April 27, 2007, Festivities in the tradition of the cross, From Atención archives, Adopt or buy a tree to help conserve water, By Bob Kelly, RAVS returns to San Miguel de Allende, By Kay Gibson

Festivities in the tradition of the cross
From Atención archives

During the morning of Thursday, May 3—the day of the Santa Cruz (Holy Cross)— masons and construction workers bring floral-decorated crosses to churches to be blessed, and then take them to the construction site where they are working and set them high in a place of honor.

The origins of this custom lie in the pre-Columbian reverence for mountain tops where an altar or sacred symbol was often placed. Employers are expected to contribute generously to the midday feast, put in an appearance with a cordial buen provecho, but not linger. This is the albañiles (construction workers) day, now joined by other trades working on the edifice.

Although Tuesday is officially recognized as the day of the Holy Cross, noisy celebrations of La Santa Cruz start on the weekend. So from now through the end of May, San Miguel residents will receive early wake-up calls as the faithful celebrate with fireworks and church bells. Dawn and dusk are believed most beneficial for being charged with spiritual energy, and the light and noise of fireworks assists the change from night to day.

Commemoration of La Santa Cruz was first established in Byzantium during the 4th century when, reputedly, Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, journeyed to the Holy Land at an advanced age and found the remains of the cross on which Christ was crucified. This same tradition was brought to Mexico by the Spanish conqueror, Hernán Cortéz, who landed in a place he named Veracruz (True Cross). The early missionaries wisely knew the value of incorporating pagan forms of worship and other native customs into the Christian faith.

The founding of San Miguel

According to local historian Felix Luna, a descendant of one of the four founding families of San Miguel and guardian of a 350-year-old Santa Cruz, the Holy Cross, like the Virgin of Guadalupe, was critical to the conquest and evangelization of Mexico. Fray San Miguel, accompanied by a small group of Otomí converts and Chichimecas, founded San Miguel Viejo. The ceremony was ritualistic and impressive: the friar made a cross out of branches, held it above his head in his left hand and held earth in his right. Then, he struck the ground with the cross and scattered earth to the four directions, declaring the town founded under the protection of the King of Spain and the Archangel Michael. In those days, the cross was some 15 meters in height, made of branches, and placed in the center of town high enough to be seen from afar.

After the town was founded, the indigenous people wanted a permanent symbol. A larger wooden cross was offered, but rejected. Then a cross made of cantera. No, that would not do. Finally, a stone cross was decided on, durable and as permanent as the original idols the people had worshipped, and decorated with symbols for water, sun, moon, wind and earth along with Christian symbols. The Santa Cruz is considered the most important symbol in the process of evangelization, though, at the time it was strongly rejected by indigenous peoples. They had hollow crosses in their homes that they would cut in half, placing idols of their many gods inside. The Spanish were impressed with the fervor of their devotion to the new symbol.

Later, marauding Chichimeca tribes nearly wiped out the small settlement; the friar and a few others escaped to more secure grounds at El Chorro—not as in popular belief, in search of water as there was abundant water, but for security from the tribes. It was then that the first stone cross was made. A group of 50 Spanish families came to make it official, as the town occupied an important location at the crossroads to the capital, the silver mining town of Zacateros, and mineral-rich Guanajuato. The town wasn’t officially refounded, but the transferral of the cross made it official on December 16, 1555—the Villa de Españoles de San Miguel el Grande.

The center of town was Ojo de Agua El Chorro, with the Santa Cruz resting in the small chapel; the north of the city was designated to the Spanish and the south to the indigenous, with the water supply shared between them. But fighting broke out and a judge was brought in from the capitol to decide on the water rights issue. The fight culminated in the Indians removing the cross to a place in Guadiana. After the wars of independence and revolution, records of the cross were lost; the cross destroyed, stolen or lost in the wars.

The seven barrios (suburbs) created were Guadiana, Ojo de Agua, Valle de Maiz, La Palmita, Tecolote, San Juan del Obraje and San Francisco de las Cuevitas; each with a chapel and a holy cross. Valle de Maiz continues to conserve the closest traditions to the original.

Festivities of the Santa Cruz

From May 2 to 3, there is an all-night vigil at Cruz del Calderón outside San Miguel on the road to Celaya. This commemorates the fierce battle between rival ethnic groups. According to legend, after forty exhausting days of fighting, a cross appeared in the heavens above—interpreted as a sign that the opposing forces should lay down their arms and be reconciled. This cross was previously known as the Cruz de los Bárbaros and a chapel was built close by. The spectacular xúchiles (giant decorated biers), made from light bamboo and decorated with cactus and funeral flowers that accompany September San Miguel celebrations, derive from that event. The funeral biers of the people of Mexico’s central plateau were thus interred, thrust into caves and niches.

The Santa Cruz is usually represented as a small to medium-sized cross of wood or carved stone, with a recess carrying the representation of the head or body of Christ, glass encased and holding artificial flowers, tinsel and symbols of the Crucifixion. Representations are occasionally seen on small house altars, in private chapels and shrines, or carried in local processions. Also, the rural communities of Calderón, Cieneguita and Guerrero celebrate the cross on May 3. It is also revered in the suburbs of Palmita, Valle de Maiz and Ojo de Agua, as guardians of the Holy Cross.

Valle de Maiz

The most important venue for celebration of Santa Cruz takes place at the end of the month in Valle de Maíz, at a Chichimeca-Otomí enclave, in the valley one glimpses below from the Caracól. This four-day celebration (during the weekend of May 5 and 6) includes re-enactments of the battle of the tribes against the Spaniards with much smoke, noise and cannon fire. A typical coloquio (mystery play) is performed by the villagers. The popular Los Leones de Xichú (a well-known musical group) faithfully turn up to play, a great attraction with impromptu recited verses exposing the idiosyncrasies of certain well known personalities. There is a splendid fireworks display; folk dancing, ethnic music and mojigangas (giant papier mâché figures).

The wonderful Charco del Ingenio celebrates Santa Cruz a month or so later for poor communities too financially strapped to have a festival of their own. It lasts all through the night and until the following morning—a moving spectacle. On Calle Moras in Colonia Guadiana is a Chichimeca-decorated little church. Its façade has featured tinted, dried tortillas and an elaborate framework of breads, called parandes (hygienically wrapped in cellophane), recalling the time when offerings were made to the gods. Santa Cruz, celebrated at La Lejona, Colonia Allende, is much the same.

Salvemos al Rio Laja, a water conservation group, is asking residents to adopt trees for planting at area schools, or to buy trees to plant themselves to support the group’s environmental education programs.

“Grade school students in Jalpa and La Campana, off the road to Querétaro, have attended classes and planted 170 fruit and decorative trees around their schools,” said Luis Franke, program coordinator and a director of Salvemos al Rio Laja, which provided the trees.

The next step is to conduct classes and to plant 70 trees at schools in the adjoining communities of Coyote and Clavellina.

This year the conservation group will expand their program to include 17 communities near San Miguel. However, this will require funding for additional teachers as well as 1,500 trees. “Because our resources are limited, we hope residents will support the program by adopting trees or buying and planting trees themselves,” Franke said.

“The root systems of trees act as a sponge to trap rainwater, and the trees also remove carbon dioxide—a major source of greenhouse gas—from the atmosphere,” Franke noted.

The 17 communities are among 70 throughout the Rio Laja watershed that are part of a program to encourage water conservation which Salvemos al Rio Laja started in 2001. Franke said the group’s field staff, working through several community-based organizations such as CASA and FAI/Save the Children, showed families how to conserve water and soil by planting more than 5,000 trees, protecting vegetation from grazing animals, built thousands of rock structures that reduce water flow and prevent erosion and adopting good farming practices.

The four-year program, funded largely by grants from the US Department of Agriculture and the state of Guanajuato, was suspended when the grants expired at the end of 2005.

While the group has been seeking funding to resume the program, it has concentrated on environmental education in local schools. The group hired a teacher last year to teach environmental classes for fifth-grade students in city schools through a program created by FAI called PEASMA (Proyecto de Educación Ambiental San Miguel de Allende).

“The enthusiasm the students showed encouraged us to start working with rural schools near San Miguel, where residents rely on surface water, rather than wells,” Franke said.

Trees already planted at the Jalpa and La Campana schools can be adopted for 250 pesos or US$25 each. Individuals, organizations and companies can adopt the schools at Coyote and Clavellina for a donation of 10,000 pesos or US$1,000 each. Trees for planting also are available for 250 pesos or US$25 each. All donors will be listed on the group’s website.

Four-foot tall trees available for purchase and pick up at a local nursery include fruit trees—apple, peach, pear and plum—and decorative trees, such as the pepper tree, ash, Chinaberry, greggii pine, jacaranda, acacia, alder, native oak, palo verde, ocotillo and native willow. Planting instructions are included; delivery and planting are available at an extra cost.

To adopt or order trees, leave a note with your name, address, phone number, email address and the type and quantity of trees at Salvemos al Rio Laja, Box 85A, La Conexión, Aldama 3 or send an email to mango0982@yahoo.com or call 044-415-151-0246 or 415-154-8321. Arrangements will be made to accept payment in cash or by check made out to Salvemos al Rio Laja. All contributions are tax deductible in the US or Mexico.

Bob Kelly is president of Salvemos al Rio Laja.

You may ask, what is RAVS? This acronym stands for Rural Area Veterinary Services, a program based in the US. RAVS provides veterinary services to poor and/or isolated rural areas that either cannot afford or do not have veterinary services available. The program only cares for burros, horses and mules.

While the main concern of RAVS is the humane treatment of animals, the better care of the animals also results in the owners’ receiving additional services from the animals. Thus, there is also an economic benefit to the owners.

RAVS’ veterinarians and veterinary students come as a team for a short period of time to a community, providing wound care, de-worming services, hoof care, vaccinations and castrations. Another important service provided to these animals is “floating” or the filing of their teeth. As they age, their teeth become so uneven that they can no longer chew their food, and they can die from this. Floating the teeth allows the animals to chew their food and, thus, survive longer.

RAVS provides its services to wild mustang programs and to American Indian reservations in the US. It also goes yearly to Peru and Nicaragua, providing services and educating communities on ways to improve animal care. The program that RAVS instituted in Guatemala has been picked up by the Guatemalan government.

Last May, Dr. Eric Davis, founder and director of RAVS, headed a team of five who provided RAVS services to four communities in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende including El Batan, Jalpa, and Cieneguita. Specifically, La Presita, the area near the little dam on the road to Celaya, benefited from RAVS’ services, which cared for almost 300 burros, horses and mules. Dr. Gerardo Carranza, a local veterinarian, and Dr. Cristina, Director of SPA, were instrumental in assisting Dr. Davis and his team while they were in San Miguel. Gerardo Arteaga, Director of Ecología at the time, and his team helped immensely in transporting the RAVS team around San Miguel.

This year, Dr. Davis is bringing another RAVS team to San Miguel from May 29 through June 2. Don Patterson, Director of Ecología, and his team are working with Maru Riba, an enthusiastic local business woman, to see that this project once again reaches out to San Miguel. RAVS has expanded its program so that five local communities within the municipality of San Miguel will benefit this year.

We need your help now. Why not be part of the team that brings RAVS’ veterinary services to five lucky communities? Lots of nice people are involved with the RAVS effort. We welcome you as one of them. If you find the goals and work of RAVS valuable, please step forward and be counted as we ask for your support. We especially need help with transportation of the team. If you have a van or can provide money to rent one, please call Maru Riba at 152-1403 or cell 044-415-109-8446. For more information about the RAVS program, email Dr. Davis at edavis6702@aol.com.