It started as a game, but now the dances mean everything to José Tenorio Ramírez, 29.
He was 16 years old when it occurred to him to say that he would start the dance of the San Rogelio Parish, in the Colonia Independencia. The reality is that his comment was a joke, he didn’t know anything about it. matachines, he wasn’t even interested.
But it came true.
“Here in the San Rogeli Parishor there was no dance and as a comment I said: ‘I’m going to do one,'” says José, who grew up in Independencia.
“I thought that nobody was going to want to,” he says. “People who were older than me were the ones who pushed me.”
The insistence of the interested parties was so great that he did not want to look bad. She began to gather people, looked for someone to teach them the dance and got support for the costumes.
His first dance It was in 2008, on September 16, Saint Roger’s Day.
The first year it was only for commitment, he assures, but now the passion is so great that he even transmitted it to a large part of his family: his wife, his cousins and their children are part of the group.
In fact, the eldest, 18 years old, is the one who is now in charge of the dances.
“For me right now, dance means everything,” says José. “It means commitment, a lot of loyalty, a lot of sacrifice.”
As the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, celebrated every December 12, the pilgrimages and the matachines dances They multiply in Monterrey.
There are hundreds of people who, year after year, walk the streets of the Metropolitan Area to reach a temple, mainly the Basilica of Guadalupe, to thank, ask for forgiveness, make a request or renew their faith.
With centuries of history, the pilgrimages They are a tradition that continues in force in society. Despite social changes, it passes from generation to generation without losing strength and, according to specialists, it is far from disappearing.
SEARCH FOR HOPE
The word pilgrims It comes from the Latin “peregrinus”, which refers to someone who sets out on his way through the countryside and goes further.
The boom of the pilgrimages towards the Holy Land and Jerusalem began around the year 325, but the tradition of pilgrimage to places considered holy or sacred is not exclusive to the Christian religion. It has also been present for centuries among Buddhists, Jews and Muslims.
The most popular visits in Mexico are those made to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Here in Monterrey it is no different.
The theology and humanities specialist José Guadalupe Serna believes that these
traditions They are maintained because they represent the search for hope and renewal, a characteristic of the human being, regardless of religious belief.
“There is always one aspect that is fundamental: making a pilgrimage to this sacred place where individuals walk and where they want to reach hope,” says the director of the Departments of Education and Humanities at UDEM’s Faculty of Education and Humanities.
“The pilgrimage is a constant renewal of faith, that’s why we see that the pilgrimages pass the years and people continue to attend.”
POPULAR RELIGIOUSNESS
Something that characterizes pilgrimages from Mexicoespecially from the north, is that in these, almost as a general rule, they are accompanied by drums, plumes, huaraches and rattles that resonate through the streets of the City.
Are the matachines who, with their dances, personify the indigenous people of the pre-Hispanic era.
Historian Cristóbal López Carrera, a specialist in history and popular culture, explains that the dances are a reflection of the native peoples who accepted the arrival of Catholicism in exchange for following their own customs.
“The indigenous people negotiated to become Christians or become closer to Christianity as long as they were allowed to continue dancing, it was their basic form of religiosity,” he says.
The
pilgrimages and danceshe adds, are one of the greatest examples of what is known as popular religiosity.
They follow a legacy of the popular Catholicism of that colonial era, which combines indigenous culture with European medieval. This means that they are very old traditions, anchored in time and in society.
“You are not really going to see them in a report on the culture of Nuevo León or on an anniversary of the city,” the specialist details.
“They are not part of what the city tends to record in its official history, but they are more important to history because people live them, enjoy them, organize them.”
FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
When talking to the matachines, you can find everything: those who dance for money or commitment, but the majority are those who keep it for tradition.
“People dance because there is a genuine devotion, there is a series of commands; because there is a devotion and somehow the dance connects you with some promise, something transcendent,” says the historian López.
“People dance because their mother or father inherited it or because there is a series of miracles involved, linked to dance. Because something happened to their parents, grandparents or uncles that led them to keep dancing. Then it is transmitted as devotion and custom”.
Although the Catholicism and religion it has lost strength over the years, he indicates, it is not so with dances and pilgrimages.
Because they are representations of popular religiosity, they are deeply rooted in the culture of society and are unlikely to disappear.
This is demonstrated by José, who, after almost 15 years of being in charge of the Dance of San Rogelio, does not intend to abandon it.
“The tradition for me,” he says, “is to keep going as long as you can.”
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