The Magdalena Parade in Uruapan

Photos and Text by Carlos Varela Rico

Every year, on July22nd in the ¨barrio of Magdalena ¨in the city of Uruapan, state of Michoacan, Mexico, they celebrate the day of their patron saint the Virgin of Magdalena with parades, dances and different activities which decorate the ¨barrio¨for the fiesta. My family and I went there since we were interested in seeing the parades of dancers of the different ¨barrio¨groups.  It was very exciting to see and to understand the combination of devotion and celebration, the autoctonus and modern, magic and tradition.

It was a thrilling experience so I took my camera and got some wonderful pictures that surely will help me to relive that moment in the future.

The object of my trip was also to visit a famous mask maker named Victoriano Salgado, 80 years old who lives in the Barrio, he is wonderfully active and alert and is therefore in good health.  He is a simple man very productive with a great store of knowledge about his people and ancestral costumes.  His work is very fine quality which began through curiousity when he was a child, since then he has worked as a mask maker ¨mascarero¨and now his sons and daughters help him and continue the mask making tradition.  Victoriano invited me to see the parade, which passes, near his house every year.

Photo on left shows Victoriano with Carlos´s four year old son Marco

In the parade several different groups of dancers took part.  Among them the ¨hortelanos¨were outstanding, in their costumes and attitudes they were pretending to be scarecrows.  Their costumes were made up of many creative and imaginative elements, the special detail of the costume was the mask which was made of a type of dried gourd named ¨Bule¨. None of the masks were the same, each was unique, some with monstrous expression and other in spite of their ugliness were able to express tenderness and even surprise

Another group of dancers were the negritos who danced elegantly in close formation in their shining black outfits, the masks were elaborately detailed with mirrors, ribbons and beads as decoration.

In the last part of the parade, appear the viejitos, they stood out for their attractive rythmic dance, their wore simple costumes but at the same time cleanly done, elaborately embroidered and colored.  Their mask express the contentment of a long life and helped attain the magic illusion permitting us to see in reality the ancient connections that only can be seen  in this type of tradition.

Three of Victoriano´ grand children participated in the dance of the viejitos and it was easy to distinguish them because they wore their masks so proudly made by their grandfather known and respected in the barrio.  They were well aware of the mastery of this artisan which crosses many frontiers and whose work permits that year after year this local tradition continues

Carlos Varela Rico is not only hosts an Ecology Radio program that shares information every Saturday mornings here in Guadalajara but hopes to see the opening in of his brainchild an ecologically minded cafe called Cafe Eco this fall.  Carlos also houses  as many as 300 mexican dance masks in his rapidly growing collection. To email Carlos