! :o

These stands were around the first fountain, traditional Mexican handmade huipiles, hand embroidered.

Have you heard the song "La llorona"? This is what she wore :) 

"Hermoso huipil llevabas, llorona, que la virgen te creí"

This lady was making necklaces with seed beads

And this little girl was wearing one of them :)

This is her stand, she set it up on the fountain's border, and there's one necklace like the one the little girl is wearing!

At the last and biggest fountain they had set up a stage and there were concheros dancing, the smoke is from an incense called copal, frankincense in English.. I really like what it smells like.

The girl was speaking in Náhuatl and I wondered if she was aware that we, all, modern Mexicans have a Spanish accent when speaking Náhuatl. 

I also wondered of other native Náhuatl speakers could make out what she was saying.

When my oldest daughter was two years old she had a nanny that was a native Náhuatl speaker, her pronunciation was incredibly soft!  I hired her hoping she would teach her to speak it,

she could say "Atl" (water), and she had perfect pronunciation according to her nanny :)

My parents had some friends when I was about 13 years of age that used to be "concheros", 

I very much wanted to be one back then because I loved and admired my friends very much.

At jardin Borda there were also Chinelos which are my personal favorite, I couldn't manage to take a good picture of them

But I found a video on youtube so you could watch them:

And I also wanted to be a chinelo when I was little! :D

The band walks right behind them, as they dance down the streets. 

This is another tradition from Morelos State, although it has extended to the State of México it originated in Tlayacapan. which is famous for its ceramic pottery and its chinelo band of course!, and also because there's a chapel almost on every block. The chinelos originated there on the 19th century. 

On the days before "Cuaresma" (Lentent season) the rich hacienda owners would party away and their workers were not invited to party with them, so they would party on their own in disguise, but always got caught and punished, until they came up with this outfit to mock both the hacendados and the church.

There was a "castillo" (castle) 

which is what this wooden structure covered in fireworks is called

"Vivan los jóvenes caidos, viva la paz"

Long live the fallen youths, long live peace.
Or should it say: "may peace be long lived"?

There has been a drug war going on on this state and the son of a remarkable poet and writer got caught in the middle of this along with 3 of his friends and 3 other people;

This poet is the headman at the place where I attend choir practice.

His name is Javier Sicilia.

you may read the letter he wrote to our government and criminals by clicking on this sentence

And a dove at the very top.

Rehearsal

We are rehearsing for a mass.
These are two bits of  the work of  Francisco López Capillas .A Mexican composer of the 17th century.
The first is part of  'Magnificat', my teacher told us that Catholics consider it the most powerful prayer.


You can hear our teacher (and director) singing the part of the bass at the beginning, then he goes over the alto part with us. The words say:

  "Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles"*
*(He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly)
The  Second thing we sing is actually a complete piece, "Alleluia" I'm just learning it.
Each voice has a beautiful melody and I find amazing how this incredible explosion of joy and light takes place when they are assembled together


The pictures are of the choir, the convent and some signs of the choir's recitals.

Coro de Santiago

A few weeks ago I brought my camera to choir rehearsal.
I had been wanting to do so for a very long time but I kept on forgetting.
I finally got to take a few pictures of the choir and of the beautiful convent where we rehearse.
Since I first set foot inside it all I have eyes for are the frescoes on the walls and ceilings of the cloister.
I made 3 videos with the pictures I took and with some songs from a recital we had on March at that very convent.

Un Sarao de la Chacona

The first picture is of Angelina, one of our sopranos :) Isn't she beautiful? Even as unprepared as she was for this picture, I surprised her with it. I love the texture of the adobe wall behind her, there was a tarantula web in it, which of course I didn't include on the video but you can see it here:

Tepoztlán is such a beautiful town to visit! And, no, it's not crawling with tarantulas!

The next picture in the video is the entrance of the Convent and main church. The decorative arch with "aztec" motifs is made entirely out of seeds and grains.

The last pictures are of Patricia, one of our new sopranos, she's wearing a hat, I don't know much about her yet.but she's very nice to be around and has a lovely voice. And 2 of our altos, Susana and Alicia, Alicia is the one sitting on the stairs and smiling, she is a remarkable artist. Susana is always joking around and making us laugh and has a very nice accent, she's from Argentina and has a wonderful voice!. The last picture is of Odiseo, our youngest tenor, he's 15 years old.

Teresica Hermana

On the particular day I took this pictures we were moved back to a different room which was were the choir used to rehearse before I joined them and there was a garden next to it! It's been "chained" ever since. I guess they didn't appreciate to have us wandering off into it. It smelled of guavas, citrus and mango. The Guava tree has a pinkish hue to its bark.

If you have any insights about this song I'd love to hear them since there's been many hypothesis about it at the choir but I'd sure love to know the exact story behind it.

Con qué la lavaré

"¿Con qué la lavaré, la tez de la mí cara? ¿Con qué la lavaré? Que vivo mal penada.

Lávanse las galanas con agua de limones"

I've heard longer versions of this piece, but these are the only lines we sing. It's so beautiful!

Just like a Tepoztlán evening, Look at the wonderful color of that night sky.

This is the sign that was made for this recital
I like it a lot.
I must say I have always been very impressed by the choir members and I feel so happy to be a part of it.
I remember the first time I heard them rehearse at the convent, it was glorious and amazing!
I'm looking forward to September being over because then I believe we will have a different repertoire, we've been rehearsing other traditional mexican songs for the 200 years celebration of the independence such as "La Adelita" and I miss this other kind of songs, (meaning the ones on the videos) plus the 17th-18th century Spanish Christmas Carols they sang last year were delightful and I'm very much looking forward to rehearsing them! <3

(Specially "Vaya Vaya de Cantos de Amores" and "Es Nascido")

The other pictures of the choir are from a recital they had in Cuautla just before I joined them. Only my foot appears once or twice because I took the photos but I do sing in all 3 of them :)

In ilhuicac - Hernando Franco (1532-1585)

Is there really any need for words? Beauty has no need for words.

Can you imagine how exotic it was for the Spanish when they arrived to a tropical land where they were greeted as gods and welcomed with presents? Before them only locals had eaten pop-corn (which was reserved for nobility) chocolate, tomatoes, avocado...
I remember reading descriptions written by some of the first Spanish friars to have come in which they tried to describe the local flora and fauna. There was a description for "Nopal" as a plant that grew leaves upon its leaves. I would have had a hard time trying to imagine such thing.



Nopal is the cactus in the picture, and by the way a wonderful tangy salad is made with it. They also described how the locals would mash it into a pulp and used it to wrap a broken bone with strips of cotton cloth, it would harden and hold the bone steadily in place until it healed, then eventually fall off on its own.

I grew up around people who claimed to be returning to their "original" roots and embraced aztec traditions to their best of knowledge, which is nice, but as I've come to reflect more upon it I so love having two legacies that are both so rich! And admiring what was born from that mixture.

This song is one of many wonderful examples I've come across. The lyrics are in náhuatl. It is the same song as in the first video but the first one has the second half missing and it's so beautiful that I needed to include them both, the first one seems more representative of that period and the second one picks up pretty much where the other one should have continued.

In an attempt to preach to the locals they would allow the first mass of the day (maitines) to be sung in local languages.

The locals would hide Deities of the local gods inside the catholic images that were built by them so they would still be worshiping their own concealed Deities.
They had a Goddess named Tonantzin who was like their mother, so they related her with Virgen Mary and took quite readily to her. To this day most mexicans grow up worshiping her. In Ilhuicac is a prayer to Virgin Mary.

Xicoxi

This song is also in náhuatl, the music is by Gaspar Fernández, who was originally from Portugal but lived most of his life in "the new world" and was the Kapellmeister of the Cathedral of Puebla de Los Ángeles for 25 years until he passed away. It is a lullaby, xicoxi means "Go to sleep" parts of it are in latin.