la semana santa

 

The Holy Week has been bringing folks in droves. Most of the tourists look to be from other latin american countries, primarily mexico. I heard somewhere that guatemala is to mexico what mexico is to the u.s. i suppose it's the cheap vacation destination to the south. but antigua is more like a mini-mecca for latinos and processions and catholic traditions are blowing up everywhere. in these photos you can kinda see una alfombra que esta construyendo. Literally meaning "carpet," people spend hours upon hours building these ornate banners on the streets of antigua. They start with forms and fill them with sawdust. Next, they fill in the background colors (also sawdust) which have been predyed and use stencils to create patterns and beautiful designs. they spray the alfombra with water to keep the wind from blowing one color onto another. the finished product is awesome but often only lasts a few fleeting hours before a procession with religious scenery, incense and a marching band destroys it and a clean up crew follows and scoops the remaining mess into a bulldozer or truck. Some of these artforms are made with grass, flowers, fruit and wooden shapes, but the sawdust ones seem to be the most popular and most labor intensive. i included this picture of jesus (post-lashing) because it kind of freaked me out...not the blood so much as the real hair on the messiah. Anyway, i´ve been trying to get used to the looks i've been getting. i don't think they're so much centered around me being foreign, but being tall and foreign. So i've been just doing what i do, except i haven't exactly perfected sarcasm in spanish quite yet. hay un reto nuevo.