Making Indifference Impossible – Farewell Guanajuato

My Devil’s on the gas

My Angel’s on the brake
And I’m at the wheel
As I travel the Road of Rapture.

LeAnne Dziekan

Jacaranda petals – Colors bombarding the senses

Welcome spring, Farewell Guanajuato

A last walk around this beautiful city, saying goodbye to my favorite sites.  Alleyways, benches, sidewalks, and hidden corners all covered with confetti, broken eggshells, fading flower petals. 

As the light-pink pie de vaca (cow’s foot) flowers fade away, the jacarandas take the torch, illuminating the sparsely treed city with temporary bright purple.  Lavender too is shedding its tiny petals, forming a gently perfumed carpet.  

Flowers of all types, shapes, colors

Crowns, single flowers, bouquets

Large or small but all showy

Yesterday was El Día de las Flores (Day of the Flowers) and the Viernes de la Virgen de los Dolores (Friday of the Virgin of Sorrows, the Virgin [patron saint] of the miners).  Guanajuato was covered with flowers and various altars made of seeds, colored rice or wood shavings.  I was surrounded by a veritable cacophony of shapes, colors and textures.  

Flamboyant Easter eggs – something for everyone

In businesses, hotels, churches, plazas or private homes are temporary altars similar to Tibetan sand mandalas.  Are they a representation of letting go and the transience of life?  Most altars take longer to make than the time they will stay up for everyone to admire, just a few hours on display.   

Beautiful altar downstairs from where I lived.

Students worked on this for many early hours

It only stayed up until lunch

This last Friday of Lent, the Friday before Palm Sunday, is a day commemorating the seven sorrows that Virgin Mary suffered during the passion and death of her son, Jesus.  Shaved ice or juice with chia seeds are given to everyone – representations of her tears of pain are seen and shared all over the city.

In previous years, one of Guanajuato’s customs was for young men and women to walk through the main Garden of the Union Plaza in opposite directions.  That way, they could meet each other face to face.  Much like a group serenade without the music.  When a man liked a woman, he would give her a flower and if she liked him, she would let him know by giving him a kiss or a certain look.  Unfortunately, this Dance of the Flowers tradition has been lost.  It is said some very small towns may still practice this custom, but where and for how long?  Instead, we see nearly all women carrying flowers on this special day.

Like so many of our traditions today, consumerism has taken over.  Trinkets from China or India invade the vendors’ stalls.  Natural eggs used to play a huge role.  Now plastic counterparts slowly replace them.  

Cheerful cascarones filled with confetti

Brightly colored hollowed-out eggs (cascarones from the Spanish word cascara for shell) used to be filled with flour (colored or not), perfumed powder (for the more affluent), seeds, rice, paper confetti (for everyone).  Over time, the tradition traveled from Asia via Italy to Spain and finally Mexico.  It was considered an ancient form of flirting. 

Today, eggs are colored, and with the help of paper or plastic props made into virgins, spiders, Superman, Spiderman, Superwoman, Batman, flowers, dogs, etc.  Unfortunately, the confetti are now made of mylar/plastic and are no longer biodegradable or edible.  

Eggs as the face of the virgin

Theses eggs are broken on the head of friends, relatives, acquaintances.  Many say that good fortune falls upon the person who has un cascarón cracked over their head – and smashing one on someone's head is a sign of affection. It’s said that if you make a wish before you break it over an unsuspecting person’s head, your wish will come true.  Another school of thought is that the good luck goes to the person who gets the egg cracked on their head! All in wholesome fun.

A cascarón, although thought to bring luck, is also believed to represent Jesus’ resurrection from the tomb, just as a baby chick breaks through its shell.  All life comes from eggs.  Eggs are a symbol of rebirth.  So, when the egg is broken and the confetti pours out, it is representative of the resurrection, Jesus’ empty tomb.  The confetti then symbolize a celebration of Jesus’ life and rebirth. 

Zaragoza street

Old smoker on bench

Corazones street

Dolores street

Reading the paper

Infierno street

Olleros street

Strings of pom-poms

Potrero street

Egg-yolk and green

Laundry day by the ‘Lord Poison Chapel’

One of the reasons I love Mexico so much is that it is full of imperfections.  The unfinished items, the jumbles of offerings, the non-sensical layouts, the barely running busses, the smells, the laissez-faire.  These make you much more aware of life around you.  One hardly remembers perfect things.  I leave this showy city on an especially colorful Easter Spring Day, making indifference impossible.