Semana Santa in San Cris April 12, 2022
This year Palm Sunday, the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy Week), is a bigger day than usual in San Cristobal, and for a number of reasons: It comes on the 494th birthday of the city; moreover, it is the very day when, in 1919, Emiliano Zapata, the patron saint of the struggle in this state, was assassinated in Morelos; and, perhaps most importantly, it is the day of the recall vote for Mexico’s upstart president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Consequently, it is no surprise that explosions from all directions rattle the city.
It would seem ironic that AMLO himself called for this referendum on his presidency, an unprecedented event in the history of the republic. Prior to this, the only referenda were called by a hail of lethal bullets. In Chiapas, Zapatista spokespeople rail against the president for various transgressions, most particularly the Maya Train development in the northern part of the state. The list of grievances is long, but the truth is that AMLO support is strong compared to past presidents, and Chiapas is no exception.
The queues for voting in the main plaza wrap around the park all afternoon. Families have brought along food and drinks for the extended wait. These are likely AMLO voters, as I can hardly envision someone standing in line for hours only to vote to kick the guy out. As it is, voter turnout is expected to be low, perhaps less than 20%. Indeed, only two-thirds of the voting stations in the country are even operational today, to the president’s expressed chagrin and suspicion.
Voting proceeds smoothly in San Cristobal, where only a photo identification is necessary to cast a ballot, followed by a black ink mark to the thumb to keep away the double-dippers. For local VIP’s, a far more comfortable voting experience can be enjoyed at the ex-convent of El Carmen, in the verdant courtyard, with complementary coffee served. I only know this because I inadvertently crashed the sanctity of the voting booth on my way to an event at El Carmen to commemorate the beginning of Holy Week: Festival de la Palabra.
Except for the location, there is nothing Catholic about the Festival of the Word, which is all about poetry and music, organized by Poesía de Servilleta (Poetry of Napkins), a women’s collective, and featuring Gabriel and his literary gang, with a distinctively Chiapaneco brand of political radicalism sprinkled about. A gathering like this one would not be allowed within a kilometer of any polling station during an election in the United States, yet here we are on opposite sides of a 16th-century cloistered quadrangle, defending the power of the pen.
For a more typical Catholic experience, head to the east side of the city, where a large stage has been erected at the base of the stairs to Templo de Guadalupe. The 79 steps serve as bleacher-seating for an evening performance by a 6-piece Cuban jazz band. I can only imagine how many backs were required to haul a grand piano onto that stage, but they will need to haul it away before morning if they expect it to stay in one piece, as the irregular crowd of hunter-gatherers from the lowlands is nothing if not efficient.
The music audience seated on the steps waves approval with palm leaves meticulously weaved to resemble corn cobs and crucifixes. The artful palms are created on site by a quiet man in a straw hat, who never looks up from his work. Each piece costs 10 pesos, and business is brisk on Palm Sunday. If Jesus ever so chooses to enter Jerusalem via Guadalupe, he will be greeted by hundreds of admirers disguised as a hillside corn field, even though planting season along the river bottom is still a month away. And if, as it is written, he manages to arrive by mule, well then, he truly might have the lowlanders’ attention.