Two recent explosions at small fireworks workshops in the Ciénega region of Jalisco which claimed the lives of eight people have focused attention on this long-standing craft activity.
This article, written by the late Allyn Hunt and published in this newspaper in 2015, gives an eye-opening glimpse into the family tradition of pyrotechnics production.
The stuttery rains that have blown over the Cerrro de Santa Cruz some distance south of Guadalajara have been disappointing thus far (May 28). But campesinos there were so eager for the temporada de lluvias to begin, that they celebrated extravagantly with a barrage of booking cohetes (skyrockets), a few pistol shots and not a little aguardiente — literally, firewater.
The Holy plowman
By then, they’d been setting off cohetes in their fields for some time. Some started the noisy ritual as early as May 12, the Day of San Isidro Labrador — the Holy plowman. The 12th is generally a big day for celebrating in much of the countryside for it also honors Nuestra Señora del Rosario, El Señor de la Ascencion, El Señor de la Misericordia, Jueves de Ascencion and Pentecost in various Jalisco agricultural villages. Then, of course, there is Corpus Cristi, marked by some twice: once on June 11, the old date of the religious celebration called Jueves de Corpus, followed by the “new” celebration date, June 14. Domingo de Corpus. In between comes San Antonio Day, June 13, when in much of highland Jalisco the temporada de lluvias traditionally is supposed to begin.
Though these are all Roman Catholic feast days, they also represent the primal impulse to honor the earth’s powers of fertility, an impulse still vitally alive in many rural communities and certainly among many campesino families.
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