World Mother Earth Day is commemorated every April 22, more than a billion people in 190 countries carry out various demonstrations and actions to remember that the planet and its ecosystems give us life and sustenance. The origin of this celebration began in 1970, when 20 million Americans began to demonstrate for a healthy and sustainable environment. It was in 2009 when the United Nations Organization declared April 22 as World Mother Earth Day.
According to the United Nations Organization, this day offers the opportunity to raise awareness among all the inhabitants of the planet about the problems that affect the Earth and the different forms of life that develop on it. Expand and diversify the environmental movement around the world and mobilize it effectively to build a healthy and sustainable environment, address climate change, and protect the Earth for future generations.
In Mexico, the importance of preserving Mother Earth is celebrated and recognized, a common expression used to refer to the planet in various countries and regions, which demonstrates the interdependence between human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit.
For example, for the Wixarikas, the earth is a central divine being, it is the mother Tatei Yurianaka, this deity gives life to herself and to the world. For the Tzotzils of Chiapas, like many other peoples, they think that the land on which they live, walk, and breathe is sacred. They conceive of the land as the mother of their community, so it is imperative to request its authorization before making use of it: harvesting fruits, growing food and drinking water, even building houses.
For the Andean people (currently made up of the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the associated countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) Mother Earth is known as “Pachamama”, which clearly reflects that the concepts regarding Mother Earth coincide in essence among the world’s ethnic groups.
In 1992, more than 178 countries signed Program 21, made up of Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Declaration of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), the Program is a comprehensive action planto be adopted universally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments and Major Groups in each area in which human beings influence environment.
Subsequently, with the objective of providing humanity with the necessary instruments for the sustainable use of natural resources and to build the essential scientific infrastructure for sustainable development, in 2005, the General Assembly declared 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth for promote the teaching of Earth sciences.
It is imperative to reflect on the fact that climate change is one of the main challenges facing humanity in the 21st century and that its main manifestations have repercussions on biology, economy and society. Mexico highlights two points: Humanity recognizes that the Earth and its ecosystems are home and declares itself convinced that in order to achieve a fair balance between the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations, it is necessary to promote harmony with the nature and the Earth. Likewise, Mexico together with 171 countries (through the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016) commits to work to stabilize the increase in the planet’s temperature below 2º Celsius.
Mother Earth pleads for immediate, clear, convinced, committed actions. The oceans fill with plastics and become more acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires, floods, and other weather events have affected millions of people. In 2020, COVID-19 emerged, a global health pandemic with a strong relationship with the health of our ecosystem.
Climate change, human-induced changes in nature, as well as crimes that disturb biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensive agricultural and livestock production, or the growing illegal trade in wildlife, may accelerate the rate of destruction of the planet.
Ecosystems support all forms of life on Earth. The health of the planet and its inhabitants directly depends on the health of ecosystems. Restoring those that are damaged will help end poverty, combat climate change, and prevent mass extinction.
Becoming aware that the human being is part of the earth and not the other way around “that the earth does not belong to us” is the first step to reverse the damage that has been caused, consider more the vision of indigenous communities and inhabitants of towns natives who venerate Mother Earth, for being the giver of life and sustenance. Remembering today more than ever that there must be a shift towards a more sustainable economy that works for both people and the planet. Promote harmony with nature and the earth.
World Art Day is an international celebration of the arts, which was declared by the International Art Association(IAA) in order to promote awareness of creative activity throughout the world. The proposal was presented at the 17th General Assembly of the Association in Guadalajara to declare April 15 as World Art Day, with its first celebration taking place in 2012.
This proposal was sponsored by Bedri Baykam from Turkey and co-signed by Rosa Maria Burillo Velasco from Mexico, Anne Pourny from France, Liu Dawei from China, Christos Symeonides from Cyprus, Anders Liden from Sweden, Kan Irie from Japan, Pavel Kral from Slovakia, Dev Chooramun from Mauritius, and Hilde Rognskog from Norway. This proposal was unanimously accepted by the General Assembly.
The date was chosen in honor of the birth day of Leonardo da Vinci (painter, sculptor, designer, architect, poet, biologist and a long etcetera, for whom he considers the “Renaissance man”), who was selected as a world symbol of peace, freedom of expression, tolerance, brotherhood and multiculturalism.
The first World Art Day was on April 15, 2012, it was supported by all the national committees of the International Art Association and 150 artists, including those from France, Sweden, Slovakia, South Africa, Cyprus and Venezuela, but the intention of the event is universal. The events varied in terms of special museum hours, conferences and more.
Art is one of the most evolved forms of human expression. Through it, man can express his personal vision of what afflicts him, interests him or simply seems beautiful to him, through plastic, sound or linguistic resources.
The creativity of the human being can be fluid or limited since it is linked to artistic freedom, which is the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions without government censorship, political interference or pressure from non-state actors. It includes the right of all citizens to access these works and is essential for the well-being of societies.
Artistic freedom embodies a set of rights protected under international law: The right to create without censorship or intimidation; the right to have artistic work supported, distributed and remunerated; the right to freedom of movement; the right to freedom of association; the right to protection of economic and social rights; the right to participate in cultural life.
The 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions states that “Cultural diversity can only be protected and promoted if human rights and fundamental freedoms are guaranteed, such as freedom of expression, information and communication, as well as the possibility for people to have access to diverse cultural expressions” [1]
However, the world still cannot speak of full artistic freedom, quoting Deeyah Khan, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for artistic freedom and creativity: “The right of artists to express themselves freely is threatened all over the world “Art has the extraordinary capacity to express resistance and rebellion, protest and hope. It makes an essential contribution to all prosperous democracies” [2]
The adoption of World Art Day confirms the importance for Mexico, as a cultural power, of the creative industries and policies on the matter as central points to generate development and social inclusion within a framework of respect for cultural diversity and non-discrimination, rights and actions.
This celebration has the purpose of becoming one of the instruments to promote the role of culture as a transversal tool to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, while reinforcing UNESCO’s sectors and programs and remembering the incalculable contributions that the arts and cultural heritage represent for humanity.
2020 became a watershed for many activities and social dynamics, in the presence of COVID-19, “these times force us to reflect on the future of the cultural field in the midst of a global emergency. Dialogue and listening will be essential to imagine new horizons in a collective, diverse and inclusive way. With solidarity and generosity we will get ahead” Alejandra Frausto, Secretary of Culture of Mexico. This is how the strategy “With you in the distance” was adopted, a space for creators and the general public that invites them to discover the cultural diversity of Mexico and participate actively, without having to leave home.
Mexico is also a seedbed of this diversity of artistic expressions committed to this cause and also celebrates this world festival, to show nationally and internationally that culture in our country is above violence and is the maximum expression that writes our history, because we have an enormous wealth of pre-Hispanic, colonial and modern art that can be seen both in museums, as well as in public areas and in the abundant remains of indigenous architecture.
The celebrations of this day help to strengthen the links between artistic creations and society, to promote a greater awareness of the diversity of artistic expressions and to highlight the contribution of artists to sustainable development. Likewise, this date is the opportunity to highlight artistic education in schools, since culture is the path to an inclusive and equitable education. There is much to learn, share and celebrate on World Art Day, and UNESCO encourages everyone to participate through various activities such as debates, conferences, workshops, cultural events and presentations or exhibitions.
Tenango embroidered representation of the Otomi culture
By NÔMADE CINEMA
Reading Time: 4minutes
When we talk about Mexican embroidery, it is important to highlight that there is not a single style or a single technique, on the contrary, in Mexico various types of embroidery coexist and there are great textile artists. The tenango is a type of embroidered textile that is made in the municipalities of Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo, and Pahuatlan de Valle, Puebla. They are blanket canvases of different sizes, in which the embroiderers illustrate the flora and fauna of the region and scenes of daily and festive life. Each figure is embroidered with cotton threads using the “cross past” technique.
San Nicolas is an Otomí – Tepehua community located 8 kilometers from the Tenango de Doria municipality, in the mountains of the state of Hidalgo; Known as “the cradle of embroidery” because a large part of its population is dedicated to the drawing and embroidery of the tenango which in Nahuatl conception means “place of the walls”. For the artisans, the embroidery of these artistic pieces are artistic representations of their culture, their environment, their festivals, their dances, their beliefs, the flora and fauna that surrounds them; Generally, they are embroidered with colors that represent the state of mind of the person who embroiders them.
The tenango not only represents an embroidery technique or the style of the region, the tenango is cultural heritage that symbolizes the importance of a date, the remembrance of an event, the meaning of an identity and the importance of local biodiversity. The tenango is often embroidered with motifs representing festivities, the day of the dead, the harvest, religion, daily life, natural landscapes and animals, demonstrating respect and symbolic devotion.
Each color used for tenango embroidery is specially selected in relation to the meaning of the image to be embroidered. In the past, embroidery was only made with red and black threads, which represented good and evil. Subsequently, they began to experiment more with embroidery and the colors they wanted to implement, adding much more vivid colors, also designed to give a special meaning to each one. Using green as the new representative of vegetation, orange as fire, blue as the moon, brown as earth, red as good and black as evil.
Embroidery arose in 1960 thanks to the commercial exchange between San Nicolas, Tenango de Doria, and San Pablito, Pahuatlan de Valle. During the days of the market, embroiderers from Tenango came to sell napkins and blanket tablecloths made with the “cross stitch” technique. One day, whoever bought them suggested that they change the “stitch”, an “easier” one, which would allow them to do the embroideries in less time. The embroiderers decided to use the technique “to the crossed past” and since the textiles were exchanged immediately, they preferred to continue with this way of elaboration.
During the first years napkins and tablecloths were made; The drawn figures were embroidered with colored cotton threads, alluding to the traditional blouse of the region, and with red and black colors, representing the cave paintings found in the El Cirio cave. Subsequently, since the 1990s, due to the increase in distribution channels and market demand, they decided to make other objects that they did not commonly embroider, such as clothing, pillowcases, curtains, bags, bookmarks, and earrings, among others.
Nowadays, textile production is carried out both in Tenango de Doria and in Pahuatlan de Valle, and for several years, in the municipality of San Bartolo Tutotepec, due to the quantity and variety of embroideries that are now manufactured in the region, the embroiderers of Tenango de Doria have established certain categories to define their textiles as authentic and thus be recognized. An original tenango is one elaborated in its entirety by the same person, that is to say, that the drawing has been made by also the embroiderer. Textile manufacturing is considered a creative activity that cannot be interrupted; As they draw, they think about what colors each figure should have.
Currently, this form of production is unusual given the dynamics of the market, which is why the embroiderers have added to the definition of original embroidery, that it be done by someone who belongs to one of the towns of Tenango de Doria, as a kind of “Appellation of origin”.
Another characteristic is the way of embroidering, the technique “to the crossed past” must be carried out properly to prevent the blanket and the traces of the drawing from being seen through the threads. The back of the textile should not have folds and the stitch should only be seen as a line that marks the outline of each figure. For the embroiderers, the technique is one of the identification criteria because it expresses specific knowledge of certain localities, which through learning from generation to generation have been perfected.
The choice and combination of colors also allows defining whether or not it is an original tenango; for embroiderers they must be contrasting with each other, different from the representation of the figure and, by means of them, mark the details of the drawing. Some use the first combinations, black with red, and others prefer to embroider with colored threads. Recently, they embroider with a single color, either by request of the buyer or because this allows them to finish an embroidery in less time, thus they do not invest time in choosing and combining colors according to the created composition.
With each of these elements or with all of them together, the embroiderers determine if a textile was made in their locality. Likewise, these elements are used to establish borders in terms of ethnic identity; They are forms of manufacturing that correspond only to the population that belongs to one of the localities of Tenango de Doria.
In April 2016, the Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma stores incorporated into their sales catalog pillows embroidered with the technique and iconography typical of the tenangos. Through social networks, a Mexican woman residing in Chula Vista, California, requested signatures that were gathered on the Change.org page for the company to stop the production of “Otomi textiles” in China and to stop marketing them. Although the required number of signatures were not obtained, the pillows were removed from the display areas of the stores located in Mexico City (Polanco and Plaza Oasis).
We cannot continue cultivating the plagiarism of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Original Nations for commercial purposes that favor private consortia. Both these motifs and their technique have an owner and it is the indigenous communities who have preserved them through the tradition of their preparation until today. Similarly, civil associations have denounced the cultural appropriation of the tenangos, considering them part of the cultural heritage of Mexico.
The tenango is a unique piece, a craft created in the day to day of the artisan, the inspiration is always different, every day is different and that is why from its conception a tenango is a remarkable and unrepeatable piece, not only in its design but also in the orientation of the embroidery and the combination of colors. The embodied drawings are particular interpretations of reality and come from the imagination, which makes all the embroideries unique.
The Procession of Silence manifestation of popular mourning
By NÔMADE CINEMA
Reading Time: 4minutes
The Procession of Silence in San Luis Potosí, has its origins in 13th century Spain, when Franciscan priests began their Processions of Blood, in which they inflicted physical punishment and represented scenes related to the Passion of Christ. In the 16th century, the ritual was brought to New Spain thanks to the order of the Discalced Carmelites, it would be established annually, as it is now, until 1954. Since then, it has become the most important Catholic procession. important of the Mexican Republic. Religious heritage that reveals the faith of Potosi, the Procession of Silence is a powerful communion of people with God.
This particular procession was officially established in 1955 by Monsignor Joaquin Antonio Peñalosa Santillan, with the support of a very large community of Creoles and descendants of Spaniards historically settled in the town. At that moment, the bullfighters Fermin Rivera, Nicolas de San Jose and others began a small procession to promulgate the Via Crucis and the pain of the Virgen de la Soledad for the bullfighters’ guild, in the Iglesia de El Carmen. It is based on the Holy Week processions in Seville, Spain.
The squares in the center of the city are filled to capacity. The streets are crowded with people, food, sweets, relics, chamomile, blessed bread, incense, candles and solemnity, everything opens up to Easter. A silent procession of more than two thousand people including children, young people, women and men, carrying venerated images on a litter, which are the reason for the crowd.
On the night of Good Friday in the Plaza del Carmen, profusely illuminated, the Teatro de la Paz and the Federal Palace, beautiful vestiges of the 19th century from San Luis Potosi, make a fence for the demonstration of pain. The neighborhoods of Tlaxcala, Santiago, San Miguelito, San Sebastian, El Montecillo, San Juan de Guadalupe and Tequisquiapan are present. The Convents are also present: The Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Franciscans and the former Jesuits. Children, young people, professionals, railway workers, (all turned into brotherhoods) in addition to the Charros and the Adelitas, the Praetorian Guard and the Veronicas.
It is eight o’clock at night, everyone is waiting for the start of the duel, the departure of the Procession. The bugle, from the steps of the Teatro de la Paz gives the order to start, the Praetorian Guard walks martially towards the main door of the Templo del Carmen and calls the Zaguan that opens and begins the Procession of Silence. Eight chimes, three knocks on the door and a spirited steed mounted by its rider, in front of the square and followed by a pennant carved in silver, a High Cross and candlesticks plus the Brotherhood of altar boys from the Tequisquiapan neighborhood lead this demonstration of mourning popular.
Members of the different brotherhoods, most of them penitents with their faces covered and bare feet, many of them dragging chains, will accompany the images, carried on a litter by the bearers, with the impressive roll of drums and the sound of trumpets. Some, due to their enormous weight, represent a penance that is carried out with fervor. As has happened in previous years, those who attend the Procession of Silence participate with devotion and respectfully observe the passing of the images.
People form the procession, they are also the spectator. The rebozos of Santa Maria shine in gold, red, blue, gray, pigeon, white, yellow and green. Mourning is rigorous in the ladies, they wear a comb and a braided shawl; brothers with tall dresses, lampposts and a devout silence, only interrupted by the duel of the drum and the bugle. The saetillas in honor of the Jesus who is going to be sacrificed, as well as of the Virgen de la Soledad, who closes the passage of the procession, will be released at strategic points, from those architectural jewels that are the balconies of the city, to move even more to those who witness the procession.
La Dolorosa, La Virgen de la Soledad, a precious sculpture sculpted by Manuel Tolsa, full of tuberose and illuminated by more than a hundred candles, with a tearful face, crowned and resplendent with stars on her diadem, covered by a cloak in the form of a cloak for a walk , under a precious canopy embroidered in black and gold, while the Costaleros raise it in public view in a canopy richly covered in gold. He is the central figure that the people want to see, offer their condolences. Today, the world remembers the death of Jesus. Thus, the slow and painful journey after several hours will come to an end, when the image of the Sorrowful Virgin crosses the threshold of the Templo del Carmen last.
One Good Friday night he received, once again, the solidarity of Catholics in his immense sorrow. In a procession that lasts 240 minutes and in which 20 brotherhoods with 2,000 people participate, illuminating their pilgrimage through the streets of the center of this colonial Mexican city with 3,000 candles and which is followed by the silent gaze of thousands of spectators. It is the representation of the thirteen stations of the cross and five painful mysteries.
According to Catholic tradition, Holy Week is the last week of the period known as Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday. During this period, seven Fridays of Lent have to be fulfilled, since each of them is dedicated to a religious dedication or passage from the period of the passion of Jesus Christ. There are people who affirm that during the seven Fridays you have to do total penance. Lent, a period of forty days in which the rites of penance and repentance are established, contrasts with the Carnival festivities, which are the prelude to Lent.
Today, it is the only procession in Mexico that represents all the stations of the Via Crucis. It was declared part of the Cultural Heritage of the state of San Luis Potosi in 2013, as well as the most important civic and religious act in the State.
Holy Week Cora or “La Judea” is a cultural practice carried out by this indigenous group and is closely related to the agricultural cycle of corn cultivation, with the advent of the rainy cycle, with the renewal of vegetation, and the rebirth of life; It is interesting due to the union of several elements: cultural syncretism, the relationship with the gods and with the agricultural cycle, for its artistic expression (body painting, costumes, music and dance), in addition to the fact that it constitutes the best form of reproduction of the identity of this town.
This cultural practice is carried out in the Cora Alta region of Santa Teresa, Dolores, Mesa del Nayar, San Francisco and Jesus Maria; as well as from Cora Baja such as San Juan Corapan, Presidio de los Reyes, Mojocuautla, Rosarito, San Juan Bautista, San Blasito, Huaynamota, in the state of Nayarit.
During Holy Week Cora, the indigenous worldview is clearly observed, which considers life as a cycle and the world as a place made of dualities, where the forces of evil are present and fight against the forces of good. This vision of duality as complementary “opposites” make up a complex cosmogonic unity, which allows otherness, or the “other”, to have a place in the indigenous festival and is even necessary to maintain stability, identity, unity; that is, it is necessary for the very existence of the community.
Indeed, in the Cora indigenous communities located in the mountainous areas of western Mexico, particularly in the state of Nayarit, the celebrations recall the events related to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and are part of an inversion ritual where, for After eight days, the civil authorities hand over control of time, space and the public life of the communities to the ceremonial group of centurions.
Apparently this staging of Catholic Holy Weekreplaces the ancestral practice of the Cora of the “mitote guerrero”, which was forbidden to them since they were conquered. In the narration of Fray Alonso Ponce during his stay in the provinces of New Spain in 1587, a fact is mentioned that could be the antecedent of the tradition of the “Erases” (the Jews of Holy Week) since it describes “a dance of blacks” that possibly executed painted Indians who danced to the sound of a drum and a flute.
Holy Week Cora de Santa Teresa faithfully adheres to this cultural pattern; During eight days the indigenous people usually transform into different characters (Jews or “erased”, Pharisees, Moors, black and white demons, doubles of Christ, etc.) to carry out innumerable rites, processions, cosmic fights and day and night ceremonies; they execute this following a very precise temporal order. It is a period of liberation from Evil in which cosmic harmony is endangered.
Each participant designs their own paint and outfit so no two are alike. Participants paint or “erase” their bodies with paints made from burnt and crushed corn (for the color black), and mud, for hair. There are also dyes based on colored anilines mixed with honey and water. The celebration takes place from Wednesday to Saturday of Holy Week. During this time, the civil authorities cede control of the community to a group of centurions. On Wednesday night, the “black Jews” and the “Romans”, who represent the rising evil, begin to dance. They search, all day long, for Christ to kill him. In the afternoon, another group of Jews, who represent the apostles, paint themselves white.
It is around four in the afternoon that black and white Jews go through the whole town until they reach the ceremonial center. Once there, the black Jews can break their fast, while the whites dance into the night to earn their food. When it gets dark and the white Jews have eaten, they go home, but the black Jews continue to dance; around midnight, they go in search of corn to a plantation.
In general, they leave in the early hours of the next day (between twelve and one) and return at six in the morning carrying sacks of corn that is “stolen” (donated by the owner of the land in exchange for blessings on their land). harvest) They call all this cosmic fight or fight in the reality of the nayeri. It is supposed that on Wednesday they leave our reality and enter the nayeri reality, fighting with good and evil, represented with the colors they use to paint themselves; the processions are made against the clock and god is a badger, a drum and a flute.
On Glory Saturday the situation is reversed. Christ is resurrected, the demons self-destruct and return to the river, from where they had left at the beginning of the ceremony. The restitution of powers to civil authorities. Finally, peace and balance return to the town once the last procession to the Catholic temple is carried out, which is presided over by Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, as well as the Pharisees, the Jews, the musicians and the community people.
The Cora people, during this period, get involved as a whole (children, youth, adults, women, the elderly), constituting themselves as an element of community cohesion. It is a cultural expression of exceptional value for its permanence through time, for its cultural syncretism, for its impressive symbolic richness (in the characters, the use of space and the relationship with the gods and with the agricultural cycle), for its symbolic artistic expression (in body paintings, masks, music, dances) and finally because it is the fundamental celebration in the reproduction of the identity of the Cora people.
We know that the Holy Week festivities, as well as others with religious themes, arose in the period of Evangelization by religious orders as a form of dramatization so that Catholic rituals could be better understood and assimilated by the indigenous population.
During the Viceroyalty, we find descriptions of Holy Week that date back to 1582 where the seriousness and solemnity with which the pilgrimages were carried out is noted, and how they were accompanied by three individuals in mourning who played from time to time three large trumpets out of tune. Among these descriptions, the one on Holy Thursday of 1609 stands out, referred to by Torquemada, where he tells us that more than twenty thousand Indians, among whom were more than three thousand penitents, left the chapel of San Jose de los Naturales in procession.
Currently, the celebration of Holy Week in Mexico has variations from one community to another in terms of representations and organization, however, it also maintains a series of constants. In the case of the celebration of Holy Week among the indigenous, there is a combination of elements where not only the Passion of Christ is remembered, but also the political-religious takeover of the American continent, the renewal of the land and in some cases , it comes to the transgression of the rules.
For the Raramuris in the Sierra Tarahumara, the Pharisees break the sexual taboos of their own culture in complicity with Judas who is characterized by his “sexual activity”; the festivities of Holy Week not only represent the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also the eternal struggle between good and evil, they call it “nolirúache” (going around) and it marks a kind of new year according to their agricultural calendar, when to the rhythm of dances and drums they ask for the arrival of the rain. These celebrations originated after the arrival of the first Spanish missionaries in the mountains, who in an attempt to evangelize showed the Tarahumara some evangelical passages about the Greater Week.
Very similar happens among the Coras in Nayarit who have the habit of painting their bodies in colors. The Jews are a group of young people who, during the festivities, represent an army of nocturnal demons (of fertility), who go around half-naked with their bodies painted and carrying masks and wooden sabers as part of their attire. The Christ-Sun (fundamental character of this celebration) is personified in this region by the Nazarene Child, and the task of the Jews is to persecute him, this spectacular ceremony is still forbidden to people outside the community.
In Sonora and Sinaloa, the Mayo-Yoreme Indians recreate the Passion and Death of Jesus with total religious syncretism. The so-called Pharisees put on masks made of goat or pig skin and spend days singing and dancing, going into houses to beg. Meanwhile, Pilate, the chief who is on horseback, is giving orders to his Pharisees to collect money for the party. Then, on Glory Saturday, all the Pharisees turn good and burn their masks in a huge bonfire.
The Yaquis of Sonora celebrate a party that begins to open to the public, something previously prohibited. The Yaquis also make a dramatization of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus in which the participants are divided into pure and impure. It is a staging very similar to that of the Mayos carrying here the Pharisees masks that prevent them from speaking or using their right hand. They are sinners and they pay as such. In the period of Lent, it is the religious authorities who have the power to direct the community. On Good Friday the houses are closed and there is no music or any type of public activity that is not sad prayers in the Church as a sign of mourning.
The Mazatecosof San Pedro Ixcatlan, in the state of Oaxaca, used to hit trees on Glory Saturday so that they bear good fruit. “The festivities for the Mazatec indigenous are attached to traditions and customs amalgamated with Catholic beliefs and practices, invoking the same saints of the Catholic pantheon as the “owners” or spirits of things, places and animals. All religious festivals They are accompanied by dances, sporting events with teams from other towns, horse races or cockfights”, explains Rene Suaste, a University researcher.
Each of these elements adopted, fused, mixed, have a sequence and a logical relationship according to their culture. The custom of pilgrimages, music, dance and other expressions of a space culturally built by them still prevails. Even when modernity has caused some rites to give way to other customs, the worldview and mythology of the indigenous people influence their daily life, to the extent that said ancestral visions have marked their own territories of development.
Mexico is a country faithful to its Catholic tradition, which has managed to remain through its rites and customs resulting from the syncretism of its indigenous roots and its Spanish influence. Some of the places where Holy Week is lived more intensely and emotionally in Mexico are Patzcuaro and Uruapan in Michoacan, as well as in San Miguel de Allende, Taxco, San Luis Potosi and Queretaro. In Iztapalapa, within Mexico City, the celebration of the Via Crucis is internationally famous.
What happens during Holy Week in Mexico is much more than a set of colorful representations and pilgrimages, it is the manifestation of culture, faith and the unity of a country through its traditions. The family spirit, hope and hospitality of a people reach their maximum expression because they involve a large part of the Mexican territory.
Coffee is a strategic crop in Mexico; its production employs more than 500,000 producers from 15 states and 480 municipalities; currently the per capita consumption of coffee in the country is 1,600 kilograms per year, according to the Federal Consumer Attorney’s Office (PROFECO) 85% of Mexicans drink from one to three cups a day and men consume more, 3 cups versus two cups for women. Within the territory, excellent quality coffees are produced, since the topography, altitude, climates and soils allow it to grow varieties classified among the best in the world.
The production in Mexico of its coffee trees represents 2.4% of the world total. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SAGARPA)
Mexico is considered one of the main organic coffee producing countries in the world, allocating 3.24% of the total cultivated area of this product for this variety, and exports 28,000 tons (mainly to the European Union), in addition to having a large diversity of producers, including men and women, indigenous communities, those who dedicate themselves to specialty coffee, large, small and in transition.
Of the 15 coffee-producing states; In the south of the country, Chiapas is the main producing state, contributing 41.0% of the national volume, followed by Veracruz (24.0%) and Puebla (15.3%). The latter, in recent years, has reached third place in the list of national production of coffee[1], with the most productive municipalities being:
Xicotepec with 15 thousand 860 tons,
Zihuateutla 12 thousand 320 tons,
Hueytamalco 9 thousand 600 tons,
Tlacuilotepec 8 thousand 960 tons,
Jalpan 8 thousand 525 tons,
Cuetzalan del Progreso 6 thousand 582 tons,
Tlaxco 6 thousand 300 tons and
Jopala 6 thousand tons.
The variety of coffee that is produced mostly in the state of Puebla is “arábica”, classified within the group of “mild coffees”, where species such as:
Criollo: descendant of the original African family, it is the variety that best adapted to Mexican soil.
Bourbón: variety highly appreciated for being resistant to winds, adaptable to different types of environmental conditions, mostly from Chiapas.
Caturra: mutation of Bourbon plants, with a pleasant flavor of slightly lower quality than Creole.
Catimor: cross between Caturra and Timor, short and resistant in adverse conditions, with higher yield and more productivity.
Robusta: coffee tree that produces a strong-tasting coffee due to its greater caffeine content.
The Sierra Norte de Puebla region, due to its topography, hydrography, altitude, climates and soils, have allowed cultivating and producing varieties classified among the best in the world. Mexican Association of Coffees and Specialty Coffee Shops (AMCCE)
The climate that predominates in the Sierra Norte de Puebla is humid semi-warm, with an average temperature between 18°C and 24°C, with abundant rainfall throughout the year. Due to these fruitful conditions, this area produces “prima washed” coffees (its flavor and aroma are pleasant, good acidity and good body) grown at medium heights that offer smooth flavors and pleasant aromas.
Cuetzalan, is the Magical Town that inhabits forests with fog, coffee plantations, waterfalls, caves, grottos and giant ferns; there where the birds begin their song and the very meaning of its name associates it with the divine mythical bird of pre-Hispanic cultures: the quetzal. The original name was “Quetzalan”, a place of abundance of quetzals or a bunch of red feathers with blue tips on two teeth. It was founded by the Totonacs in 200 B.C.
Its population is made up of Totonac and Nahua indigenous people who manifest their culture through various rituals such as “Los Voladores”, a dance associated with fertility and Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO since 2009. Located at an altitude of 930 meters, it has a subtropical climate, semi-humid and with rain all year round. With cobbled streets and white buildings that in the morning are covered in fog as if covered by a thick white carpet. While the rays of the sun wake up among its streets, the women move their skirts as they pass and the mist slowly turns into the smell of coffee.
Fifteen minutes from Cuetzalan, is the Reserva Azul, a Coffee Farm that has been transformed for the enjoyment of nature with safety and comfort, it has eleven hectares that translate into a large ecological conservation area of cloud forest, plantations of organic coffee, cabins and stilt houses, and close to natural attractions such as caves, waterfalls and trails.
Luis Enrique Hernández comments that the first coffee trees on the farm were planted between 1860 and 1870 by Jesús Flores, motivated by the excellent conditions for their cultivation. For years, the coffee plantations were developed by the profound knowledge of the Nahua culture that was in charge of incorporating them into the landscape, turning them into a polyculture where it is possible to find citrus, bananas, pepper, cinnamon and many other useful plants for the communities.
In this coffee farm, the coffee production process is enriched, taking care of harmony with nature, preserving artisan practices in its production, processing[2] and roasting[3] to achieve a cup with flavor and aroma for demanding palates. Blue Reserve
The coffee plant is called coffee tree and belongs to the rubiaceae family, the botanical genus is called “coffea” and from there it takes its last name according to the species: “arábigo” or “robusto”; The difference between the two is that the robusto supports higher temperatures, which allows its cultivation at lower altitudes, while the arabic is more vulnerable to pests and requires heights of more than 700 meters above sea level, it also needs shade for its development, therefore that their plantations, interspersed with different trees, become particular ecosystems. However, the fundamental difference is found in the flavor, the Arabica is softer and more aromatic while the Robusto is stronger and bitter.
The Fernández family produces Arabica, garnica and caturra coffee grown at 1000 meters above sea level, which provides the climatic conditions for an excellent quality product. To obtain a cup of aromatic coffee in the Reserva Azul, several stages are required: from March to October the harvest is carried out, which is also known as “panaleo” or “cut”, where the cherry coffee is cut by hand and then transported in bags to the wet mills (a process that continues after harvesting, it is carried out by using water. It includes pulping, fermentation and washing) where the beans go through a laborious selection process since the green beans are eliminated and those that have been damaged by insects or by nature.
The pulping allows to separate the pulp through special machines to obtain the grain without damaging it. The pulped beans enter tanks for fermentation, a process used to separate the “mucilage” (myelous substance that covers the recently pulped bean) and again, the coffee is washed with clean water. Once washed, the dry benefit begins, the coffee is spread out for drying, this process is carried out in solar dryers or indoors so that the coffee does not have direct contact with the sun’s rays. During that time, it is stirred so that the drying is uniform, the dry grain is known as “parchment coffee” (grain covered by husk); then, a manual selection process is carried out to have the best quality.
Once selected, the coffee is taken to the hopper of the peeler for its retrieval, which by means of friction separates a second shell that covers each bean, it is passed through a polisher where the bean passes through a high volume of air, which it helps to separate the husk residues and the remaining grain is known as “golden coffee” and is ready for roasting. This process is where the aroma and typical taste of coffee develops.
Each kind of grain has an optimal time and type of roasting, whose variations alter the final flavor. The roasting of the different coffees must necessarily be done separately, following a differentiated roasting process, since each coffee has its optimal roasting point. We can distinguish three different roasts:
Light: delicate flavor.
Medium: strong flavor.
Complete: eliminates acidity and confers a bitter taste.
Once the coffee is roasted, the grain is ground to different grain sizes, depending on the type of coffee maker used to prepare the drink. The three commercial grind grades are: coarse, medium, and fine. A coarse grind is recommended for percolator coffee makers, a medium grind for filter coffee makers, and a fine grind for preparing espresso coffee. Although, let’s not forget that, in Mexico, we don’t necessarily use a coffee maker, we can also enjoy a delicious coffee by boiling it in a clay pot, pewter (an alloy of zinc, lead and tin used to make objects for domestic use) or any other material , adding a little cinnamon stick.
This is how one of the most beautiful family traditions in Mexico is forged around a steaming cup of aromatic coffee, which arrived in our country in 1740. During the 18th century, its cultivation expanded from the Antilles to Central and South America. The route followed to our country by those first Arabic plants, coming from Martinique, passed through Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, continued on to Cuba, to later cross the Caribbean Sea and reach the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
He entered Mexico in 1808 brought from Havana Cuba by Captain Don José Arias who lived in Coatepec. Its cultivation spread throughout the region of Coatepec, Xalapa, Huatusco and Córdoba, forming the Veracruz coffee basin, from where it spread to the entire state and later expanded to the center and south of the country. This made entities such as Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí and Guerrero become authentic coffee regions.
In the context of markets, of the total Mexican coffee exports, 53.85% are destined for the United States; the remaining volume, to member countries of the European Union bloc and others such as Japan, Cuba and Canada. In 2016, the main destinations for exports from Mexico were member countries of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), countries of the Pacific Rim, as well as China and the European Union.
Reserva Azul Calle Principal Cuitchat Cuetzalan del Progreso, Puebla C.P. 73560 Telephone: +52 (233) 112 61 07 https://www.reservaazul.com/
[1] According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SAGARPA) [2] Technically, it consists of the series of steps or processing stages that the coffee undergoes to remove or eliminate all its layers or covers in the most efficient way without affecting its quality and performance. It is a primary transformation of the grain. [3] Coffee roasting is the process of heating/cooking/drying coffee beans in a coffee roaster.
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) did not exist on the American continent before they were introduced by Europeans, so stingless or melipona bees were the only known source of wax and honey. Although it is possible that the hunting of mountain honey existed, the breeding of stingless bees has and has had an important presence; Since pre-Hispanic times, traces of meliponiculture can be found in almost the entire continent, from Mexico and Central America, to Brazil and Paraguay, in South America.
The place where meniponiculture was most deeply rooted and developed was in Mesoamerica, a cultural region of the American continent that includes the southern half of Mexico, the territories of Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize, as well as western Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Delicious. National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO)
In Mesoamerica, the relationship between people and stingless bees has had an important value in social, economic and religious aspects. Since ancient times, honey and wax have been used as medicine and as objects of trade and tribute. They were also used in ceremonies and rituals, and some peoples integrated them into their worldview. The stingless bees were conceived as sacred beings to which the beekeeper offered his service, since they represented a link through which they connected their people with divinity, being an important element in their conception of reality. To the north and south of Mesoamerica, pre-Hispanic meliponiculture also existed, however, it was less common, with fewer hives and less integration into local life and customs.
Meliponiculture is believed to have started in the Yucatan peninsula some 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. The first step towards the domestication of some species was probably the care of wild nests in the forest, as is still done today in some regions. The next step could be to move the nest closer to the house, cutting the piece of the tree that contains the colony. A subsequent stage was the development of colony management techniques and the manufacture of artificial hives.
Although it is very common to find original log hives (trunks with nests brought from the forest) arranged horizontally in meliponaria, the different artificial hives created by humans to house stingless bees are very diverse. In the northeastern region of Puebla and Totonacapan, clay pots are customary. Although also ancient records of hollowed trunks in Nayarit and Jalisco.
Much of what we currently know about the meliponiculture of the ancient Maya is thanks to the codices written by them, mainly the Madrid or Tro-Cortesiano codex, which López Maldonado deciphered in the section related to beekeeping. Unfortunately, not in all the towns that developed the breeding of stingless bees there is a written legacy to know more about their experience; although many of these legacies remain in the memory and in the current practices of the native peoples.
“The results obtained in the decoding or translation of this section demonstrate the greatness and progress achieved by the Mayan civilization in meliponiculture”. López Maldonado
Meliponiculture suffered a great decline after the introduction of honey bees and the cultivation of sugar cane, also much knowledge of this activity was lost; However, in recent years it has been observed that in several states of Mexico (as well as in other Central and South American countries) there is a trend towards the recovery and strengthening of the cultural legacy and traditional knowledge about beekeeping without sting, along with contemporary ventures and innovations. Remarkable efforts are being made in the dissemination, training and support of this movement. For their part, meliponiculturists are continuously experimenting with technical practices, which are the basis for promoting the activity.
In Puebla, in the Northeastern Sierra, the cultivation of the “Scaptotrigona mexicana” or “Pisilnekmej” as the Nahuas of the region call it, who know that its breeding is an inheritance from their ancestors preserved through centuries and that forms an important part of its biocultural heritage. This melipona bee is native to the tropical forests of Mexico, measures 5 to 5.5 millimeters, is black in color, has powerful jaws that can bite, and has a social behavior.
In 2011 Cuetzalan del Progreso, Puebla, received the designation of “Pisilnekmej bee sanctuary” for preserving the tradition of harvesting honey as a cultural heritage that has endured through the centuries. Of the 30 producers who started in 2003 with an average of 60 years. Today there are more than 300 meliponiculturists of different ages. Of the 44 localities with which they started, today they work with more than 6 municipalities of the Northeastern Sierra, with the determined participation around the Tosepan Titataniske Cooperative.
The Cuetzaltecs developed an ingenious way of raising stingless bees, which consists of two clay pots joined at the mouths with mud or ash (called “nekomit” in Nahuatl and “dumbbell” in Spanish) placed one above the other on shelves attached to the walls under the eaves of houses. The care of the bees consists of cleaning the site and supplying water in small containers in the hot season; The dumbbells are also temperature regulated: they are covered with plastic on cold nights and moistened on dry days.
The Nahuas assure that to live with the pisilnekmej a stable environment is required, where there are no lawsuits, problems or vices. Hence, over time, the pisilnekmej have helped to maintain family unity and community identity.
The organization of the meliponas is different from the bees with stings, the pisilnekmej queen, who has already been fertilized by the drone, governs along with 4 or 5 “maidens”, who, when the queen is big and no longer able to continue to produce eggs, they will be the ones who make the nuptial flight until finally one of them stays with the hive. In the hive there are also the drones, the worker bee, the soldiers that are at the foot of the door taking care of their predators. The main enemy is a fly called “tzonteskatl” (Pseudohypocera kerteszi, Diptera, Phoridae).
The products Since ancient times, honey from the pisilnekmej has been used as a remedy and/or ingredient in the traditional pharmacopoeia of Cuetzalan, based on the idea that honey is curative because the bee feeds on some medicinal plants. Honey is ingested or applied directly to treat eleven ailments: stomach pain and coldness, sore mouth (lip sore), cough, cold throat, fleshy eyes, stomach ulcers, wounds and skin ulcerations (sores), infertility in women and cancer.
The wax or cerumen is used to make figure candles and to glue the feathers to the plume used in religious celebrations.
Pollen is the protein food of bees, female bees collect it from flowers, thus exchanging flowers for vital pollination. The pollen is transported with their corbicles to the hive where they add enzymes and store it in earwax jars, which are their food reserve and contain moist pollen from different blooms and, therefore, have a diversity of colors.
Propolis or “takahuil” is a term used to describe the resinous and balsamic material collected and processed by bees, used as a poultice to heal wounds.
Harvest Rituals The honey harvest is done with the full moon from April to June, when there are not many larvae. It is done on sunny days once the dew has evaporated and is finished at sunset for the bees to return to their hives. Only full dumbbells are harvested, for which they are weighed. The “nekomit” is placed on a table to separate the two pots with the help of a knife or machete. The products of the pot “from above” are used. The honey or pollen jars are separated from the brood combs for harvesting; those of honey are punctured with a clean orange thorn (Citrus sinensis) or else they are squeezed. The honey drains through a blanket and strainer into a clean plastic container. The wax is separated and placed in another container. The pollen jars are separated, deposited in a clean plastic and covered so that they are not attacked by their predators.
Many times, during the harvest, a small portion of honey, wax and propolis is burned as a thank you to the pisilnekmej, while driving them away from the hive.
The harvest is given through rituals, for example, before starting they perform a thank you with incense and a prayer; when the pots are opened they take a walk to receive the sun’s rays, and while that happens the attendees say a prayer so that the bees are not mistreated; In addition, life is thanked because the harvester is removing the product that they have already worked. It is also said that bees are energetic, and that they can see the balance that exists inside a house, and perceive the bad air (which is when there is a dead person nearby) so a cross should be made with ash, or with lime.
Some data
The harvest per year is between 2 and 4 thousand liters.
Work is done with more than 6 municipalities in the Sierra Nororiental de Puebla.
Today there are more than 300 meliponiculturists.
From 30 to 450 pots per producer.
Production per pot ranges from half to one liter.
However, and despite the importance of meliponiculture for Cuetzalan, its inhabitants have made public their concern about the disappearance of this practice in their region, due to the concession of territorial space to large transnationals, open pit mines , hydroelectric dams, which apply “fracking” (it is a technique to enable or increase the extraction of gas and oil from the subsoil) as a method of hydrocarbon extraction. “In the face of this situation we have created a resistance because for us these spaces are spaces of life, and there is no better resistance than to continue being what we are,” said María Luisa Albores, adviser and partner of the Tosepan Pisilnekmej group.
It is necessary to control the negative effects that the reduction of natural resources and certain agricultural practices cause on native bees, so that it is possible to conserve and sustainably use this highly promising resource that we have, without losing sight of the fact that conservation and sustainable use of native bees plays a fundamental role in maintaining food security and biodiversity in Latin America.
Mexico is located in the extreme south of North America, between 14 ° 32 ’45’ ‘and 32 ° 43’ 5 ” north latitude and 86 ° 46 ‘and 117 ° 08’ west longitude. It limits to the north with the United States, to the east with the Golfo de Mexico, to the south with Belize, Guatemala and the Pacific Ocean and to the west with that ocean. It occupies an area of 1,972,546 square kilometers (including island area).
Limits of Mexico with the United States of North America.
Rivers that limit Mexico to the north: Bravo river and Colorado river.
Length in kilometers of the borders with the United States: 2369 kilometers.
Name of the treaties that establish the limits of Mexico with the United States: Treaties of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1853)
Limits of Mexico with Guatemala.
Rivers that border Mexico with Guatemala: Suchiate river, Chixoy river and Usumacinta river.
Within the mountainous elevations we have: Tocana volcano and Buenavista Hill.
Length of the border of our country with Guatemala: 962 kilometers.
Limits of Mexico with Belize
The river that marks the limits in part is: Hondo river, the limits were established by the treaty with United Kingdom in June 1893-1894, and it reaches a length of 176 kilometers.
WEATHER
Mexico would have a tropical climate in its southern part and subtropical in its northern region; but the physical configuration of its soil and the influence of the air masses coming from the Gulf of Mexico modify the climatic conditions, making it possible to identify three zones determined according to the altitude: hot, temperate and cold lands. The former covers the coastal plains and lowlands of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Tabasco, Campeche and the Yucatecan Platform. The average annual temperature is above 22 ° Celsius and abundant rainfall (2000 to 3000 mm.)
FLORA
The flora includes various species characteristic of tropical, subtropical, temperate, cold and Mediterranean areas, and latitude acts as a determining factor in their distribution. The tropical forest, in regions with a tropical rainy climate, without a dry season, includes large trees with deep roots, such as cedar, mahogany, Brazil duck, epiphytic and parasitic plants such as vanilla and various orchids; it mainly covers the State of Tabasco and the neighboring areas of Veracruz and Chiapas. As the height increases, the tropical species are being replaced by the mixed transition forest, between 1700 and 2000 meters, formed by oaks, oaks, ash trees, strawberry trees, walnut trees, etc. The coniferous, pine, cypress and white cedar forests are found between 2000 and 3000 meters, on both slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, south of the Neovolcanic Cordillera and north of the Central Plateau of Chiapas.
FAUNA
Mexico is one of the 12 megadiverse countries in the world. With about 200,000 different species, Mexico is home to 10–12 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Mexico ranks first in reptile biodiversity with 733 known species, second in mammals with 448 species, third in amphibians with 290 species, and fourth in flora, with 26,000 different species. Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems and the fourth in total species. Approximately 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislation.
The Mexican government created the National Information System on Biodiversity, which is in charge of studying and promoting the substantial use of ecosystems. In Mexico, 170 thousand square kilometers are considered “Protected Natural Areas”. Including 34 biosphere reserves (unaltered ecosystems), 64 national parks, 4 natural monuments, 26 areas to protect flora and fauna, 4 areas for natural protection and 17 sanctuaries (areas with rich diversity of species)
The fauna is very varied and abundant. In the hot and low regions, there are monkeys, tapirs, jaguars, squirrels, reptiles (crocodile, caiman, iguana), snakes, insects, arachnids and birds (toucan, quetzal, ibis, flamingo, etc.). In temperate lands there are coyote, black bear, servant, antelope, rodents, peccaries, hares, etc. Birds of prey abound in the mountains. The coasts are rich in fish and crustaceans (shrimp, prawns and lobsters)
HYDROGRAPHY
(Source: Water Atlas in Mexico 2018. CONAGUA)
The Mexican river with the largest basin is the Bravo or Grande del Norte, which serves as the border with the United States and receives the Conchos, San Juan and Salado on its Mexican shore. It drains into the Gulf of Mexico. The Panuco, Tuxpan, Nautla, Papaloapan, Coatzacoalcos and Tonala rivers also belong to this variant; the Mexalapa, the Grijalva and the Usumacinta flow together in the Barra de Frontera and, finally, the Campeche, Champoton, Candelaria and Hondo rivers, bordering Belize.
º Water bodies Lake Chapala is the largest of the inland lakes in Mexico. It has an area of 1,116 square kilometers and has an average depth that ranges between four and six meters. The bodies of water fulfill hydrological functions for their basins, in the case of Chapala, the lake is a significant supply source for the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara. Bodies of water can also be created by man (in which case they are called artificial), such as reservoirs formed by dams. The main lakes in the country are: Chapala, Cuitzeo, Patzcuaro, Yuriria and Catemaco, ranging from 1,116 km² to 75 km² and with a storage capacity of between 8,126 million m³ to 454 m³.
º Main rivers The rivers and streams of Mexico constitute a hydrographic network of 633 thousand kilometers in length 87% of the republic’s surface runoff flows through the channels of the 51 main rivers and its basins cover 65% of the country’s continental territorial surface. Due to the area they cover, the basins of the Bravo and Balsas rivers stand out, and due to their length, the Bravo and Grijalva-Usumacinta rivers. The Lerma, Nazas-Aguanaval rivers belong to the interior slope. Two thirds of the surface runoff occur in the channels of seven rivers: Grijalva-Usumacinta, Papaloapan, Coatzacoalcos, Balsas, Panuco, Santiago and Tonala, while their basins represent 22% of the surface of country. Several Mexican rivers flow partially through neighboring countries. With the United States of America there are agreements on the distribution of the waters of the rivers of the northern border.
º Aquifer availability The importance of groundwater is manifested in the magnitude of the volume used by the main users 39.1% of the total volume concessional for consumptive uses (that is, 34,380 million cubic meters per year as of 2017), belongs to this origin. For groundwater administration purposes, the country has been divided into 653 aquifers, whose official names were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) on December 5, 2001. From that moment on, a process of delimitation, study and determination of the average annual availability 5 of aquifers. As of December 31, 2017, the availability of the 653 aquifers of the republic had been published.
º Hydrological basins The country is divided into 757 hydrological basins, of which 649 are in a condition of availability.
º Wetlands Wetlands are transition zones between aquatic and terrestrial systems, they constitute temporary or permanent flooding areas with characteristic hydrophilic vegetation, or soils permanently humid due to the discharge of aquifers. The conservation and sustainable management of wetlands can ensure the biological wealth and the environmental services that they provide, such as water storage, aquifer conservation, water purification through the retention of nutrients, sediments and pollutants, protection against storms and flood mitigation, shoreline stabilization and erosion control. The study “Humedales de la Republica Mexicana” (2012) generated the National Inventory of Wetlands (INH), which includes 6,331 wetlands and wetland complexes, covering 5% of the country’s surface (table 4.9). Wetlands are classified as marsh (related to lagoons or swamps), lacustrine (lakes), fluvial (rivers), estuarine (estuaries) and created by anthropogenic action. At the international level, an intergovernmental convention was signed in the city of Ramsar, Iran (1971), known as the Ramsar Convention. Said convention “… serves as a framework for national action and international cooperation in favor of the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources”, in Mexico it entered into force on November 4, 1986 and by 2017 142 Mexican wetlands inscribed on the Ramsar List3, covering a total area of 8 657 057 hectares (Ramsar 2018).
RELIEF AND NATURAL REGIONS
The Mexican territory has the shape of a triangle with the base resting on the border with the United States and its vertex deviated towards the southeast. Numerous folds, subsidence and elevations have determined the formation of relief lines that configure the orography of the country, in which the highlands predominate. Two mountain systems, the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental, frame the Great Mexican Plateau to the east and west, respectively.
The orographic system in the southern part is complicated and vigorous, formed by the Sierra Madre del Sur; the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca with the Intermediate Mixtec Shield: the Sierra Atravesada, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; the Central Table of Chiapas and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, which ends on the border with Guatemala at the Tacaná volcano of 3,804 meters. Towards the southeast emerges, closing the Gulf of Mexico to the south, the Yucatecan Platform, a wide peninsula of 500 kilometers in length and an average width of 350 kilometers, whose ¾ parts belong to Mexico, 1/8 to Guatemala and another one is in the Power of the British Empire. It constitutes a slab of karstic termissions, with a total absence of surface water currents.
It is the party that celebrates the beginning of a new year. The date on which this celebration takes place depends on the type of calendar used, and the most common is January 1, the Gregorian calendar, which was established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and is used in most countries of the world. With the spread of Western culture to the rest of the world during the 20th century, January 1 became a universal date, even in countries with their own New Year celebrations.
Many of the agricultural societies that developed astronomy made calendars to measure days, months and years. Some, based on the lunar year, others based on the solar year. Although the number of days that make up the year does not change, there are no fixed rules to define the number of months and their respective days, nor are there any fixed rules to establish the beginning and end of the year.
The most exact calendars created by ancient man are attributed to the Mayas, Zapotecs and Aztecs, since the observations recorded by these cultures allowed them to make the necessary adjustments to compensate for the fractions of hours and seconds per day, arising from the degrees of variation in the speed of the rotation and inclination of the earth.
Among students of pre-Hispanic calendars, there are differences regarding the start dates of the cycle, the order of the component months, and the location of the five complementary days. However, they agree that these calendars were intimately linked to the holiday cycles that are in force today, of course adding variations resulting from syncretism.
Two calendars have reached us from Europe, the Julian and the Gregorian. The first was prepared by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and is the one that governs us today with twelve months of 30 and 31 days each, plus a leap year every 4 years. And that starts on January 1. The second was established by Pope Gregorian XIII in 1582; it differs in the computation of leap years and the number of days in months.
In Mexico the new year is celebrated with a diversity of beliefs that link us with other world cultures and rituals that keep us united to our past. Whether at a massive party with a fireworks and music show, at home with the whole family, or on a beautiful beach with your partner or friends, what is most enjoyed on this date is the warmth that characterizes Mexicans, the ease of hugging and sharing. Fireworks, bells flying, grapes, family dinner, sparkling wine, hugs and music make up the scene of a common New Year’s celebration in the big cities of Mexico.
Among the rituals from different cultures of the world, which we acquire to celebrate, it is very common that at the time the countdown begins to welcome the New Year, 12 grapes are consumed, representing 12 wishes; that lentils are scattered around the door, as a symbol of abundance; he sweeps himself out of the house, longing for everything bad from the previous year to come out of it, or for him to go for a walk around the block or the house with suitcases so that there is no shortage of trips in the year.
Of course, you cannot miss the “reheated” o “recalentado”, a tradition deeply rooted throughout Mexico, according to the generous character of the Mexican and also to the delicious national cuisine, which consists of sharing what was left of the dinner the next morning with the same u other guests. It is claimed that the reheated is tastier than the dinner itself.
However, in Mexico there are still other rituals whose origins date back to the pre-Hispanic period. The various cultures that inhabited what is now the Mexican territory also celebrated the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, which did not necessarily have the duration of the current year. And although each of them had its own calendars and rituals, in general they shared some fundamental concepts and elements.
The Mayans, Aztecs and other cultures conceived of time in a very different way from today, for them, time was not linear, but cyclical. That is, every certain period, the most important events were repeated, such as the seasons and the movements of the stars, periods of war, the dreaded years of drought or floods. That is why the ancient Mexicans were great observers of nature and even had various calendars, such as the religious and the agricultural, which determined all the activities of each sector of society, from planting to the most propitious moments of doing the planting. war.
The merging of its various calendars generated a “total calendar”, spanning a large number of years. For example, for the Aztecs, every 52 years there was a change of era called the “binding of the years” or the “New Fire.” For the Mayans, every 20 years was a katun, and every 20 katuns marked a new era or Baktun. Both the Mayans and the Aztecs performed very solemn ceremonies, rituals and sacrifices to thank the gods for the beginning of a new era. Fire was a fundamental part of all of them, since for pre-Hispanic cultures, fire is the purifying element par excellence.
And it is precisely these two elements, fire and observation of the natural environment, which have survived in the celebration of the New Year among the populations of Mexico, some festivals that take place throughout the territory are:
The lighting of “lumbradas” every January 1 in various regions of Mexico, such as Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo the main Hñahñú or Otomí social nucleus of the Mezquital Valley. Each of the 50 indigenous neighborhoods of Ixmiquilpan lights a bonfire in the crenellated atrium of the former Augustinian convent of San Miguel Arcangel.
The Totonacos of Veracruz perform a ritual called “Tawilate” in which the community healers participate and the offering of chicken blood, tamales, bread and flowers to the ancient gods to ask for the needs of the community, agriculture and their settlers.
In Oaxaca, the young Zoques dress up as “huehues” (old men) and “burn” the old year and then go to celebrate in a group in the houses of the community. In other towns, the old people use rockets to light up the sky and observe it carefully as the new year arrives. This way they will be able to know if it will be a year of rains or droughts.
Many indigenous peoples keep their own count of years and celebrate their “new year” on different dates, such as the Seris in the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico, who celebrate it on June 30 and July 1. Likewise, in Santiago Tuxtla, Veracruz, the Mesoamerican New Year is celebrated on the first Friday of March through a ritual ceremony of offering to the Sun.
The New Year’s party for several indigenous groups is of the utmost importance, as ceremonies are carried out for the change of powers, rods or baton. The rod or cane is the symbol of the power of the indigenous civil authorities. The Huichols of Jalisco and Nayarit perform numerous rituals, which last for six days, to commemorate the renewal of powers. Among the Tzotziles and Tzeltales of Chiapas, cane change or “Cambio de Baston” is carried out by the civil and religious authorities of the town. The Zapotecs of the Isthmus celebrate their candles, “calendas” and fruit spreads in the different towns that make up this region of our country.
Today, the New Year’s celebration is one of the main celebrations in the world. Large events are held in the main cities during New Year’s Eve (New Year’s Eve corresponding to December 31), being accompanied by the largest fireworks events. Some of the largest events in the world are centered in Sydney, Valparaíso, Hong Kong, London, New York, São Paulo, Bogotá, Medellín and Rio de Janeiro.
