Thursday, March 19, 2009

Primavera

Spring has officially come to San Miguel. How do I know? Because the Calles and Jardin were filled with bumblebees and butterflies. There were also a lot of baby animals as well Tinker Bells and mermaids. All the Kinder and maybe first and second grade school children dress up in costumes and parade through town to let us know what time of year it is. Some classes have a theme and all of the children in that class would be lions or deer or whatever.
The costumes are made by Mom and they are precious. All I can think of when I see the boys is that we'd have to drug my grandsons before they would be a bumblebee. But these kids really get into it. Wearing costumes and parading through town is just part of the Mexican culture. Even some of the baby brothers and sisters, too young for school, were dressed in costumes to watch their older siblings pass by in the parade.

I know that these two pictures catch these children looking tired. I tried to photograph them where they were forming up the parade. That usually works pretty well to get some individual portraits of the participants. Not this time. It was a mad house where they were lining up. Mothers, brothers and sisters, teachers, bumblebees and Tinker Bells were on a mission. There were way too many people in too small a space trying to get to their assigned space at the last minute. I decided to get out of the way in a hurry.

It was a fairly long way for the little guys to walk. They lined up on the other side of Calzada de la Luz and came in Hidalgo, up Insurgentes, back over and down San Francisco to the Parroquia. There was a truck ever so often in the parade and when one of the little tiny guys got tired and had a few tears they'd load them on the truck to finish up the parade.

The rest of you may have to wait another day or so for Spring but Primavera came to San Miguel this morning.

6 comments:

Babs said...

Billie, I'm so glad you photographed it - it's the first year I've missed it. It's my favorite "desfile" all year. Darn, I had a prior committment but on my way down the hill I did see the back of a ladybug and a lion or tiger....or maybe a bear?
Adorable.........
Tonight is the Parade for St. Joseph on Cuesta de San Jose - if it doesn't rain! I'm hoping to see that, if possible.......

GlorV1 said...

Well they look a little tired but they sure are colorful. Spring is here already and I've been outside putting seeds to pots, and watering various greens. Glad to see you are back. Take care.

Steve Cotton said...

Thanks for the narrative. Based on those faces, I thought the kids had just been faced with the prospect of a bowl of creamed corn or brussel sprouts.

Michael Dickson said...

I hope somebody gave that kid in the top photo a hug real quick.

Deb Hall ~ Zocalo de Mexican Folk Art said...

Adorable! Tired but adorable.

Shirley Gonzalez-Day said...

Oh I would love to see this someday. I was there in June of last year. I didn't know the children got to parade for the Primavera.