Procession includes two other life-size statues 

Hundreds watch and wait as the procession arrives 

El Senor de la Columna 

Semana Santa

Well, I did go and move rocks for church and community. What was supposed to be one evening turned into two and along with 15 or so stalwart civic minded folks we moved tons of rocks and on the next day cleaned up the park of all the old cement and bricks that had recently been replaced by new brick borders all around the small park a block from my place. City workers placed the rocks and installed new plants over the course of the next three days. The church was given a quick new paint job and, of course, the new lights for the square were installed.

The pressure to complete this work was related, as I suspected, to Semana Santa – Easter week (two of our weeks). The church in question (San Juan de Dios) is the host for the ”Senor de la Columna” – one of the areas most beloved statues of Christ – a life-size replica tied to a column. It is carried to the church each year in a four-mile procession from Atotonilco, its home. After a week of celebrations here at San Juan de Dios it is carried in elaborate processions to other churches in town and finally next Wednesday will be returned via procession to Atotonilco

As predicted the procession arrived in elaborate fashion in a procession that actually included three large statues being carried by the faithful and escorted by gurads dressed as roman soldiers. Paper flowers, flags and banners (all in purple and white) decorate the church and all along the streets where the procession passes. The streets are strewn with sweet smelling white flowers and palm frawns, which are quickly cleaned up by the city detail, once the procession passes. Hundreds of families mill around the church plaza throughout the warm days and evenings drinking brightly coloured “agues frescas” and eating the corn, cotton candy, fried platanos (sweet and cream drenched) and especially bombasos (hot savoury taco-covered chicken or cheese sandwiches fried in oil) that are being prepared by women on charcoal fired hot plates all around the square.

Football

It is fair to say that Mexicans are as passionate about football as Canadians are about hockey. Every little town in the country sports at least one football field, often without grass, and any weekend will inevitable see at least one match with the local team defending its honor and everyone out to cheer them on. It is a fiesta atmosphere and the unheralded cooks all over this country are there with their taco, soup, and tamale stands at the ready.

Kids of all ages proudly sport the colors of their favorite national team with shirts or scarves – Pumas, Chivas, Tigres, Pachuca to name only a few of the most popular. While these teams are ostensibly university teams, it is clearly an industry run by professionals, and money is of course firmly behind it all.

This is the height of the football season with a number of tournaments coming up to finals. There are league, inter-league, inter-Latin American and international matches that capture the imagination of millions of Mexicans every weekend. Passionate as they are however, Mexico has failed to advance beyond the quarterfinals in World Cup play and were summarily defeated 2-0 by, perish the thought, the USA in 2002 in spite of strong support by sombrero sporting Korean fans. In addition to those upstarts to the north they have always had to contend with the likes of Brazil and Argentina to the south. Losing in international play has almost the same affect on the Mexican psyche as it does on Canadians when they lose an important international hockey match.

This Sunday Mexico will host the USA team in a near classic match that will have importance to the standings, (using arithmetic that only the Europeans understand), for the upcoming World Cup in Germany next year. A loss will not eliminate their entry chances entirely but would be a setback. While many Mexicans still find it hard to take Americans playing soccer seriously there is no question that the Mexican team is carrying a huge national load on their shoulders. And while Mexicans are generally quite used to being beaten up by the USA, when it comes to soccer the pill would be a bitter one indeed. All eyes and ears in this country will be tuned while in the USA the match will go all but unnoticed. After all the US University basketball championships are in their final gasps. Go Pumas!