Mexico [Part 3] - The Magical Chiapas

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After sunset we came back down and spent some more time at the centro before finally heading back to the AirBnB. That too because the vegan lunch that we had had was not letting us sit and eat/drink in a cafe (damn vegan food! 😬) We picked up some pizza and mezcal on the way back and finished Roma (which we had started in Oaxaca at the recommendation of Fernando and Marianna) before calling it a night.

People of the Land

The next morning we had scheduled a tour with Alex y Raul to Zinacantan and Chamula. This was a culture tour and had come highly recommended by our hostess. We decided to give it a shot in order to understand the culture of the land better. Would definitely be something different from what we were used to. We reached the Zocalo at 9:30 AM and were met by our guide, Cesar. The group was a small one. A four member family from Netherlands and the two of us. We learnt over the course of the tour that they were doing a road-trip across the Yucatan and had come inland as far as Chiapas.

The tour started at Zinacantan, a community of Tsotsil speaking Mayans who had adopted Christ and his ways. We walked around the church first, which seems to form the crux of all towns in Mexico. The town’s main church was under restoration so they had shifted into a temporary one.

There was a wedding going on and Cesar asked us to passively observe it from the side. Everyone here, Cesar explained, wore something like a uniform which was typical to their village. Every community or village in the area had it’s own uniform of sorts so that you could immediately tell where the people were from by simply looking at them. This village had adopted Christianity widely and held on to a few traditions as well. They had their unique justice system headed by three elected judges from the village. The children went out to study and work. The village was liberal in many ways, the community system was strong and everyone devoted a year to community services. The customs of this village reminded me of Khonoma (Nagaland) in many ways.

We went to visit a family of weavers next. Every village had it’s own typical designs and the women of the family weaved various articles using traditional techniques which made the production slow and laborious. Opening the house to tours was a way for them to gain supplementary income. Everyone was comfortable with cameras and getting clicked except for the eldest granny who was around 90 years old and not very fond of the camera 👵

They also fed us tortillas with a pumpkin seed powder that was utterly delicious!

Parul bought a tote bag from the weavers on our way out. We headed to the van which ferried us to our next destination. Chamula was a different part of the land and, as was to be expected, the clothes of the people here changed to reflect the change in location. The town was much bigger than Zinacantan. The people here also spoke Tsotsil but were much more conservative about their traditions than the people of Zinacantan. Cesar explained the various differences as we walked in front of the massive church and then took us inside, warning that the people here did not appreciate the camera so we had better put it away. It was an extremely surreal experience to walk in that church. The people had adopted the Christian God and saints but modified them to fit into their traditional belief. Candles burnt everywhere in the church and hay lined the floors. People sat chanting and shamans carried out rituals to heal the sick. The Vatican had tried interfering a few times to establish it’s version of Christianity but the locals had violently repelled it away.

Cesar took us to see a spiritual leader next. These were people who served the community and were selected based on application. They held special positions in the society but a lot of them had to save their entire lives to gather the funds required for a year long service as a spiritual leader. As the incense burnt and the spiritual leader chanted to gods hidden behind veils of leaves, Cesar commented on how this village had it’s own way of functioning. How traditional medicine was still used here and was claimed to work. But missionaries from USA came and tried converting these people to their faith.

We went about to see the town’s market and the local prison next. The prison cells were open to observation and Cesar explained how the justice system here was orthodox but effective. Severe crimes were punished by lynching and moderate ones by public shaming.

The tour ended at the town’s graveyard where Cesar showed us the unique tombs of the natives. He emphasised how the natives had modified Christian beliefs to match their own and why they were not wrong in doing so.

I agreed with what Cesar was saying. The village had it’s right to exist in the manner that it wished to. Modernization would bring about many changes for sure but adopting those changes was a choice of the natives. It should not be forced on them. This strong hold on the traditional way of life was probably the reason that Zapatistas were so firmly rooted in Chiapas. They were a bit like Naxalites in India, only much more supported by the local communities and much more effective.

We thanked Cesar for the wonderful tour as he dropped us back to the city center. This had been an extremely insightful experience and we decided to do more of such culture tours whenever we could. There are things you do not understand as an outsider unless it is explained to you by a well informed local.

Back in San Cristobal, we had a wonderful lunch of soups in a restaurant where two old men played a marimba for our entertainment. Parul thought that one of them looked like Robin Williams when he smiled 😄

We went back to the room and after resting a while we left for some Mexican food in a nearby restaurant followed by some drinks in the Zocalo. San Cristobal had our hearts ❤️ We would now have the familiar response to anyone asking us about this magical place.

Change in the Itinerary

We had a flight out from San Cristobal to Merida but we decided that we were rushing things too much. We had been having active days ever since Zicatela and both of us wanted to rest for a day or two. Plus, we wanted to see Palenque as well and had we gone to Merida as planned, Palenque would become too off route to pursue. So we decided that the flight was cheap enough to give a miss and extended a day in San Cristobal. This was today, when we decided to take it easy and do as little as we could.

We woke up to the chirping of birds in the fallow land next to our property. I spent many a minutes trying to click an elusive hummingbird with my zoom lens. The flora and fauna of Mexico is starkly different from Asia’s and it is a treat in itself.

We also went to check out the Museum of Mayan Medicine which was on the other side of the town. This was strictly okay but we managed to have tamales on the way. This staple dish is somewhat like upma and best had roadside with the corn drink atole. I made do with some coffee though.