With Holy Week now just around the corner, villagers in Ajijic and San Antonio are hustling to wrap up final preparations for the traditional Easter pageants that have been staged year after year for more than four decades, to bring religious doctrine to life.
Among the scores of individuals involved in the local Passion Play productions, none face greater challenges than the young men cast to portray the protagonist, Jesus of Nazareth. They are not only required to memorize extensive dialogue and master stage directions to play the lead character, but also develop physical and spiritual strengths to endure the arduous demands implicit in that role.
Gerardo Parra Márquez, 22, has been selected to debut as Jesus in the 2023 production of Ajijic’s Pasión de Cristo. He and other members of his family have appeared as actors in the Passion Play over the past 13 years. Gerardo has previously performed as a servant, a Roman soldier and an angel, before agreeing to tackle the lead role at the instigation of pageant founder-director Lago Ramos Cordero.
For the Viacrucis Viviente in San Antonio Tlaycapan, 31-year-old Francisco Javier Enciso Mendoza will also be a first time performer in the characterization of Jesus. The youngest of eight siblings in a devout Catholic family, he follows in the footsteps of older brother Abraham who played the key role various times in previous years.
With fortitude and deep devotion, these valiant young men will do their utmost to bring realism to the Passion Play dramatizations, share the Messiah’s messages of love and sacrifice, and spread the faith derived from the final chapter of what is often called “the greatest story ever told.”
See next week’s edition of the Guadalajara Reporter for a full rundown on Easter season happenings scheduled in lakeside communities.