GUELAGUETZA, HISTORY, OAXACAN CULTURE

Unfortunately, this year the Guelaguetza has been cancelled but we are going to learn the history behind this beautiful Oaxacan tradition! Let’s try to peep and learn Spanish culture through the Guelaguetza Festival, that is also known as the Lunes del Cerro or the “Mondays on the Hill“.

THE RICH SPANISH CULTURE

In 1932 personalities such as Dr. Alberto Varga, Policarpo Sánchez and Alfredo Canseco Feraud devise and generate the feast of the IV Centenary. It had two objectives: the “Racial Tribute” in which it was intended to project the native beauty and its values as modesty, humility and naivety. And the “Regional Exhibition” in which the towns of each region exhibited and commercialized their products . Alongside the Pre-hispanic heritage, which culminated with the exhibition of the jewels found in the Tomb 7 in Monte Albán in the former Hacienda de Aguilera (today a building of the School of Medicine of the Autonomous University Benito Juárez).

However, despite the broad context of this event, it failed to transcend; Lizama (2006) says that “Monday of the Hill” as the Guelaguetza is known can be analyzed in the transition of three periods:

1. There is no real certainty if the celebration was for Goddess Xilonen who was grateful for the sweet corn or for the God Ehecatl which allowed the winds,
2. Lira (2009) differs by expressing that this holiday was for the goddess Centeocíhuatl which indicated the beginning of the rainy season that allows the planting of fruits and vegetables that transcends the harvest at the end of October and beginning of November that currently we know as the Day of the Dead festivities,
3. Lizama (2006) conceives this celebration from the colonial syncretism that arises after the revolution, under the celebration of the Virgen del Carmen and Corpus Christi or “day of the mules” of the latter, traditions such as “going to the hill to cut wild lilies and eat tamales” were common. However Lira (2009) refers to it as an event that comes from the time of the viceroyalty as a cult of the virgin which allowed the delight of a walk along the Cerro del Fortín that assumed to be able to visualize the city, the Atoyac river and the valley at the end of the afternoon we had to cut lilies and undertake a precipitous descent before nightfall.

A PEEP INTO OAXACAN CULTURE

And a less historical argument is that the population met in the month of July to taste breakfast in food stalls that were located in the Fortín Hill which culminated with a downpour of the season, even today it is common to end up soaked in one of these parties, being until 1959 when this holiday was called “Guelaguetza” meaning reciprocity, to share, to give and receive.

Over 60 years have passed and this holiday continues to be a historical and international legacy in which communities join forces to preserve and take pride in their colorful and diverse customs, which makes Oaxaca creditor of the UNESCO designation as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as of 2010.

References:

Lira, C. (2009). Ciudades mexicanas de siglo XX, Siete estudios históricos. México: COLMEX.

Lizama, J. (2006). La Guelaguetza en Oaxaca: fiesta, relaciones interétnicas y procesos de construcción simbólica en el contexto urbano. México: CIESAS.

Maldonado, M. d. (2013). Momentos de la construcción de la Ciudad de Oaxaca como producto turístico. Revista del Centro de Investigaciones, 10(39).