Pictures of life in Mexico/Volume 2/Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII.
A FERIA, OR FAIR.
The characteristics of fairs differ in the various parts of Mexico where they are held; but all partake of the nature of trading as well as of festive gatherings. In the capital and in its neighbourhood they are more distinguished for luxuries and the sale of articles belonging to a somewhat advanced stage of civilization than are most of the others. At Vera Cruz a feria is remembered as a season of wild excess and debauchery among the sailors and people at the port by a greater provision of odoriferous articles of clothing in the streets and by the increased prevalence of the malaria fever consequent upon the whole. In the mining districts there are fewer fruits, flowers, and vegetable products to be seen, and an infinitely greater display of strong clothing for labourers—coarse blankets, thick leathern pantaloons, and occasionally immense leathern boots, and other mining accoutrements. In the cold parts of the country (tierras frias), a feria is, in a far greater degree, an affair for in-doors; exhibitions in the market-places are rather scanty, and there is a higher relish, if possible, for aguardiente, chilé pepper, and other warm and spicy preparations. While in the tierras calientes, or hot regions, whole floating gardens of resplendent flowers and luscious fruits—fine grapes, rich bananas, and delicious tunas (a superior kind of pear); oranges, pineapples, peaches, and watermelons; granaditas (large sweet gooseberries), apricots, plums, and cherimoyas (a splendid fruit resembling a custard in flavour), together with cooling drinks and sweet mixtures, are abundantly supplied and highly appreciated, as the majority of them well deserve to be.
However different the proceedings at these festive seasons may be in the abstract, their principal features are still much the same everywhere: there is always a similar influx of petty merchants and retailers to the markets and great thoroughfares; the same recourse to dancing and drinking; pulque and ardent spirits; and the same eager abandonment to the absorbing and universal habit of gaming. There are about twelve or fourteen annual fairs held in the chief towns and cities of the republic; they are all well attended; and the traffic of each continues for about a week or ten days. For an average specimen of one of these celebrations I will select one of the ferias in the capital.
Directly after sunrise, the canals of Chalco and Istacalo presented a gay and animated spectacle: throngs of Indians in boats descending one after the other, with brilliant cargoes of flowers, fruits, and provisions, for sale in the market-places and upon the pavements during the day. A great portion of these flowers and vegetables are grown upon the chinampas or floating gardens—such as we hear of in descriptions of the rivers and canals in China. These constructions are of two kinds, the greater number are attached to the shore, but a few are left to be driven to and fro at the mercy of the winds. The idea of these gardens may have been derived from masses of flowery and grassy earth carried away from their banks; probably rafts were first formed of soil and reeds intertwining among which were planted bulbs and roots. These chinampas are guarded by Indians who live in huts in their neighbourhood and who tow or push them from one place to another by means of long poles. Floating islands of a somewhat similar formation have been discovered in different parts of the world—in Quito and in Italy, as well as in the Celestial Empire.
The pedlars who exhibit their wares for sale beneath the arches have several modes of disposing of their articles, which strike a stranger as especially peculiar. The professed retail dealers are constantly on the look-out for a fair offer to enable them to sell their whole stock at once. Some among these traders have no other notion of measurement or estimation for their goods, than by the vara, or yard—about thirty-three inches: and the scenes occasionally consequent upon dealing out some of their merchandise in this way, are exceedingly ludicrous. They have ribbons and tapes, and cottons—printed bleached twilled brown striped and checked; plain and highly-wrought ponchos and blankets; figured rebosos in cotton and silk—the silk ones in this country being the least valuable; together with trinkets hats mirrors, pantaloons, and cutlery. If you purchase a quantity of writing-paper, it will most likely be measured by the vara, and the probabilities are, that you will have a dispute about the manner of doing it—whether by the ream, the quire, or the sheet, and whether the paper should be taken horizontally or perpendicularly! If you bargain for a brace of pocket-knives, you will fall out as to whether they shall be estimated shut or open; if you desire a few rolls of cotton, you know not whether it will be retailed to you folded or unfolded; and if you select an upright mirror, it is impossible to say whether the price to be paid for it will be adjudged by the number of varas, or inches, in its height or breadth!
The stock in trade of the juggler or conjuror, round the corner, is rather startling; for in addition to his sword-swallowing and fire-scattering apparatus, he has a whole budget of minor accessories—chains, boxes, ropes, knives, wands, and bands; and also a choice collection of beautiful birds and snakes. Occupying a prominent position among the former—at the head of the parrots and parroquets—is a specimen of the celebrated toto, a bird but little larger than a thrush, with wings of the most resplendent green. This little creature, as is well known, is held in superstitious veneration by the Indians, and its destruction was formerly punishable by death among them; but the individual who could capture it and pluck a few feathers from its tail, before setting it again at liberty, was judged fortunate. The serpents in the other cage are for the most part of great length, and most inviting appearance; some shine in green and gold; others appear covered with brilliant pearly scales; while the rest are of a magnificent crimson colour, streaked with black and white. Many of them have been originally of a dangerous character, but their poisonous fang-s have been carefully removed, and their proprietor plays all manner of tricks with them with impunity. A gaping crowd have gathered around, who regard him wonderingly as his eyes appear to roll in mortal anguish, when he stabs himself with a double-jointed knife or while his flesh creeps and recoils in counterfeit horror from the playful nibblings and twining embraces of his harmless friends the serpents.
In front of a gaming-house also the performances of Indian dancing girls attract considerable attention. Some of them are but very scantily draped; but this does not appear at all to offend the numerous bystanders. These girls have been familiar with seasons of want and misery, alternated with scenes of glitter and dissipation, from their infancy. The history of one of them would be pitiable in the extreme. Their joyous laughter and smiling grimaces are evidently assumed: one of them glances with ardently longing eyes towards the dish of frijoles and chilé which has just been borne past; the voice of another seems almost to have failed her from excessive weakness; and a third has been compelled to support herself against a portion of the door, from exhaustion, in the midst of an unusually brilliant feat. But they laugh and sing, and dance and caper—often coarsely, jinglin their tambourines and triangles; and the multitudes around care for nothing else, nor once think of the misery and degradation of the wretched performers.
A woman carrying the furniture of half an eating house about with her attracts numerous customers who choose between maize and tortilla-cakes cups of chocolate and pulque platters of wild fowl and turkey, eggs, valdivias, and ollas. But the boys of the neighbourhood beset her like flies:—one urchin has just snatched a handful of maize for which he has no intention of paying; and his comrade, who has just run away, has overturned a large jar of pulque! She cannot follow them, for her whole stock of provisions would vanish the while; but she will be avenged by loud outcries and vociferations: already' has she discovered their last movements; and a startling torrent of exclamations and invectives electrifies the throng.
Yonder are several groups of ladrones selling their stolen goods, at a rate remarkably under the usual prices—but it is all gain to them. You may know them by their fierce and reckless appearance, and by their downcast and discontented eyes. It cannot be unknown to the police officers and superintendents who guard the fair, that these articles must have been procured by plunder; yet the knavery is either winked at or deemed unworthy of notice. The eager and designing looks they cast upon the arriero who is unloading a large bale of merchandise on the right, and the sympathetic glances they interchange with each other from time to time, sufficiently shew their appetite for plunder. They have a great variety of portable and saleable goods and meet with numerous and ready purchasers.
The assortment of goods belonging to the glass, china, and earthenware merchant, proves to be rather curious on examination. There are some stylish-looking wine-glasses, vases and decanters—but when you take them up and hold them to the light, you see that every one is chipped as well as cut; and the few china ornaments of attractive shapes and colours are, without exception, either cracked or flawed internally. As for other more common crockery, cups and plates and water-jugs—not one of the whole collection will hold water. The fellow purchased them as refuse, and vends them as perfect; yet if you state an objection to his wares he scowls upon you most fearfully, and his hand is upon his knife in a moment.A lépero at no great distance is pretending to purchase a cuchillo, or knife from a dealer in such articles. See how he turns it over weighs it on his hand, measures it with his fingers breathes upon it, and tries its strength. He must surely want it for some particular purpose; perhaps he is about to meet a worthy comrade in a hostile encounter, and would like to have the advantage in his weapon. But while the rascal appears to be deliberating about the knife, he is in reality robbing a pannier on the shoulders of an ass behind him, and stealthily conveying his plunder beneath the folds of his serapé; while the proprietor of the ass and panniers, is bargaining for the sale of his fast-decreasing stock—ass and panniers included.
The theatres, at these times, are largely attended; not merely those of the better sort, where plays of European origin are performed, but others, differing in their pretensions; from the red, blue, and green painted edifice that graces an obscure street, to the temporary sheds that are constructed in a hasty manner behind houses and in court-yards especially for the occasion. The one behind us is of the latter kind. The players strut affectedly upon the narrow boarding in front of the establishment the tragic heroes scowling and looking down upon their comrades of the comic kind; and the mirth-moving varlets in return playing off their jests and raising the laugh against them:—they all roar, expostulate, and swear, and dance in concert; while a man in an excessively broad-brimmed sombrero, long dagger, prodigious boots, fierce mustachios, and large cane, thunders forth the programme of the performances! "If the Blessed Virgin be willing, the next drama to be set forth will be one of horrifying interest, entitled, 'The Lady of Crime, or the Cardinal Sins'; and the succeeding entertainment will consist of a highly celebrated farce, much distinguished as 'The Spanish Barber, or the Courtships of a Week.' " The comedy is not half so rich as may be witnessed by waiting on the dispenser of indulgences in the huge building hard by; if you are inclined to view the matter in a humorous light; and as to the tragedy, you have only to let your mind recur to the scenes that have been formerly enacted in the same apartment.
Within the numerous balconies in front of the houses opposite, under the brilliantlycoloured awnings there are groups of Mexican ladies, of all ages, their handsome features and beaming eyes intent upon the oddities of the scene before them. The elder ladies are most dazzling in point of dress, in their magnificently embroidered, flowered, and laced mantillas, rebosos of all the colours of the rainbow, jewelled zones, gold bracelets, and resplendent necklaces.
On the azotea, or flat roof, of a commodious mansion, are grouped the noble owner and his family, who have come to gaze at the festivities from a secure distance. The lady's father—an aged man—reclines on an easy couch, whence he can enjoy a view of the motley throngs and rich sunshine; the lady herself is in attendance upon him, the children are in raptures with the scene, and their father is making himself agreeable to all. What a happy family party it appears to be! But the father must be careful of those two youngest children, or in their ecstacies of delight, they will precipitate themselves over the parapet, and fall among the busy crowds below.
These Mexican ferias have occasionally been fiercely interrupted; and have sometimes become scenes of the most unexpected and abominable outrage. An instance of this kind, consequent upon the declaration of a pronunciamiento in a certain city of the second class, came to my knowledge.
Pronunciamientos are by no means of unfrequent occurrence. When any officer or general—or indeed any person in this disturbed country—thinks he has induced a faction of the people to act under him in opposition to the existing government, he issues a declaration of dissent and grievances addressed to his followers and to the country at large; and his partisans array themselves immediately under his command. This demonstration of opinion is called a pronunciamiento. The next step—and these proceedings have often been taken together—is to draw up a gecto, or plan of future operations. Then follow war, bloodshed, and plunder, and all the horrors of civil conflict, until one of the contending parties is defeated and subdued; then the vanquished dispronounce, and stipulate for as merciful treatment as can possibly be afforded them; while the victors arrange a triumphal procession and organize a demonstrative glorification.
These pronunciamientos have been very popular within the last thirty years; there have been many factions of all kinds some of which have borne British appellations—as the centralists termed Ecossais or Scotch and the federalists called Yorkinos, or Yorkists; and the number of sanguinary insurrections which have disgraced the country—both before and after the accession of Santa Anna—is fearful.
On the occasion to which I allude the town fair was brilliant, and numerously attended both by merchants and purchasers; the traffic was at its height; pleasure parties thronged the streets, music and dancing echoed from the pavements, the balconies and azoteas were alive with visitors, gamblers were crowding to their resorts, the sun shone gaily upon the scene, and all was happiness and security. Only one circumstance appeared singular to the thinking portion of the community—a very small one—and this was, that there was not a priest to be seen in any of the streets, while everything was unusually silent in and around the churches. Presently, however, a troop of soldiers under an excited leader, accompanied by a host of tattered and hastily armed depredators entered the town; marching through the principal thoroughfares to the chief square and bringing with them in their persons, their own pronunciamiento.
The insurrection was wholly unexpected: so well had the conspiracy been kept, that all ranks of the people were taken by surprise, as the mob took possession of some of the principal buildings, and plundered houses in their progress. Léperos and vagrants in general joined the ranks of the insurgents; and gentlemen whose appearance promised better things, fled precipitately before the throng. Shrieks and cries proceeded from every quarter: women in the crowd were thrown down and trampled upon: market people were either dispersed among their goods, or pressed hastily on in retreat. Stores, sheds, and shops were plundered; stalls and panniers of glass and china, eggs and provisions, silks and cottons, arms and fancy articles, were ransacked or broken to pieces: houses were stormed, and their ornaments destroyed; those belonging to the obnoxious being set on fire. Pillage, dismay, and confusion, reigned paramount in the place where pleasure and business had so lately presided.
A few gentlemen, however, assisted by some respectable merchants and storekeepers, and joined by a band of pedlars and townspeople, made a brave and determined stand; and the progress of the invading rioters was momentarily checked. Had the numbers of the small resisting party been but augmented by the panic-stricken inhabitants, all might yet, in a great degree, have been spared. But as it was, their bold opposition proved unavailing: the gentlemen at its head were speedily cut to pieces; the police officers and storekeepers fled from the conflict; and many of the poor pedlars and market people who had attempted to defend themselves and their position, were slaughtered beside their merchandise.
This short-lived insurrection, nevertheless, was quelled in a most summary manner by General Santa Anna; and the ostensible leading promulgators of the pronunciamiento were instantly executed by his command.