Patamban: Fiesta de Cristo Rey

A glimpse of the Fiesta de Cristo Rey

It was a stunning, flower-filled trip in all ways. Wild flowers were everywhere and we could have added days to our trip if we had stopped at every field of vibrant color. However, we were on a mission to get to Patamban for the Fiesta de Cristo Rey, the day when Christ was embraced as the son of God.

Patamban Fiesta

Patamban Circle

We were lucky enough to have Xill Fessenden as our leader. Xill has lived in Mexico for 33 years and started the Purépecha festival that is held in Ajijic. (The next one will be in 2019.) She seems to know everyone and everything about this part of the world. On the way back, she wanted to show us the church with painted ceilings in Nurio but it was closed.

Some of the indigenous towns have loud speakers that function somewhat like the internet or Facebook. Not long after we arrived, we heard words booming across the village. The language was Purépecha so we didn't understand anything except ... words, words, Julia, words, words, words, Julia. Repeated several times. Turns out that Xill goes by Julia in the villages and they were announcing her arrival and telling everyone that she wanted someone to open the church. Soon, someone arrived and did just that. Everywhere she went, doors opened and we experienced things that we wouldn't have been able to without her. Thanks, Xill! (She is a Wonder Woman and you can read more about her here.)

Our plan was to have lunch at Lake Camécuaro and then go on to Patamban for the fiesta. I could have stayed forever at that incredibly beautiful, spring-fed lake surrounded by an ancient ahuehuetl (cypress) grove. There will be a separate post about this place, but here's a peek.

Lunch at Lake Camécuaro

Next stop: Patamban for the regional festival that attracts thousands of people from Zamora, Guadalajara and other surrounding towns. Very few gringos. In an article by Allan Cogan (referenced below), he states,

"... although Patamban's parade and all of its preparations have religious connotations it should be explained that there is no historical significance to the event. If anything, the reason for the Fiesta is economic. Rather than originating 500 years ago, it is just over 50 years old and is done to attract people and money to the town. In that regard, I would say it was an outstanding successful." (Written in 2001)

We knew it would be crowded so we weren't surprised when traffic began to creep past hundreds of tiendas that formed the mercado on both sides of the road. We had to park a couple of kilometers from our base destination ... a family Xill is friends with and who were preparing dinner for us and providing a place to rest in between outings.

Beautiful country seen from our hosts' roof

 Soon we began to see the carpets of flowers and the families still working on them. The carpets begin with a strip of sawdust about 30 inches wide. Some people use stencils to create the patterns and some seem to do the designs free-hand using flowers, petals, acorns, leaves, seeds, moss, and any other plant with interesting colors and designs. Only pictures can convey the beauty, creativity, and color of this event. If you think I'm over sharing, you should see the 174 photos I didn't share.

 

One of the things that intrigued me was the many alternatives to papel picado they created.

However, as always, the most fun part of these events was the people. I found a quote this morning from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel about how we're losing the power of celebration and expecting to be entertained. For many of us attending this fiesta, it was about entertainment. However, as we watched the families with their buckets of gathered flowers, pine cones, and seeds, carefully creating beautiful symbols in the streets, beauty that would be destroyed only a few minutes later, it was clear that they were celebrating life, family, faith and abundance.

Here are some of the people we met on the trip.

Cooking blue corn quesadillas for us

Our hostess

When traveling companion Maureen Clark asked this woman if she could take her picture, the woman suggested a trade ... a picture for a soda. We couldn't get to a store but she accepted a few pesos. With that smile, I'm sure she would have let us take the picture anyway.

Such amazing handwork

Bottling golden honey

 

These bikers wanted their photos taken and the one in the green vest spent a lot of time trying to help me to pronounce Lake Camécuaro properly. Young Mexican men are always very sweet to little old ladies.

And, of course, the children

 

A tienda in the street. This is a one day festival so all this merchandise has to be set up in the morning and then taken down at night. A long day for these people.

A sense of how crowded it was

 And, of course, how would any of this happen without power?

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions."
― Abraham Joshua Heschel

More information:

Patamban - The Fiesta De Cristo Rey by Billy Frost, Mexconnect, 2001

Journey to Patamban, Michoacan by Allan Cogan, Mexconnect, 2000

Wonder Woman: Xill Fessenden, Photographer, Artist, Activist

Alcatraz by Xill Fessenden

I expected little from the art auction in the plaza, perhaps a piece by a local artist for my new apartment. I definitely didn’t expect to see a large, luminous image of an alcatraz (cala lilly) that left me breathless. Who was this artist? …  a digital artist here in this small village in Mexico? Could I possibly afford this incredible piece?

I did manage to bring that piece home and the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to meet Xill (Jill) Fessenden and know about her work and her story. Finally, we connected in her studio/home and I discovered far more than an amazing photographer and artist. I found someone who set the standards for a Wonder Woman.

The Mexico part of Xill's story began after a serious accident when she decided to reinvent her life. She knew it meant a move but she wasn’t sure where to go. Deciding to sleep on it and wait for an omen, she slipped notes with the names Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and Mexico under her pillow. And omens did appear … one sublime and one ridiculous. 

The first omen came during a visit to the high desert, spring poppy fields in California. In the distance, hovering over the poppies, she saw a dark smudge. As she approached, she saw that it was a flock of birds with a bigger bird in the center. And when she got closer, she recognized the bigger bird as a golden eagle. And, in it’s beak was a snake … the national symbol of Mexico. The second omen, the seemingly ridiculous one, appeared when she spilled chili on her shirt and recognized the shape of Mexico. 

Mixed media piece by Xill Fessenden

It was enough to point her toward Mexico and by June of 1985 she was living on the shores of Lake Chapala, the largest lake in Mexico, intending to devote herself to photography. Her intentions expanded when she began to explore the villages of Mexico and experienced the generous nature of the people and their culture. 

A November, 2017, interview with El Ojo del Lago, (page 32) reported, "... the most important things she learned while traveling to indigenous villages was how a community functions as a whole: where the land, the community, the family and the individual have the same identity, and they all work together as a unit. They build each others’ houses, share the harvest, and help each others’ children—the way it should be. It moved her, and formed a desire for her to help preserve that culture."

Book featuring Xill Fessenden's work

Recognized as a serious and successful photographer and digital artist, Xill told writer Rob Mohr, “My works are not manipulation of a photo, rather an intervention creating a statement of feeling. I don’t feel like I take a picture, but am given a picture.”

Xill is also widely recognized as an activist who makes things happen. She opened the Centro Ajijic de Bellas Artes (CABA) art center with sculptor Estela Hidalgo to help teach art to local children. 

In 1998, she started the local Purépecha Festival to honor the food, culture and art of what was once the second largest empire in Mexico. She wants her photography to engage people outside the world of art galleries, and created Galeria al Aire Libre Axixic (GALA) so everyone could enjoy open air exhibits focused on local families, animals, children’s art and, currently, on the history of Ajijic.

Peregrinos Wixárikas from Banamex book

In 2000, she prompted a Hands Across the Lake event to hug the lake and increase awareness of the importance of protecting it. This photo taken by John Frost shows how low the water level was at that point when you could actually walk to Scorpion Island (Isla Alacranes), so named because of its shape not its inhabitants. 

Poster outside Xill's door

Today, in addition to making art, working with the Purépecha people to bring their culture to Ajijic, and her other environmental interests, now as a Mexican citizen, she is turning her attention to the political situation in Mexico, especially with the indigenous movements such as the example in Cherán in Michoacán, which the Los Angeles Times calls, "a bastion of tranquillity within one of Mexico’s most violent regions." 

In an area where illegal timber trucks belonging to criminal syndicates raided the community's communal forests, the authorities refused to help.  The community revolted.

On April 15, 2011, before dawn, the people of Cheran sounded the bells at the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Calvary and set off homemade fireworks to summon help. Few had firearms, so they brought picks, shovels and rocks.

Then they struck, seizing the first timber truck of the day, dragging its two crew members from the cab and taking them hostage. Lacking rope, they tied up their prisoners with rebozos, or shawls. -- Los Angeles Times

The community went on to throw out all the political parties, all the police, the entire system. The Times article reports, "In 2014 Cheran’s provisional system of self-government was declared legal. The town remains part of Mexico but runs its own show."

Historically, artists have always been involved in political movements. Xill Fessenden follows in that long tradition and continues to earn her designation as a Wonder Woman.