Chalma

I`ll never turn down an invitation is what the gist of this blog has been of late, and in this spirit, I agree to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, don a crown of flowers and dance in front of a statue in a valley.

It sounds rather pagan, but all of these acts are part of the experience of making a pilgrimage to Chalma, a town in Malinalco, Mexico State where an image of Christ miraculously appeared in the 1600s. A popular religious site, many people take this trip walking (which can take hours or days depending on the starting point.) However, upon hearing that Gallo is going up with a busload of parishioners from his old parish, I decide to tag along.

At 6 in the morning, Gallo, Martha and Martha`s brother and mother (Arturo and Martha) and I take a taxi ride to the nearby pueblo of Jalapa and meet up with the rest of the participants. Jalapa is where Padre Salvador served as a priest for ten years prior to Santa Fe and the place where he and Gallo met. (Gallo still has a house in Jalapa but lives on parish grounds in Santa Fe helping with carpentry, cooking and shaman-like curing.)

We drive a few hours out city of the city to Agua de Vida, which is a prelude Chalma. Like others making their first pilgrimage there, I put on a corona of flowers and dance to salsa music in front of a small chapel. (Apparently the dancing is said to cleanse sins.) Gallo takes delight in spinning the Marthas and I out onto the dance floor. I share an awkward dance with Arturo--as he is a 17 year-old boy and I am an American who doesn`t like dancing, we both sort of stumble through the steps. From their we dunk our heads beneath pipes that pour out into a river. (I take it this water is sacred as plastic buckets are sold in order to collect it and bring it home.)


After a breakfast of tacos and broth (though I opt for fruit,) we pile back onto the bus and drive for less than an hour into Chalma. We go through a huge, long marketplace where sweets, food, sandals and religious relics are sold. Like the Shrine of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, it is very much catered toward tourists. (Tourists who aren`t too concerned about food safety as bees swarm over the candy and buckets of caramel sauce for sale.)

After walking through the market (on foot, although many make this part of the trek on their knees,) we arrive in front of the church where we wait outside for a while with the Chalmito Christ that parishioners have taken along from Jalapa. It is Christ represented as a carpenter, apparently because the Chalma Christ is supposed to be the working man`s Christ. The current priest who serves in Jalapa says Mass. Both outside and in the parish, pilgrims are sprawled about in various states of rest, exhausted from their voyages.

After Mass, we go to a river in front of the church. Though I brought along a bathing suit for this occasion, I am not sure of the Mexican etiquette for swimming in front of a parish as everyone else is dressed in shorts and t-shirts. (I have seen people dressed in this garb to swim before, but in this case I don`t know if people aren`t wearing bathing suits because they don`t have them or because it`s considered inappropriate to wear them on religious.) I opt to wear shorts over my bathing suit. Though I think the river is intended to be cleansing, ironically it smells a bit like sewage and I notice bugs stuck to me after getting out. Still, the icy cold water feels good after a hot morning in the sun.

From there we head to the marketplace to buy lunch supplies and we are surrounded by vendors trying to force samples of pork skin, cheese, pulque, and tortillas on us. Gallo lives up to his nickname of the Rooster by immediately agreeing to buy from the prettiest, young girls and insisting on buying me several bags of vegetarian products. We settle by at a table in the sun and have tacos and beer and listen to mariachi and other band players. Before heading out, we look at a wall of thanks for miracles granted by the Chalma Christ and the Marthas do some market shopping. Though the bus is scheduled to take off at five, it doesn`t leave until 6:30. In the meantime, I make small talk while waiting for everyone else to arrive. Like everyone else on the bus, I fall asleep soon after take-off and pretty much stay that way until arriving back in Santa Fe around 10. What adventure awaits me next?--only the Christ of Chalma knows.