Giant Calenda Figure Oaxaca Mexico
by Lorena Cassady
Title
Giant Calenda Figure Oaxaca Mexico
Artist
Lorena Cassady
Medium
Photograph - Photograph, Paper Mache
Description
I took this photograph on voting day, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2012. The streets were empty except on main thoroughfares where the voting was taking place. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I had the city to myself. I came upon an array of these giant figures "blocking" the street. They are hoisted high by an internal stick, with a person inside, ready to dance down the street.
Calendas are, and have always been, for many Oaxacans a party, the time to throw the house through the window; the time to open ourselves and our fellow men; to enjoy after a long time of hard work; of leaving aside the secrecy and breaking the routine; to show the Patron Saint how important it is in the community; and even the time to ask for a favor through a Manda. Laughter, dance and joy are lived in a Calenda.
These giants are made of reed structure, are dressed in baggy clothes, and the head is made mostly with mache paper. Their dance is vertiginous in the turns, they almost lose verticality and their arms follow the inertia of the movement, both are always accompanied by the chords of a wind band.
This band goes along the street releasing its rumblings and melodic chords under the Oaxaca sky. The wind band was inherited from the French tradition and it is said that Oaxaca adopted this beautiful musical tradition since there are around five thousand wind bands in the state. Bands play throughout the Calenda, rain or shine, that doesn’t matter, because music is another fundamental aspect in these processions.
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November 12th, 2022
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