This morning, after a lavish breakfast composed from our purchases from the market yesterday we went down to Santa Maria Tonantzintla, a church which used to be a temple to a mother goddess until it became a church of the Virgin. It is covered in ornate, baroque plasterwork, yes, Mexican baroque. There is ornate plasterwork touched with gold; the style, however, is folk: the images with their staring eyes are the same as those one saw in Santa Muerte, the same style. There was a confirmation going on, of a boy who was thrilled to be at the centre of attention in his white suit and carrying various ritual objects. The Virgin at the main altar stood on cherubs, as is common, but also what looked like a snarling ape, surely less common? But I’m not sure.
We then walked through quiet, almost village-y, streets to San Francisco Acatepec, which is another notable Mexican Baroque church, this time with a facade covered entirely in Talavera, the local tile. It is designed to look like an altar, so rises high with images of saints and others. We couldn’t go inside as there was a wedding going on, but enjoyed watching the attendees with their sharp blue suits and wide hats, and the women in stylish silks.
Then we were collected by a colleague of the Gentleman Friend who took us to lunch at Chipilo, a town settled by Italians where the restaurants serve Mexican-Italian food. It wasn’t spectacular, but a pleasant enough meal. Then on to Atlixco, another of Mexico’s cities of magic, this one a slightly bedraggled one as it had suffered greatly from the earthquake. It is set amongst small spare hills and continues up one of them, so we climbed partway up through the streets and into a stone church. Through a low opening we spied a green garden so went through. It was quite stunning, with the stone walls of the church on one side ornamented by a single bare wooden cross, then vivid green grass and red bougainvillea, and then the cliffside falling straight down with a view of the city and surrounding hills punctuated by church towers. We were soon ushered out as it was a private space. The church itself was very bare after the two of the morning, but had a lovely ceiling, with elegant faux beams high overhead.
We have now returned and there are, as usual, fireworks going off in the neighbourhood. Every now and then debris rattles on our rooftop.