 | Introduction/Home Page by Ira Jacknis |
| Introduction to Tzintzuntzan by the Anthropologist George Foster/ Map of Tzintzuntzan/ The First Fieldwork: 194446 |
| Mariano Cornelio, a Tarascan fisherman/farmer, in his boat |
| Vicente Rendon and his compadre Salvador Villagomes harvesting maize |
| Vicente Rendón on the way to market with pottery |
| Family at the grave on All Saints’ Day |
| Jesús Peña making candles |
| Tarascan masked dancers, "owner" and "watcher", at the Octava of Corpus Christi |
| Highway victim |
| Changes in Tzintzuntzan: 194579 and 1979-88 |
| View towards the northwest side of Lake Pátzcuaro |
| Yácatas, reconstructed ruins on the east edge of the village |
| Doña Micaela González, in her small patio |
| Melecio Hernández, husband of Micaela González, making an ox yoke |
| Micaela González’s house; in front are her daughter Virginia Pichu, and William Iler, a UC Berkeley graduate student |
| The new second floor on Micaela González’s house; Mary Foster on the balcony |
| Dolores (Lola) Pichu and her younger sister Virginia Pichu, daughters of Micaela González and her first husband, Pedro Pichu |
| Pachita Villagómez and her husband Faustino Peña |
| Doña Andrea Medina, her daughter-in-law Pachita Villagómez, and her granddaughter Lucía |
| Lupe Calderon and Eustolio Campos coming out of the parish church after their wedding |
| Florentina Dominga, a Tarascan woman, with a midwife’s offering |
| La Soledad chapel |
| The arrival of fireworks (La Obra) at La Parroquia, the Parish church |
| Death dancer, Salvador Maturino |
| Red devil dancer |
| Female attendants of the king and queen figures, Rosa Lara |
| Group of spies entering the house of Ambrosio Zaldívar, to pay homage to the district saint (barrio santo) and to be fed; Holy Wednesday |
| A spy; Holy Wednesday |
 | A penitente, with his assistant (cirineo); Good Friday |
| Fish dancer and net in the procession of trades; Corpus Christi |
| Little Old Man Dance (Los Viejitos) |
| House façade decorated for a posada procession; before breaking the piñatas; Christmas season |
| Tarascan women making tortillas by hand, cooked on a wood fire |
| Lola Pichu making tortillas in a press, inside her present old-style kitchen |
| Amalia Felices making pots, by joining two mold-made halves and smoothing the inside |
| Doña Andrea Medina at the kiln in her yard |
| Otilia Zavala, wife of Wenceslado Peña, glazing pottery |
| Pachita Villagómez painting a fish design on a large platter, before glazing |
| Salvador Cuirís and his pottery delivery truck |
| Pottery sellers in the church atrium; Fiesta of Nuestro Señor del Rescate |
| The store, "La Central," and the plaza on the main highway, looking south |
| Lola Pichu inside her family’s store; Christmas |
| Changes in Tzintzuntzan: 19882000 |
| George Foster Biography |
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A penitente, with his assistant (cirineo); Good Friday, March 24, 1978.
La Soledad, like all Mexican churches and chapels, contains a number of images and pictures of saints, the Virgin, and of Christ. . . . Except when removed for the Easter celebrations the Santo Entierro lies at the foot of this altar in a glass case known as the "urn." This most revered of all images of Christ is a 2-m. wooden figure, hands and feet pierced so that nails can be driven through to suspend it from the cross, and with blood painted streaming down its face from wounds beneath the crown of thorns.
According to tradition, just when La Soledad was completed a horse wandered into the atrium bearing the figure, its drivers having become lost. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the priest placed the image in the newly completed chapel and asked no questions. Subsequently a commission arrived from Pátzcuaro to explain that the image had been destined for one of their churches, and credentials having been properly established, permission was granted for the removal. But when the Pátzcuareņos tried to lift it it became so heavy that they could not budge it. During subsequent years others tried to move the image, with the same results. But, curiously, the Tzintzuntzeņos were able to carry it about in their processions with the greatest of ease, all of which showed clearly that God had intended the image for Tzintzuntzan, and that it was divine will that guided the steps of the wandering animal. Subsequently the Santo Entierro grew from its former moderate stature to its present large size, necessitating the remodeling of the urn with a glass extension at the foot to contain the feet. Even so, when at rest the image is cramped and the knees must be slightly bent. . . .
Finally, one on each side of the entry door, are two large crosses to which are permanently impaled life-size wooden figures, nude except for blue silk shorts held up with elastic waist bands. These are the images of the thieves crucified with Christ on Calvary, and are used in the Easter Week celebrations. That to the right of the door is San Dimas, and that to the left, San Gestas (1948).
Another religious ritual is not costly, but it can be very painful. Hooded penitents, who for untold years on Good Friday have paid their vows to the Virgin by wearing leg irons or shouldering heavy wooden crosses, have proliferated in numbers. To become a penitent is the "in" thing for young men to do. Elderly men who continue to make the penitent's rounds through the village streets are spoken of with admiration, and when they are no longer able to do so, they are still praised for their religious devotion. For many years penitents were few in number; a single cross sufficed. By 1965 there were three. When, in 1978, I was in Tzintzuntzan for Easter Week for the first time in some years, I was dumbfounded to find that the number had risen to 11, which were in constant use all Good Friday night, until well after dawn the following morning. Well over 100 penitents "paid" their vow that night-at the same time acquiring status and prestige (1979).
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