Traditional Home Inside a Cave
Near Creel, Chihuahua Mexico
Photo by Jennifer Bjarnason November 2018
Imagine being able to create a form of currency from your field and stovetop? The Raramuri of Chihuahua, Mexico continue to function communally, often employing trade and bartering as a means for negotiating payment for labour and supplies. The importance of communal living is significant to the Raramuri and refusing to help a community member who has requested support can have extreme consequences, including excommunication. Money is not the first priority among the Raramuri, so rather than paying fixed prices for labour using cash, the Raramuri are known for negotiating terms based on how much wealth a person has.
The most common form of payment involves the preparation of a local alcoholic beer-like staple called Tesgüino. Made from sprouted corn, water and a few days to cook and ferment, tesgüino is akin to a homemade currency. A low-income family will prepare a barrel of tesgüino to offer labourers helping them, but when a wealthy family hosts workers for a big job, such as ploughing the fields or building and repairing structures, they will host a much costlier Tesgüinada.
Raramuri Woman Preparing Tesguino
Chihuahua, Mexico
Tesgüinada's are an integral part of Raramuri culture that include drinking the beloved corn beer, listening to important speeches by local elders, and can even be for settling disputes. When a baby is baptized, the family hosts a tesgüinada and the priest places a droplet of corn beer on the forehead of the baby. Most married couples are said to have met at one of these festive celebrations, often encouraged by local match-matchers. American anthropologist John G. Kennedy writes, “The tesgüinada is the religious group, the economic group, the entertainment group, and the group in which disputes are settled, marriages arranged and deals completed.”
Wise medicine men spend time in solitude consuming Tesgüino and communing with God. The religious celebrations that take place in this region during Semana Santa include this rustic drink and God himself, getting inebriated! To say the Raramuri have an unusual interpretation of Catholicism through their own cultural lens is an understatement.
Dance of Good Vs Evil
Urique Canyon, Chihuahua Mexico
Semana Santa, or Easter, is a major affair in Mexico, with various intriguing rituals taking place across the country over the course of 10 days. Preparations begin before Palm Sunday, or Domingo de Ramos and the ceremonies conclude on Easter Sunday. The dates of this ritual may be one of the few things that truly links this ceremony to Catholicism or Christianity.
In colonial towns of Central Mexico, such as Taxco and Patzcuaro, the Catholic Cofradia grace the streets in silence, wearing long gowns, pointed hoods and bare feet to demonstrate humility and humbleness in front of God. Some even go as far as to self-flagellate to make personal sacrifices in front of God. These somber and prudent processions are far from the pagan theatrics, use of magic, music and special circle-dances employed by the Raramuri in their battle to rescue God from the Devil during their annual Semana Santa ritual Tewerichic.
The Raramuri believe the Devil tricked God into consuming too much tesgüino, rendering God very drunk, weak, confused and vulnerable. They also hold an unusual belief that God has a wife, thus the community must partake in a quest to shield God's wife from danger and to shelter God until he is well again. To be unsuccessful at their mission would be dire, as this would allow the Devil to destroy God, his wife and all that exists.
Ritual Dance Good vs Evil
Urique Canyon, Chihuahua Mexico
This three day ceremony begins on Good Friday, with the dancers grouped into soldiers of God or cabochons for the Devil. Make-up and religious symbols are used to mark the characters with a role, and of course one important feature of this rite is tesgüino.
Each community has a unique way of interpreting this sacred ritual, though the practice of walking around the church in a circle is enacted to ward off evil, much like circles are sacred and protective in so many cultures worldwide. At one point, as the ritual climaxes, the dancers roll on the floor to rub off their body paint, at which point God is no longer drunk. On Easter Sunday, the villagers burn an effigy of Judas, so all order is restored when this intriguing observance concludes.
We have organized our itinerary to arrive in the canyons for special events starting on Palm Sunday, concluding with a portion of the Good vs Evil dance before we retreat to an epic hotel for the conclusion of our tour. We realize this tour is a little longer than many tours to this region, but if you appreciate culture and want to witness something so special as Tewerichic, it is crucial to be there before Palm Sunday until after Easter. This is not just a tour through the Copper Canyon - this experience reaches into the very soul of this powerful land, and will transform you in ways most tourism never could.
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Look-Out Point
Urique Canyon, Chihuahua Mexico
REFERENCES
"Culture and History of the Tarahumara." Milwaukee Public Museum, www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/online-collections-research/tarahumara/culture-and-history.
"Easter in Mexico: Rarámuri Semana Santa." Lolomercadito, www.lolomercadito.com/blogs/news/easter-in-mexico-raramuri-semana-santa.
"Tesguino, la bebida rarámuri que se consume desde antes de la colonia." El Heraldo de Chihuahua, www.elheraldodechihuahua.com.mx/cultura/tesguino-la-bebida-raramuri-que-se-consume-desde-antes-de-la-colonia-9869936.html.
"Tesquino Techniques." Brew Your Own, www.byo.com/article/tesquino-techniques/.
"Tesgüino." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 July 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesgüino.
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