Subject: Zinacanton and San Juan Chamula
Okay, here we go on today's adventures!
First of all, I just want to mention some of the travelors we've seen along the way. Being this far south has, for some reason, changed the whole complexion of who visits as compared to further north. We've seen so many people from European countries, lots of folks bicycle camping and even more Americans! In fact I was chatting with Nancy from Colorado next door this evening about that very thing. We both agreed that this is the first place either of us has been where there are three couples from the states at the same time! There is another couple from Vermont here as well. Last night the bike campers next to us were from Tokyo. They've been out for a year and a half and started their adventures in Turkey. It's pretty cool. We're the only one's we've heard of that are from Hawaii though.
Ok - so we took a tour today. Unusual for us but we figured that we'd know a whole lot more about what we were seeing if we had someone explaining it to us. So Carlos ("call me Charlie") and his driver (also Carlos/Charlie) took us and eight other folks to the villages of Zinacantan and San Juan Chamela. We were the only English speaking couple - others were from Belgium, France and Austria. And later we met up with another group and I know a couple of them were from Hong Kong! Like Charlie said - it was the United Nations!
So - here's the thing about these villages around here. There are two different tribes called the Tzotil and Tzelthal and many many villages in the surrounding area. I believe that both of the ones we went to today were Txotil and that is also the name of their language. No Spanish. The first village, Zinacantan, is sorta normal in that they pay taxes, have a police force, are Catholic mostly, etc. The second is very different.
San Juan Chamula is unique in the world in that they are the only people that practice the old Mayan traditions in their religion. When the Spanish came and conquered Mexico, all the Mayans and others were stopped from their "pagan" ways, the temples, etc. were torn down and they all became Catholics. Not so in Chamula. They were tough and had body armor and were never conquered. Now they run their town the way they want but with no police, no taxes, and no one besides the 70,000 of them are even allowed after 7pm at night in their community. And, they practice an old Mayan religion with a touch of Catholic thrown in. The Mexican government allows all of this and, according to Charlie, have even been known to give favors to buy the town's votes. It's a lot of votes!
The first eight photos were taken at Zinacantan. The people there are famous for their textiles. The fabrics are amazing. The deep blue capes are worn by almost all the women all the time and are simply breathtaking in their designs. The female children too. We were able to go to a home and see their altar alongside their TV and DVD player! They cooked tacos for us and the tortillas were so wonderful - can't find those in most restaurants. They also had many beautiful items for sale and a demonstration of their way of weaving - see the huge belt around the girl's waist holding the loom to her body? Must be tough to maintain.
In Zinacantan it's ok to photograph the people, though they're shy. In San Juan Chamula we had to keep our cameras put away except for certain instances. The old ladies shown are Charlie's "girlfriends" and have given permission to be photographed. The children will quite often approach the tourists and offer to be photographed for pesos.....I obliged. It's alright to photograph the outside of the church but do not get caught trying to take a photo on the inside. Strictly forbidden.
For a fee visitors are allowed inside the church and that was part of the tour. Very different! They don't have anything like a pulpit for someone to conduct a service, for instance. There are no services. People go and do their own thing. The lighting of candals in front of your favorite Saint and doing a sort of chant is most common. They do have Saints but aren't Catholic at all. In fact, when their church caught on fire about 100 years ago and the Saints let it burn, the people cut off the hands of the five most popular Saints to punish them for allowing such a thing! They do animal sacrifice - we saw a dead chicken. Someone told me that they don't waste it and it becomes dinner (which is what Mike and I had tonight as well so we're just as bad!). Really, super different. Lots of people, lots of candals, lots of statues of Saints, a big marble floor - no seats of any kind. Each Saint has seven people assigned to it to keep the area clean since the people leave the candals all over the floor and whatever else they bring. They drink this sort of sugar cane liquor, called posh, at church and also use it to try to cure illness by rubbing it on the bodies of the ailing. We saw a young girl and an older women with a baby that appeared to be very sick and they were doing just that. Like I said, very different!
For those of you that knew my cat, Chalchi, here's something you probably didn't know about her. Her full name was Chalchihuitlique and she was named for the Aztec goddess of water and was the wife of some other big wig Aztec God. How the people got from worshiping these Gods and Goddesses to having Saints that look Catholic to me but they're certainly not Catholic......well, I guess I didn't ask Charlie enough questions to get it all straight. Anyway, it was an amazing experience. This church is the ONLY one of it's kind in the entire world. I do know that much.
OK - I don't know if I'll have more to say about San Cristobal - depends on what we do in the next couple days. But stay tuned for Pelenque and other ruins in the next episodes. I'm excited as I've never seen Mayan ruins before and Pelenque looks to be really something. We understand that the 120 miles road takes 7 hours and has 300 topes! But everyone says it's worth it.
Aloha for now,
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