Monday, February 9, 2009

Tlacotalpan, Veracruz




The weekend before last we spent in Veracruz, in a small village called Tlacotalpan which in fact has been declared world heritage site for its well-preserved characteristic architecture. But we went not only to see the sites but also to attend a music festival that had its 30th anniversary this year. We left for Veracruz city on Friday, where we spent the night. The state of Veracruz is known for its coffee and sugar growing enterprise, but Veracruz the city is in fact a harbor, which used to be very important historically because everybody approaching Mexico via the ocean landed in the Mexican Gulf and in the city's port. But exactly because it was on the water the city has been ravished several times by the Spaniards, French, Americans and pirates. Today it is a quite pretty colonial town, with good seafood, but also quite sleepy. The fortress--San Juan de UlĂșa--was my favorite, which we visited on Saturday morning. Because it was built on a little island just off the shore, and although it was in a pretty bad shape, you could walk around freely and roam the yards and towers. Plus it also reminded me of the old fortress we have in my hometown, Nagyvarad, which is also in ruin now because there is no money to fix it. The fort had a certain rustic charm nonetheless. In the gallery we saw pictures of the fort in older days. There we learned that it had been a prison under Porfirio Diaz--a particularly cruel one without latrines.

We arrived to Tlacotalpan on Saturday and stayed until Tuesday morning. The festival was already in full swing, although the concerts started that night. This is also a religious festival called "Candelaria" and it is a special local celebration. There were folks from all around the area just coming for the Candelaria, while the younger hippy like people were more into the music part. Anyways, everyone found what they were looking for. We saw a horse parade, a bull chase (it was quite pathetic, poor bull was obviously lost and he was the one being chased instead him chasing people). We also saw many-many jarana bands playing each night. This traditional folk music from Veracruz is accompanied by singing and dancing as well. The jarana is like a guitar but smaller and it's played very differently. There is also another guitar like instrument in the band called "requinto" which is the solo instrument (the jarana is more about the rhythm). The music is called properly "son jarocho." "Son" is the type of rhythm/genre and perhaps you are familiar with the Cuban sons made popular by Buena Vista Social Club and etc. Sons have been around for a very long time and more than likely have a distant link to African musics and rhythms. This makes sense as Veracruz was probably the area of Mexico most heavily invested in slave-labor during the seventeenth-century. "Jarocho" meanwhile means "from Veracruz."

I really fell in love with the music but also the whole event, I think it was partly nostalgia as well. Those of you who know and remember Homorod, our yearly youth festival that we used to attend religiously will be able to imagine quite well how the Tlacotalpan experience was: lots of tents, lots of young people drinking, doing crafts, singing and dancing, staying up all night and slowly recovering during the day. We stayed in someone's garage, so it was still pretty camp-like for us too.
I think the Veracruz water finally got to us however because all three of us (James, Tod and me) got sick on different day. But we still had lots of fun and even just the scenery that we passed made it worthwhile (sugar canes, coffee plants, palm trees etc). I attached some pictures to give you a sense of the place.