Marcos Cortes remembers the ‘the carnival that once was’
Marcos Cortez Gómez is a great conversationalist about the memories he keeps of Jocotepec. Photo: María Reynozo.
María del Refugio Reynozo Medina (Jocotepec).- Jocotepec is one of the great loves of Marcos Cortez Gómez. In his living room with his mementos hangs a copy of the oath he swore to the patron saint Señor del Monte or Lord of the Mountain, for whom he has a special fervor. Cortez Gómez is a member of the Guard of Honor.
There are also portraits of his parents and him and his wife Juana de la Torre, who opened the first clothing store in Jocotepec in 1965. They had seven children, 15 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Nearing his ninetieth birthday, Marcos remembers the Jocotepec of his youth and one of the celebrations, the carnival for the bullfights of bygone days. “It was a most beautiful celebration,» he says, smiling nostalgically.
The carnival festivities began on Saturday and ended on Tuesday. Every day began with the mañanitas, the popular Mexican song sang on special days like saint days or birthdays, with a band playing in the streets. The invitation to the carnival began at eleven o’clock in the morning. This was a parade of the riders who were going to participate in the bullring with some tame bulls in the middle of the procession. The parade ended at the bullring. This parade was traditionally called the “toro de once” or bulls of eleven, so-called because the parade started at 11:00 with eleven bulls. They held tryouts to see which bullfighters were going to fight in the afternoon. At the bullring they welcomed bullfight sponsors from Zacoalco, Navajas, Ahuisculco, San Pedro and Zapotitán.
The famous Ignacio Zaragoza Band from Jocotopec played classical and popular music. The promoter, Rodolfo García Ibarra allowed his house to function as a rehearsal hall. The evenings ended with a serenade and dance.
At the serenade the women would turn one way and the men the other. There was an exchange of flowers or decorated, perfumed bouquets between girls and boys. Cortez Gómez remembers that while the band played El Papaqui, they would break the eggshells stuffed with confetti on the girls and their friends and they would throw streamers and confetti at them.
The queen of the carnival was crowned on the last day. The municipal president or the group of charros (horsemen) selected the lucky girl and her two princesses. All were accompanied by their escorts. The royal court made their entrance to the bullring in a carriage, went around the ring and then settled in their box of honor that had been prepared for them. They awarded the participants bands made with colored ribbons. Cortez Gómez was given a sash, and he had great pleasure showing off that trophy to his friends and the girls.
The bullfights were at four o’clock in the afternoon. Sometimes the bullfighters came from outside Jocotopec and at other times, spontaneous bullfighters appeared and at the moment they ventured into the ring they became sometimes not so lucky bullfighters. The güero (blonde) Loza, was one of the bullfighters originally from Jocotepec.
At the bullfights there was no lack of clowns with their jokes. One clown named Candelario, came from Pueblo Nuevo. Another clown was nicknamed La rata (the rat). The clowns had a great ability to compose jokes on the spot, Cortez Gómez still remembers:
The girls of Jocotepec, they are like the otate flower.
Very good at making boyfriends, but bad at using the metate [to grind corn].
Another joke was:
Don Fulanito de tal is a very brave man,
He keeps looking at his leg from underneath the platform.
Once the festivities of Shrove Tuesday [Fat Tuesday] were over and Ash Wednesday arrived, there was no more talk of bullfighting or festivities. They said goodbye to joy as bullring wooden beams were dismantled.
Cortez Gómez likes dancing and singing very much. He sometimes shared meals and songs with his friend, the singer Jorge Valente. They loved each other like relatives, even though they were not. The composer Gilberto Parra was his cousin.
Don Marcos is a great conversationalist who also composes music while narrating a story. He raises his voice to sing.
I’ll wait for you under the camichin trees, where the trucks go by
To go far away to unite our hearts.
I swear to you that our love will remain forever.
Cheer up chaparrita, you’ll see that you won’t regret it.
He has has written three ranchera songs that he keeps for himself.
he keeps remembering and raises his voice to sing with emotion:
Tonight, with the moon I sing you my illusions,
I swear to you that my love is with good intentions.
«I am very grateful to God for having let me be born here and live here, in the land of my love,” he affirms without concluding, because Don Marcos Cortez Gómez has many memories that he would not finish telling.
Translated by Nita Rudy
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