2003-10-12 - 7:24 p.m.
How cool is this? Columbus Day is a big party in Mexico. Of course, there are lots of big parties in Mexico.
But this is the day that this land was ...
... you could say ... doomed to be overtaken by the Old World. It seems like there are activists in the US who would say that. And it is a pretty good word for what happened to most of the indigenous peoples of US.
But here, you have to say something else. This day is known as Dia de la Raza. The Day of the Race, the Day of the Mexican people.
Last night, a brass band marched through the streets to the cathedral and shot off bottlerockets all the way. A group of Purepecha indians played street hockey with a flaming ball. This morning, the cannon fire woke me up at 6:30. Right now, there's a parade of buses and taxis piled with balloons rolling through town. And toddlers in full Indian regala everywhere.
All over Mexico are pockets, large and small, of pure-blooded Indians ... Mayans, Zapotecs, Purepecha, Tarahumara, Huichol, and so on, still living a traditional life in their traditional lands. And there are definitely people who claim to be pure Spanaird ... But almost everybody else is some part indigenous and some part sumpin' else ... European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African.
The food, religion, art, dance, architecture, music, everything is an incredible mix of European and indigenous influence. It is quite spectacular to witness.
So, without having done ANY ethnographic research, it seems to me that today is a big birthday party. And totally worth celebrating.
