(LEFT) Jose Adolfo Torres Baltazar Cruz shows off the monster pumpkin that earned him a second place medal and a big bag of pantry goods at the informal harvest fair held Friday, November 25 at the Mezcala waterfront.
Townspeople laid out their largest samples of chayotes, dried corn cobs and catfish from the lake for the competition that was wrapped in to annual commemoration of the 1816 surrender of Mezcala Island following a four-year bloody struggle between a ragtag band of native rebels 
and Royalist troops during Mexico’s War of Independence.
(RIGHT) Mezcala town administrator Jose Indalecio Baltazar took a popular vote from spectators to determine prize winners in the biggest chayote category of the fair.
(BELOW) Jose Cruz won first place honors for the 35-centimeter long corn cob.