Indigenous holy week celebrations of the Mayo-Yoreme

1858

Ringed” with masks, tenábaris made with dried butterfly cocoons, cheeks, blanket, huaraches, lance and the drum the Jews or Pharisees go out to pay their “promises” in the middle of one of the most important celebrations for the ethnic group

Guasave, Sin.- Throughout the year it seems that they do not exist, they go unnoticed among the people, but since the beginning of Lent they emerge from their communities and their traditions take center stage, they are the Jews or Pharisees, one of the varied expressions of the Mayo-Yoreme Holy Week celebration, which is one of the most important festivities for the indigenous communities of northern Sinaloa and southern Sonora.

Generating fear, expectation and great interest few know the reason to dress with those trousseau and go out to dance through the streets, what you see is the showy of their mascaras made of wood or leather, the tenábaris made with dried cocoons of butterfly four mirrors, the cheeks, the cloak with a religious symbol, the huaraches, the spear and the drum in some cases, but underneath there is a tradition that is still alive, that in spite of the ravages of modernity is still preserved and passed on from one generation to another.

Adolfo Ahumada Bacasegua, governor of the indigenous community in Las Culebras, in Guasave, explains that the Jews or Pharisees who are seen every Friday from the start of Lent to the end of Holy Week, are people from the same community or can also be ” yoris “, as they call those who do not belong to the ethnic group, who make orders to correct faults or pay a favor received, this is paid by going three years to walk as a Jew and at the end of the command they meet in the ceremonial centers, dance, They eat guacabaqui, drink alcohol and burn the masks.

“It is a mandate that is offered before the holy cross are three years of Jewish run every holy week and a year of ‘pilonda’ every Friday until the week already heads to a major temple for the burning of masks and is concluded his promise, “he explained.

The celebration reaches the climax with the feast of Good Friday in which the folklore becomes a spectacle, the Jews and the Yoremes families gather in the ceremonial centers where the passion and death of Jesus Christ is recreated and in parallel the dances of the deer are made and the pascola, in these activities even mestizos are involved, since the participation of anyone who is respectful of their traditions and customs is allowed.

Marco Antonio Borboa Trasviña, professor of history retired of the UAdeO, states that the celebration so colorful is the product of religious syncretism and in the demonstrations are elements of ethnicity that date from before the arrival of the Jesuits and that have been mixed with symbols of the catholic church, like the one of the cross that is placed in the houses of the Mayos-Yoremes.

“It is the union of Yoreme culture and the Spanish because the central point here is the passion and death of Jesus Christ and who brought Jesus Christ? The Spaniards, “he said.

Despite the richness of their traditions and customs, Los Mayos-Yoremes are an ethnic group decimated over time by the lack of policies that allow their conservation, by the marginalization in which their peoples live, in addition to Christian evangelization that causes some to stay away from the celebrations, even problems such as drug addiction and alcoholism plague the indigenous populations.

The ethnic group survives these attacks and although larger ceremonial centers are in the municipalities of Ahome, El Fuerte and Choix, in Guasave there is also presence in groups a little smaller but of equal importance, these are concentrated in communities such as Los Angeles del Triunfo , Las Culebras, La Bebelama, Cubilete, Las Cañadas, La Trinidad, Cerro Cabezón, Juan José Ríos, among others.

Source: linea directa

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