12.5 San Juan del Rio Info

     When I had first told Jorge, el doctor, about our adventures in San Juan I asked if he knew the puebla. He said no, but today in our conversation he said he did know it. He just didn?t admit it first because he had to check to see if he should talk about it. I had explained to him what I want to do with my book about Oaxaca, and so he decided to tell me about the place.
     Well, turns out that he lived there when he was very young.
     He started by explaining to me that the different people of the regions of Oaxaca have individual characteristics. And he asked, did I know that the puebla of San Jaun was next to the Mixe territory?
     Yes, and I related the fire-break like border that I had seen.
     And did I know that the reputation of the Mixe was to be cannibals? I raised my eyebrows.
     He told me that when he was very young the villagers there used to fight with the nearby Mixe about territory and so on. He remembered when one day the men in San Juan got rifles, mausers to be exact. Being so young of course he was excited about it, watching the men open the bolts and load the rifles.
     One day he heard rifle fire nearby. Unmistakable of course. Everyone in the village was frightened and worried except one guy, a really tall guy who just went about his business. He was deaf, and so it didn?t bother him at all.
     Well, during the skirmish the Mixe took one guy prisoner and ran away with him. The men of San Juan organized pursuit with dogs, and the dogs tracked them. At last they came to a big rock, a really big rock, which the Mixe had pushed on top of the guy. When they got it off they discovered that his heart and liver had been cut out.
     The did this, he said, to show that they are wild and savage. Hey, I was convinced! He said it was the last recorded instance of cannibalism for the Mixe.
     He said he related this to show how love can be turned to hate by hurting someone.

     He told me that the ruins that we had visited was used by the villagers for offerings to keep the area safe. It is a sacred place. I expressed surprise that they took us there at all. He said maybe they were young and didn?t know. I pointed out that Francisco was 50, not young at all. He suggested then that they probably figured we would see only the ruins and not see the idol at all.
     I reminded him that I had asked Cesar about it the first time, and he said he didn?t know. But the second time, after he saw me offer it some water, he said maybe I was right about what it was.
     Jorge reminded me that in Oaxaca they say people see with two eyes. The first one is the superficial things, like the fact that the ruins are there, in ruins. But the other eye sees the truth. The real things.
     ?Like your love for Suzanne,? he said. ?Your love is real, Suzanne is not.? I understood.

     He told me too about one of the town ceremonies. Every town has elected officers for the municipio. When there is a new president elected for San Juan the old one turns in his baton of command. At that moment the town elders take over; there is no other government but them. And the first thing they do is to put the retired president in the jail. Then they go over all the records and do everything to check to see if he did everything legitimately or not.
     If they decide all as legit then the band breaks out and they have flowers and they let him out and have a big celebration. If it was not legit, then the guy stays in jail.
     Then they put a wreath on the new president, and they lead him to the church. There they purify him with every possible form of limpia, using herbs, eggs, copal and so on. He said it was in the church, but this wasn?t a Christian ceremony, it was the old way of the Zapotecs. Many villages do it this way.
     I mentioned that I wished we cold do that with Mr. Bush?just leave him in jail. Jorge replied, ?Even going to Chalma could not help that.?
     I finally got to understand what this meant. Chalma is a place where people go when they have big problems because t is a powerful place that can remove many problems. But it is a saying that when something is really bad, ?Even going to Chalma could not help that.?
     I agreed, and added that even sending him to purgatory or hell would not help that guy. Everyone laughed a lot.