From the Director…

Today in the town of Rabinal, the plaza in front of the grand colonial church (built in 1572) was full of people and at least ten groups of dancers spread around the plaza and their accompanying marimbas were all surrounded by crowds of people.  In the four chapels at the four corners of the plaza, the indigenous cofradias were selling the chilate or hot corn gruel with a twirl of sweet cacao which is special for this day.  It is called Wednesday of Chilate, and everyone crowds around to get the traditional drink.  Members of the Cofradia of San Pedro Apostle brought a traditional, large, round gourd of the brew early in the morning to the priest house for the three priests.

Well, what is the celebration about, you ask?  It is the day before the Feast of Corpus Christi.  People come from all the 42 villages and even the surrounding towns to participate.  Rabinal is well known for its many cofradias (confraternities) and festivals.  The dances are very colorful and there are also dramas that include dialogue.  In former times the dancers were all adult males who formed troupes from their own villages.  The Corpus Christi dances and feast is a tradition dating from   the 16^th century, but during the 1980’s with the many massacres by the military dictators that took place in Rabinal, which persecuted catechists and the church, people were too afraid andpoor to give time to these festivals and to buy the material for the costumes, and most of the young men leave to go work in the capital in the weaving and sewing industry.  So what has happened, is that for the last 12 years, inter-national groups who have an interest in preserving these cultural traditions have contributed money and organized the teachers in the larger villages who teach the children in the primary schools and then form groups of dancers who receive all the costumes.

he dancers wear masks, but it was clear that there were no women dancing.  The part of the woman, La Planchita, in the dance of Costeña was always done by a man, but it is always hard to find men to do it.  A few years ago I began to notice that the dancing was not very impressive, because the dancers were just little children.  However, there was dramatic improvement this year.  I guess the children have grown up and now the dances  are quite vigorous and well done.  Some of the dancers are students in the bilingual teacher’s college, which is in its second year.  We have 12 students on scholarships.  I noticed for the first time that some of the dancers from there were women, so that is a huge change.

The most popular of these dances is the traditional Dance of the Costeña, but it is not quite as dramatic as you might have seen in the Folk Festival Dances of Mexico which tours the world. This is a simpler dance.  However the costumes are quite colorful and there is lots of action and clowning. The music is entrancing.  It is a popular dance with a good deal of dialogue.  If all the parts are done, it can last over two hours, during which it precisely follows the music, but with lots of adlibbing and free expression.  It recounts how some ranchers came from the coast to the patronal festival of St. Paul in Rabinal to sell their cattle to people who purchased them with cacao, which was the medium of   exchange.     The    fellows from the coast fell in love with the young girl, Planchita, who was married to an old man.  The importance of this dance is that from early colonial    times the whole culture changed with the introduction of cattle from Europe with the conquistadors.

here are probably 16 different types of dances in Rabinal, but one that is especially connected to Corpus Christi is the Dance of the Old Men, called Quequechos or old men with goiters.  They dress in suits with neckties and old fedora hats and wear masks with huge goiters.  They are usually bent over from arthritis and carry twisted old canes.  The  myth  connected with this dance is that when God created the world, He sent His wise old men to find the place where He would be enthroned; they went underground and surfaced in Rabinal on the Feast of Corpus Christi.  Well, maybe there are more details, but I can’t find an authoritative commentary at this moment.  They dance in the street and do a lot of moaning and howling to the delight of the crowds.  The tradition is that these are the only dancers allowed to enter the church, which they do as they march, moaning and howling, in front of the procession of the Blessed Sacrament as it enters the church on the Feast Day of Corpus Christi.  

he next day, on the feast day itself at 8:30, we celebrate Mass and then have a procession around the plaza passing through the four chapels of St. Paul, St. Peter Apostle, St. Peter Martyr, and St. Sebastian.  As in all of the feasts of the 16 indigenous cofradias, all the statues of the saints that are patrons of the cofradias are carried around the plaza.  Today beside the Blessed Sacrament itself there is an image that represents the Lord, which is the statue that is always on top of the  tabernacle.  It is an image of the Risen Lord, called the Divine, in honor of Jesus the Risen Lord present in the Eucharist.  Of course, His feast has more honor than any of the feasts of the saints, even of the town’s patron, St. Paul.

 This year I concelebrated the Mass with the pastor and took my turn in the procession to carry the 250-year-old solid-silver monstrance, which weighs at least 35 pounds.  I was moved along under the canopy supported by four men with the crowd pressing in on me from the chapel of St. Peter Martyr, through St. Sebastian, until I was finally relieved at the Chapel of St. Dominic.  The people were singing hymns and as we approached each chapel there was a thunderous roar of the bombs that they sent into the sky.  These were launched from mortars four inches wide and without exaggeration at least 25 were exploded at each chapel.  It was deafening.

I suppose in our American culture we might question such a display and wonder how many of these people are theologically correct in their thinking about the Eucharist, and whether they really understand the difference between liturgy and popular devotion.  But one thing is certain: during the 75 years from the late 19th century to mid 20th century, when the foreign priests were thrown out of Guatemala, the Catholic faith survived in the practices of these cofradias.  Anymore questions?

 Of course, many other Christian groups have arrived since the violence and many are not in favor of the dances, which they see as pagan or worldly.  However, the dances are all based on the scriptures  and on history.

They are a cultural treasure and are connected to the mysteries of the Christian faith.  The dance that is specific to Rabinal is the Rabinal Achi, which is performed during the Feasts of St. Paul and St. Peter.  This is the only pre-Columbian dance-drama that has survived, so it is something only done here.  Every year a few tourists really interested in anthropology and history come to observe it, but the reality is that it is hard to maintain the tradition because it takes a lot of preparation to remember all the dialogue and no one funds the dancers, so it is done without the kind of technical support it needs in order to proclaim the lines and be understood.  It is a hidden treasure, buried in the more contemporary activities of the festivals.  Progress is eroding the tradition of the Rabinal Achi.

One delightful thing for me was that there was no electronic music at all in the plaza – no loudspeakers, no microphones – only the playing of the marimbas and it filled the air with joyful sounds.  Why is that a concern of mine?  Because teenage disc jockeys usually don’t understand what a religious feast is and put on some really loud secular music and destroy the whole atmosphere.  Loudspeakers  are not  needed in a small plaza.  There is something much more conducive to peace when the crowd can see the hands of the musicians playing and hear the sounds close up.  It is like a family feast.

A couple of days before the feast, the cofradias have dances at the shrine that they erect at the house of the head of the cofradia for that year, usually in the patio where they maintain the saint’s image.  The shrine is made of 25-foot high log poles, with a roof of bamboo and leaves, and sides covered in banana leaves.  Flowers and candles surround the image.  Two nights before the feast is the velacion or vigil where the dancers also perform and people bring flowers to place in front of the image, say their prayers, and give an offering.   Even though it was evening at the end of their performance, the dancers were bathed in perspiration.   I congratulated the principal dancer and as I put my hand on his shoulder, it was soaked with perspiration even through levels of garments and a cloak.  The dances are long and strenuous: he had worked very hard for at least one hour.  Afterward they received their sweet but weak coffee in a ceramic earthen cup.  It is the traditional drink given to every guest in every house and that everyone gets when they offer prayers at the shrine.

ell, I suppose you all want to visit Rabinal to see for yourself, but don’t expect royal accommodations.  The trip into town is over a winding steep road without guardrails and with drop-offs of 500 to 1000 feet.  When you get here the two hotels are cheap: $5.00 a night, or $8.00 if you want a shower.  The State Department does not recommend traveling to Guatemala because there have been many assaults on tourists.  But since there are no tourists who come here, you will escape notice.  Come enjoy the faith of the people!

 

Peace in the Lord,  Fr. Tim