Fiesta grande
Señor de Esquipulas
Every year in January, Chiapa de Corzo traditionally hosts the "Fiesta Grande". From 8 - 23 January, the streets, churches and private house altars will be transformed into colourful and lively places. The celebrations often go beyond January 23rd - in any case always until the following Sunday.
Since 2010, the Fiesta Grande has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural asset.
The festival is dedicated to various local Catholic patron saints, including the Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas (15 January), San Antonio Abad (17 January) and San Sebastián Mártir (20 January).
Some historians believe, however, that the origin of the festival can be traced back to a small boy. The sick son of the Spanish Doña Maria de Angula was cured by a local healer. His parents were so grateful for his recovery that they gave the dancers presents with the words: "para chico" = for the boy. In addition, they had given the village a celebration and food, as at that time a severe drought had partially destroyed the harvest. The wooden masks worn by the dancers during the festivities also speak in favour of this thesis on the origin of the festival.
All in all, however, the celebrations are a mixture of indigenous, Spanish and Christian ceremonies.
Parachicus
Besides music, religious ceremonies and culinary delicacies, the dances of the Parachicos are at the centre of events at the Fiesta Grande. Both the dances and the dancers are called parachicos.
Already in the morning the dancers start with their preparations. The robes consist of dark shirts and mostly shiny, richly decorated trousers; cloths reminiscent of Arab desert peoples are placed around the head. Colorful scarves (ponchos) and usually made of tin or silver-painted rattles almost complete the picture. In addition, there are the eye-catching beige-brown headgear adorned with colorful ribbons, which is made of a fiber of the Agave or Yucca (called Ixtle or Istle) and partly braided.
Most important, however, are the large and heavy wooden masks, whose faces depict young men with Caucasian features such as light skin, blue eyes and hair on their faces - and thus contrast with the appearance of the natives. It can be assumed that the cloths that the dancers put on before serve as protection, because the headgear and mask are heavy, the days long and the dances exhausting.
Dressed in this way, the Parachicos first move through the streets of the city, past festively dressed ladies and other celebrating inhabitants, dancing and rattling in small groups. They stop again and again to stop in houses and courtyards, where they perform their dances perseveringly on domestic altars and icons. They pay homage to the saint - always accompanied by the high notes of the typical wooden flutes.
In the course of the paths more and more Parachicos meet and mix to a waving, densely packed, rhythmically rattling crowd, where often only the beige-brown headgear can be seen and now and then the mask of a white young man stands out. As a big parade, they move through the city and receive their "reward" on the last days of the celebrations. In honour of San Sebastian, a large meal is held where the parachicos dip dried beef in a pumpkin seed sauce and eat it by hand.
The mask makers of the Parachico
The wooden masks of the Parachicos are something very special.
Almost exclusively young men with light skin, large blue eyes and hair on the face are depicted. The beards shown often correspond to the chin strap - a beard that draws the facial contours of the wearer from the hairline over the cheeks and chin and clearly highlights them. This type of beard, in which the area around the nose and mouth is hair-free, generally gives the impression of a gentle and young face - which proves the assumption that the celebrations of the Fiesta Grande take place in honour of a boy. Sometimes the mask makers also create faces with very masculine and austere contours up to the full beard. The young men depicted also often have pronounced eyebrows, long thick eyelashes around the eyes and individual beauty spots on the cheek and chin.
The production of the masks, which is passed down from generation to generation, takes many weeks. Without the additional time required for the selection of the wood and its drying process, the artists sometimes need 6 weeks until a mask is completed.
Often several layers of paint are applied to achieve the desired appearance.
The artists are proud of their origins and skills. They tell many stories and traditions about the Fiesta Grande and the dancers with their youthful, wooden faces.
