Life in Mexico

Sawdust carpets or alfombras de aserrín are one or more layers of colored sawdust and/or other materials laid on the ground as decoration. The tradition of decorating streets in this fashion began in Europe and was brought to the Americas by the Spanish. The tradition is still found in Mexico especially during Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).  Traditional carpets in Mexico and Central America are done with colored and uncolored sawdust; however, various other materials are used with it and sometimes in place of it. These include flowers and flower petals, pine needles, rice, fruit, colored earth, ashes and other usually organic materials.

The Dia de los Muertos events in Pozos included the building of a beautiful alfombra de assurín that ran from the Parroquia all the way to the smaller cathedral at the top of the hill. There were many young people from Pozos who created the designs along with guidance from the older residents. I photographed as they carefully poured the sawdust onto stencils and lightly sprayed it with water to prevent it from blowing away. They also had to keep an eye on the local street dogs to keep them from walking on the sawdust and undoing what they had completed. It’s a lot of work, but the result is worth it!  It was beautiful.

Here’s a short video that I shot to give you a sense of all the activity around building the sawdust carpet:

Day of the Dead – Building the Alfombras de Aserrín from Carol Watson on Vimeo.

Today was Dia de la Revolución in Mexico.  November 20th marks the anniversary of  the start of the 1910-1917 Revolution— when Francisco I. Madero and his supporters worked to unseat the dictator Porfirio Díaz, who had remained in power for more than three decades.

Our little pueblo celebrates with a small parade of children and adults dressed in the traditional dress of the revolutionaries. Here’s some photographs I took during the parade. The kids were so cute!

Putting full “Catrina” make-up on a 4-year-old is not a simple feat.  But little Ava was a trooper and held still long enough to get her face made up for the festivities that night.  I took a quick portrait of her after I was done and then took a couple of portraits with her gorgeous parents.