For our Guatemala trip we met at project central for a briefing at 7:30, distributing the instructions that Allen Christenson had so generously typed and sent through email, then left on two vans at 8 for the border. There were few hassles at the border and we changed vans for the Guatemala portion. We stopped at the crossroads between Totonicapan and Xela (Quetzaltenango) to get money from ATMs and then continued on to Solola. There we ha to wait for 45 minutes outside a university campus, formerly a notorious military camp and torture centre identified by a giant boot at the front. We were waiting to deliver a passenger to another van headed for Antigua. By the time we arrived at Panajachel it was late and pouring rain. The manager of the vans offered to have us taken to the launches, and there a driver arranged for a private launch at only a small amount over the usual fee per person. We crossed the lake largely in the rain: those up front got a soaking despite being handed a tarp after a while. We arrived at the hotel around 6:30 and checked in, after which I hurried to the church to see the ceremonies.
I was hoping to see the end of the “last supper” with the 12 children as apostles, but it had apparently been cancelled because the new priest, who is antagonistic to traditional Maya religion, refused to bless the food. But this gave me a chance to look around. I went first to see the “monumento,” the additional retablo set up against the central retablo of the church, made to look like a mountain to represent the mountain of abundance. The armature is made of old carved spiraling columns rescued from long deteriorated retablos from the side of the nave. These are connected with a network of ropes demonstrating that the world is created in part through an act of weaving. Hung onto the network were the fruits and flowers that young men had brought from the coast earlier in the week. Each fruit was decorated with coloured strips of tin foil. The monumento extends outward in triangular sections at the side, instead decorated with palm and evergreen fronds. This, and flat carved panels of scrolls at the top, emphasize the mountain shape of the monumento. The monumento has a doorway left into it, signifying the cave into Flower Mountain or the mountain of abundance and renewal, but through this door could be seen the statue of Santiago, the patron saint of Santiago Atitlán, The Christ retablo to the right was covered with a sheet, as Christ, the Maize, is now in the underworld for the 5 transitional days when his alter-ego, Rilaj Mam or Maximon, rules. Only the Mary retablo, at the right, was completely visible.
Along the central axis of the nave, and near the “navel hole” in the church, were set up five saint statues on tables. Three of these would be the most prominent in the night’s outside performance: Christ carrying a cross, Mary of Sorrows (called Maria Andolor), and San Juan Carajo (St. John the Prick). The other two were San Nicolas and Christ of the Palm Sunday, riding a donkey.
In front of the five statues was a mat with a pillow and offering plates on it, flanked by two benches, I suppose set up for the last supper that didn’t happen. Also along the central axis of the church but nearer the entrance the great triangular wood candelabra was set up, with some candles in it that were going out. More of this later. In one front corner of the church, the urna or coffin and platform for Christ was already lit up with Christmas lights and attracting attention. I also took the time to leave the church and go into the chapel nearby where Rilaj Mam or Maximon was set up as ruler for the time that Christ-as-Maize is in the underworld. He is placed on a cut section of a tree, as a way to perpetuate the earlier tradition, forbidden by the catholics, when he was placed on the monumento.
The candelabra ceremony started about 8 pm. A religious functionary took charge of lighting the candles, which must be done in specific order from top to bottom. When each was half burned, they were replaced, also in a specific order. He put each candle out with a “snuffer” kept in a bucket of water. Behind this man was another constantly swinging and renewing an incense container, which is great because the pom or copal smells wonderful (piney). Standing on the other side of the candelabra were two sacristans who chanted from antique books, with texts largely in Latin. One political leader, the head of the cabecera of Santiago Atitlán, sat at the centre of the central bench, on the other side of the sacristans, and facing the candelabra. Along the sides were various people, including some tourists that a guide shoved into the seats. In one interpretation, the candelabra, and especially the top candle, represent Christ-as-Maize, and when it is finally snuffed out, it represents the death of the Maize in the underworld that prepares for his rebirth.
While I was standing and watching the ceremony, a non-Maya gentleman asked if this was my first time seeing Semana Santa at Santiago Atitlán, which I readily admitted. I asked him the same question and he replied that he had seen it several times, since he was making a documentary on the ceremony. I figured at once this was Andrew Weeks and addressed him as such, introducing myself as well. This was a very good thing, because over the next 48 hours he spent a huge amount of time with me, explaining things and taking me around to places that I will mention later. I had noticed several important-looking men with staffs and cloths wrapped around their hair had gone in procession to the benches around the mat near the statues, farther up the nave. He took a look and explained that this was a fairly grave political situation. All of those men are “alcaldes” or heads of the cofradías, the religious brotherhoods operated by Maya traditionalists, and they really should be sitting on the benches around the candelabra. Andrew noted that among them was a man who had been named as the “cabecera” or “mayor” in competition with the official one, seated with the candelabra. This new cabecera and his alcalde supporters were thus snubbing the old cabecera who sat largely unsupported.
About 10 pm, people started refurbishing some of the statues that would be taken into the street for the night’s performance. The flowers on Christ’s cross were renewed. Palm fronds were woven to make a new “hat” for San Juan Carajo. Several men crowded around San Juan to help bind the statue to the table-like litter on which he would be carried. The binding must be firm because he is raced back and forth along the main street all night. More later. As Andrew predicted, lots of adolescent males crowded around the statue, having their say and trying to get involved. The carrying of San Juan is something of a mark of male prowess and these adolescents were strutting their stuff.
By midnight, the statues were ready to be taken into the street; all but the Palm Sunday Christ. The procession descended the church steps, crossed the church plaza westwards, descended the plaza steps, and entered on the main north-south street. It turned south and at the first corner of the circuit, deposited the statue of Maria Andolor at a shrine that had been set up with several religious functionaries attending her. The procession continued eastward along the ritual circuit, climbing up a rise, then turning north at the corner, continuing along behind the church plaza to the third corner, turning back west to the fourth corner at the main street again, where Christ and Nicholas were deposited. Then San Juan Carajo began his famous “corrida” in which he runs back and forth along the main north-south street between Christ-as-Maize and Maria Andolor. At the Maria Andolor station, the bearers of San Juan Carajo thrust the statue upward twice while they hoot. The explanation, made clear to anthropologists by Atitecos, is that Christ-as-Maize is inseminating Mary-as-Earth in order to be reborn. However, when San Juan Caracol gets to the Christ station, he is also thrust upward with hoots, as is San Nicolas who accompanies Christ. I stood near the Maria much of the time, listening to Christmas carols played on the Christmas lights strung over the street for decoration.
I watched this action until about 2:30. I knew that the Christ and Maria statues were supposed to draw together during the night, but by this time they hadn’t moved. I decided to get 2 hours sleep and then return in the morning.
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