Until before the coronavirus pandemic, nearly two million people gathered in the southeast of Mexico City to witness the representation of the Passion of Christ.
It is one of the most important and largest Holy Week rituals in the world, and is celebrated in Iztapalapa, the most populous city hall in the Mexican capital.
Interestingly, the origin of this tradition of almost 180 years old is in another disease that hit Mexico in the century XIX: a epidemic of cholera.
“The epidemic was a limit situation, like the current one. They faced such a great mortality that they believed that they were going to disappear“, Anthropologist Mariángela Rodríguez explains to BBC Mundo.
This year, the Passion of Christ hopes to recover the splendor it had before the pandemic, with the return of hundreds of thousands of visitors given that Mexico City has registered a low level of covid-19 in recent months.
And as before, about 5,000 participants, including actors, organizers and penitents, will return to the streets of Iztapalapa.
But how did the fervor for the Passion of Christ arise in an ancient pre-Hispanic neighborhood?
The “evangelizing theater”
Although the ritual of the last days of Jesus’ life, according to Catholic tradition a, began to be staged two centuries ago in Iztapalapa, how it became part of the faith of the majority of Mexicans comes from much earlier.
Colonialism and the establishment of Catholicism as the only religion allowed since the 16th century meant the generalized indoctrination of the indigenous peoples, who had a diversity of beliefs and traditions that were prohibited.
One of the tools that served the clergy the most was the “evangelizing theater”, explains Rodríguez , because he made use of the rooted taste of the pre-Hispanic peoples, such as the Mexica of Mexico City, for the staging theatrical.
“They had to popularize beliefs and there was no way to teach them orally or in writing . And the most useful thing was to use images”, explains Rodríguez.
In their time, the pre-Hispanic playwrights were the priests who composed short comedies performed before the public with religious or profane themes. The actors were even professionals, devoting themselves almost exclusively to it.
In the ceremonies and indigenous festivals the dramatic sense abounded, both in processions and in songs, dances, costumes and stagings that had a high emotional content.
“The Mexicans were especially sensitive to theatrical forms, since they were very fond of farce and comedy. However, they were also moved by the bloody and painful events. This allows us to understand why they were so receptive to the Passion of Christ”, says the anthropologist Mariángela Rodríguez in her research entitled “The unusual paths of tradition: Holy Week in Iztapalapa”.
The Spanish evangelizers applied what is now known as “substitution cult”
.
Temples such as the Lord of the Holy Burial, popularly known as the Lord of the Cuevita, the most revered in Iztapalapa, in pre-Hispanic times was that of Tezcatlipoca, a Mexica deity.
A double intention
The anthropologist recognizes the astuteness of the Spanish in having used the indigenous worldview as a didactic tool for Catholic evangelization.
But the pre-Hispanic peoples also used this phenomenon to preserve their traditions
.
“The substitution cult shows that, in order for the indigenous religiosity, had to dress as a Catholic. The Virgin of Guadalupe is [la deidad] Tonantzin of the indigenous world”, Rodríguez tells BBC Mundo.
To date, allegorical elements of old pre-Hispanic traditions are still alive around Catholic rituals such as the Stations of the Cross in Iztapalapa.
Those pre-Hispanic eagle or tiger knights continue to appear today in the dances of the carnivals that precede Holy Week and that are part of the Catholic tradition of Lent.
The same place where the Passion of Christ takes place today is none other than the old Huizachtépetl (“hill of the huizaches”, in the Nahuatl language) where each 000 years the New Fire ceremony took place.
The promise
Towards the year 1833, Mexico experienced a cholera epidemic morbus that caused tens of thousands of deaths. In Mexico City 5% died of the population and tens of thousands fell ill.
The people of Iztapalapa went to the Lord of the Cuevita to ask him to put an end to the disease. In return, they would recreate the Way of the Cross of Jesus Christ every year from 1833.
“They thought they were going to disappear. So the size of the promise had to be that big”, explains Rodríguez.
The people of Iztapalapa appropriated the celebration and its organization, beyond the guidelines of the Catholic Church.
“It is the own elaboration of the peoples. It is based on texts that are basically melodramas. Although the Church was already using melodrama, here it is hypermelodrama“, points out the anthropologist.
“We must remember that in the Bible there are no three falls. Almost. And there is the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene who are crying,” she adds.
The representation of the viacrucis is validated by the Church through the celebration of masses, but The organizers are a group of families who have inherited the post office for decades.
“Everyone who participates has a mandate or promise to transform their world. Looking for health, looking for jobs, are the most important requests that are made there”, says Rodríguez.
“It is a town that loves its traditions”.
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