Another Another Post Update

Greetings Readers

I am looking at my monitor, but somehow I am not motivated to start typing away... with that I am going to share more from my past vacation that I retreived from my laptop. Here you go.

Jemez – This was the site of a festival that takes place once a year and this is November 12. Jemez is located near the town of San Ysidero.

I knew nothing of this town except this is the place that my parents go to every year for their anniversary.

I was invited to go this year and I really did not know what to expect. I heard this and that, but I did not know what to really to expect.

We arrived to this small town a little after noon and this little town was packed with cars, buses and trucks lining the sides of the streets and parking anywhere you could park. To the North of the road and perhaps about 30 yards down the road is the plaza. The plaza is where the festival was being held. As we were walking down to the plaza you could hear the Indian Drums being pounding the fall air. Outside the plaza there are booths and booths that line the area outside the plaza.

Most of the items that were being offered for sale were Jewelry. Turquoise, Jasper, and other sorts of stones were available for purchase. Most were necklaces, but there were a lot of bracelets, earrings, and rings. Then, off to the side there were items that should not be for sale but were. Let me say that my father and me bought some black market items for cheap. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

After visiting some of the booths we headed to area near the plaza. As we neared the plaza you can see the dust hanging the air and the hazy smoke from all the stoves that were cooking in all the houses.

Per Tradition of the Jemez festival all of the houses in Jemez are required to cook and provide food to all visitors that come into their house. No one is turned away nor is anyone denied any food that is available in the house that they decide to go into. My parents had a house in mind to go to, but the wait was about two hours. With that they did not want to wait so we headed to the plaza and saw that there was a crowd already lining the streets of the plaza.

The plaza is sort of situation on the side of a hill. Not much of a hill, but lengthwise the plaza was about 80 yards long and about 30 yards wide. I saw groups of Jemez Indians dancing from one end of the plaza and dancing their way down to the other side of the plaza. (Dancing East to West)

All the women were dressed in full-length gowns, with most of the women wearing some sort of wooden flat hat that tied to their head. The hat itself was colored turquoise, with three feathers on top of the wooden hat. In the middle of the wooden hat there were different symbols that were cut out – Butterflies, stars, a rainbow shape, a triangle and a few other symbols that I cannot recall.

Oh readers, the reason that I can not remember is that No Cameras, No Sketch boards, No Cell phones, No audio or video recording equipment is allowed at the festival.

Hence, that is why I am trying to remember this all from memory.

All the men were shirtless, had a bandolier of sea shells, a black feather from their head, some had two silver bells tied to the back of their belt, A fox pelt hung directly in back of them from the belt. They were covered in a light coat of mud (earth, dirt). In each of the man’s hand they held an Indian version of maracas.

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Until the next time

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete