Introducing La Reina del Carnaval: Public Celebration and Postrevolutionary Discourse in Veracruz, Mexico Author(s): Andrew Grant Wood

Source: The Americas, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jul., 2003), pp. 87-107 Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654755 . Accessed: 29/11/2013 09:05
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The Americas 60:1 July 2003, 87-107 Copyrightby the Academy of American FranciscanHistory

INTRODUCINGLA REINA DEL CARNAVAL: AND PUBLIC CELEBRATION POSTREVOLUTIONARY DISCOURSE IN VERACRUZ,MEXICO*
For days no one sleeps and the streets are a vivid labyrinth of veracruzanos dancing their huapangos and bambas, strummingharps and guitars and singing happily. -Terry's Guide to Mexico It is impossible to have social relations withoutsymbolic acts. -Mary Douglas

ollowingthe revolution of 1910-1917,a new era took shapein the

port of Veracruz,Mexico as residents (porteios) took to a variety of recreational pursuits that included baseball, social dances and, increasingly,film. No one activity proved more significant, however, than the revival of Carnivalin 1925. Thatyear, membersof the Veracruz railroad workersunion (Alianzade Ferrocarrileros)along with a coordinatingcommittee made up of representativesfrom various community associations organized the first public celebration of Carnival in nearly five decades.1 Assembling just outside the union hall on the afternoonof SaturdayFebruary 21, 1925, hundreds joined in an afternoonparadethatcirculatedthrough the central city. Carrying assorted musical instrumentsand noisemaking gadgets, an enthusiastic throng engaged in a hunt to capture a ritualistic

*The authorwishes to thankMonica Barczak,Travis DuBry, Brian Haley, Paul Vanderwood,Bruce Dean Willis and the editors of Ulua in Xalapa, Veracruzfor comments on earlier versions of thie essay as well as the anonymous reviewers at The Americas for helpful comments. Support for research in Mexico came, in part, from an Oklahoma Humanities Council 2002 Summer Grant and a Faculty ResearchGrantfrom the Office of Researchat the University of Tulsa. I El Dictamen, 21 February 1925. Community organizationsincluded the Sociedad Ben6fica Veracruzana,the Sociedad Espafola de Beneficencia, the Real Club de Espafia,the Chamberof Commerce, RotaryClub, Lonja Mercantiland the CentroMercantilamong others.

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After members of the pro"enemy of the people" known as Mal Humor.2 cession seized their prey, a tribunalheaded by King JuanCaraval tried the offender and sentencedhim to death. As revelers gathereda few hours later,several honking automobilesled a paradewhich featuredthe condemned Mal Humor followed by a military band and a popular chorus of the king's subjects dressed up as devils, witches, skeletons, Roman soldiers, mad scientists, musicians, mimes and other costumed characters.Moving along IndependenceAvenue, the procession grew more numerousas it picked up hundredsof residents on the way to Ciriaco Vazquez Park where organizers ceremoniously put their victim to a ritualisticdeath. Following this, the nearly two thousandpeople who formed Juan Caraval's entouragemade their way back to one of the city's main intersectionsnearthe main plaza. There,portenos celebratedthe official startof the three-dayfestival by jubilantlydancingand partyinglong into the night. The arrest,judgmentand execution of Mal Humoron the first elements from the local day of Carnivalrepresenteda purgingof "unhappy" environmentand the unification of Veracruzsociety joined in festive communion.3Yet this edition of the traditionalpre-Lentenfestival would prove somewhat different than previous celebrations during the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturiesprecisely because of the changing natureof the Mexican State and civil society in the 1920s. As was true across the nation, encouraging identification with the new social order after the Revolution required much more than official pronouncements.In Veracruz,civic leaders faced an especially difficult challenge in that the city had recently sufferedforeign invasion, civil war and a wave of bitter labor strikes.Thus as thousandsanticipatedthe crowning of CarnivalQueen as well as the many paradesand dances scheduled for the raucous weekend, festival promotersworked behind the scenes to realize a social productionthey hoped would help reintegratethe Veracruzcommunity. In the process, they blended traditionalelements of the festival with fundamentalaspects of new nationalideology to createa ritualsynthesisthat downplayed social conflict and contributedto the legitimationof postrevolutionarypower.4
simply as "the grim personality." 3 El Dictamen, February22, 1925. On ritualsacrifice and scapegoatingas a unifying process see for example Ren6 Girard,Violenceand The Sacred trans. PatrickGregory (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), pp. 1-18, 39-44. 4 On this dynamic see David M. Guss, The Festive State: Race, Ethnicityand Nationalism as Cultural Performance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Writings on Carnival in Veracruz include MarthaInes Cortes Rodriguez,"Bailes y carnavalen Veracruz,1925," in Horizonte:Revista del 2 El Dictamen referredto Mal Humor

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ANDREW GRANT WOOD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION IN HISTORIC CONTEXT

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With a growing export economy and relative political peace under the autocraticleadershipof PresidentPorfirio Diaz, local leaders had endeavored to transformVeracruzinto a modem city duringthe last decades of the nineteenthcentury.At the center of this urbanrenewal effort, the English firm of Sir WeetmanD. Pearsonvastly improvedthe port facility to increase to procommercialcapacity.In the process, Pearson'smen built breakwaters tect the Veracruzharboras well as new walls and docks. They deepenedthe channelsto 33 feet below sea level to accommodatelargerocean-going vessels while erecting three new piers to provide expanded dockside access. Workersalso built large warehousesdesigned to accommodatethe increased volume of cargo the port would be expected to handle. As a testament to their engineering feat, the project had removed over a million tons of rock from the nearbyPenuela quarriesand consumed more than 50,000 tons of cement, steel and iron.5 Pearson's engineers improved public health in the city by augmenting water supply and sewage systems.They took furtherresponsibilityfor modInstituto Vercruzanode Cultura, vol. 1, no. 1 (March-April 1991), pp. 19-25; Martha Ines Cortes Rodriguez,Mdscaras: los espactdculos teatrales en Veracruz(1873-1975), El carnival de Veracruzen 1867 (Veracruz, Mexico: Veracruz: Instituto Veracruzanode Cultura) 1990; Martha In6s Cortes de Cultura,2000); JuanAntoRodriguez,Los carnavales en Veracruz(Veracruz:InstitutoVeracruzano nio Flores Martos,"Portalesde mucara.Una etnografiadel Puertode Veracruz," Dissertationin anthropology, Universidadof Madrid, 1999; JuanAntonio Flores Martos,"Los encapuchadosdel caraval del Puerto de Veracruz: una indagaci6n etnogrdfica en la memoria cultural e imaginaci6n urbana," Sotavento: Revista de Historia, Sociedad y Cultura no. 4 (Summer 1998), pp. 57-115; Jose Roberto Sanchez Fernmndez, Bailes y sones deshonestos en la Nueva Espana (Veracruz: InstitutoVeracruzano de Cultura, 1998); Ana Maria Silva Martinez,La historia de una alegria (Mexico City: Author's edition, 1973); Roberto Williams Garcia, Yo naci con la luna de plata: antropologia e historia de un puerto (Mexico City: Costa-Amic Editores, 1980), pp. 31-35; Anselmo Mancisidor Ortiz, Jarochilandia (Author'sed. 1971), pp. 123-29; and BernardoGarciaDiaz, Puerto de Veraruz: imdgenesde su historia Archivo Generaldel Estado de Veracruz,1992) pp. 218-26. While scholarshipon Car(Jalapa:Veracruz, nival is wide ranging, importantworks on Carnival that have informed this essay include Mikhail Bakhtin,Rabelais and his world (Bloomington:IndianaUniversity Press, 1984); Julio Caro Baroja, El Carnaval: Analisis Hist6rico-Cultural(Madrid:EditorialTaurus, 1965); David D. Gilmore, Carnival and Culture:Sex, Symboland Status in Spain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998); and David I. Kertzer,Ritual,politics and power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988); Stanley Brandes,Power and persuasion (Philadelphia:University of PhiladelphiaPress, 1988); Roberto DaMatta, Carnivals, rogues, and heroes: An interpretation of the Braziliandilemma(Notre Dame: Universityof Notre Dame Press, 1991); LeRoy Ladurie,Carnival in Romans (New York:George Braziller, 1979); David Samuel Kinser, Carnival American Style: Mardi Gras at New Orleans and Mobile (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); and Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance(New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1996). 5 Olivia Dominguez Perez, "El puerto de Veracruz:la modernizaci6n a finales del siglo XIX," Anuario VII (Centro de Investigaciones Historicas, UniversidadVeracruzana, Jalapa,Veracruz),1990, pp. 87-102.

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ernizing Veracruzby illuminatingpublic buildings and centralplazas of the Terminal city with electric lights. Subsequently,the opening of the Veracruz Company added nearly 2000 new jobs in the city while completion of neoclassical structures such as the Mail and Telegraph Building, Customs urban House, and the People's Libraryall contributedto turn-of-the-century renewal efforts.6 With this, the opening of assortedretail outlets, small businesses, cafes, venues broughtnew life to the city's central restaurantsand entertainment district.Beautificationof the Plaza de Armas-freshly tiled in Italianmarble and landscapedwith tropical plants-as well as the waterfrontpromenade (malecon del paseo) providedthe finishing turnof the centurytouches that made downtown Veracruzan attractiveshowcase for the commercial elite. Yet with the onset of the Revolution,these and otherlocal advanceswere put on hold. 7 During the first years of the conflict, Veracruzremainedrelatively clear of military action despite considerableviolence in surrounding areas.Then in April 1914, a U.S. invasion and seven-monthoccupationof the city horrified residents.8In the wake of the North American intervention,inflation and consumergood shortagescompoundedlocal financial woes broughton lands and transportnetby wartimedestructionof neighboringagricultural works. Following the draftingof the 1917 Constitution,however, local conditions graduallybegan to improve. Yet as Veracruz returned to peacetimerelationsafterthe crisis years of the Revolution, a citywide housing strike combined with increased labor mili6 BernardoGarciaDiaz, Puerto de Veraruz, 124-135. pp. 7 As elites directedthe modernizationof Veracruz, working class areas that existed just outside the wall of the old city such as La Huaca neighborhoodexperienceda growing concentrationafter 1870. As newcomers made their way to these areas in the city, some constructedmakeshift, add-on structures (accesorias) made of tin, wood and stone while others crowded into older buildings that landlordshad subdivided into rooms located arounda common courtyard.Known as patios de vecindad, these tenements on the eve of the 1910 Revolutionhoused as many as sixty residentsandoperatedas a sharedspace for cooking, dining, bathingand leisure activities. 8 local resistanceto alien attackduringinvasions of the city by the Spanishin 1825, Commemorating the Frenchin 1838 and the NorthAmericansin 1847 and 1914, officials were quick in declaringVeracruz "four times heroic"(cuatroveces heroica). Scholarship on Veracruzduring the Revolution includes Robert E. Quirk, An Affair of Honor: WoodrowWilson and the Occupation of Veracruz(New York: Norton Publishers, 1962), LeonardoPasquel, La invasi6n de Veracruzen 1914 (Mexico City: Editorial Citalt6petl, 1976), Berta Ulloa, Veracruz,capital de la nacion, 1914-15 (Mexico City Colegio de Mexico/Estado de Veracruz,1986), John Hart, RevolutionaryMexico The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution(Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1987) and Andrew G. Wood, Revolution in the Street: Women,Workers and Urban Protest in Veracruz,1870-1927 (Wilmington,DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., 2001).

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tancy threatenedthe fragile social order. When female prostitutes in the working class neighborhoodof La Huaca quit paying rent to their landlords in Februaryof 1922, they soon sparkeda social protestthat would involve more than half the city's population.Fed up with bad housing conditions, excessive rentsand constantharassment by rentcollectors, residentsof some of the port's poorest neighborhoodsalong with local anarchistsand members of the Mexican CommunistPartyfoundedthe RevolutionarySyndicate of Tenants(SindicatoRevolucionariode Inquilinos)directedby Her6nProal and MariaLuisa Marin.Then in June 1922, membersof the VeracruzMaritime League (Liga de la zona mar(tima)walked off theirjobs in solidarity with railroadworkersin the Yucatecancities of ProgresoandMerida,as well as Ciudaddel Carmenin the state of Campeche.Quickly, a numberof other organized groups affiliated with the local union hall (Cdmarade Trabajo) joined the effort as labor leaders declared a general strike that crippledthe city for several days. The following August (1923), membersof the electrical workers union temporarilycut power to the city before declaring what would become a long, drawnout generalstrike.9 On the eve of the 1925 Carnival celebration, Veracruzcontinued to be a highly contested social and political environmentas citizens struggled to find a meaningful place for themselves in the new postrevolutionary order.0 Continuedsocial conflict and crisis in the early 1920s notwithstanding, a of recreational venues in saw a Veracruz audience for growing variety ready peacetime diversion.As a new nationalelite declaredthe dawning of a new age, portenios seeking relief from tropical heat flocked to the Club Regatas swimming and boating centerto the south of the city as well as an adjoining Villa del Marrecreationalfacility. Extremelypopularfrom the time the first in 1919, the Villa del Mar waterfront trolley made its way along the Veracruz hosted regulardance parties as well as a numberof special events throughout the year. Beautifully designed with terraces and seaside gardens surroundedby palm trees, the site featureda grandsalon with tables aroundthe outside. Sundaysprovedto be the most active day as couples made the short ride from the Plaza de Armas in the early afternoon.Yet while Mexico was
9 On the emergence of the electrical and streetcarworkers union, see Rosa Maria Landa Ortega, "Losprimerosaiios de la organizaci6ny luchasde los electricistasy tranviarios en Veracruz,1915-1928." Bachelors' thesis in sociology, UniversidadVeracruzana, Jalapa,Veracruz,1989. Meantime,organizing efforts in the Veracruzcountryside furthercomplicated the state political picture. On this history see HeatherFowler Salamini,"Origeneslaboralesde la organizaci6ncampesinaen Veracruz." Historia Mexicana 20, no. 2 (October-December,1970): 52-76 as well as HeatherFowler Salamini,Agrarian Radicalism in Veracruz,1920-30 (Lincoln: University of NebraskaPress, 1971). 10A bloody clash between rent strikersand police temporarilythreatenedplans for the festival. El Dictamen, February6-10, 1925.

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no longer officially at war, Veracruz- along with the rest of the nationfaced a formidablechallenge. How could past divisions be put aside to allow for cohesive revolutionarysociety to take shape? For their part,community leaders in Veracruzdecided the time was right for a revival of Carnival--a popular festival that had been celebrated in the city during the eighteenth and early nineteenthcenturies.
THE ROOTS OF MODERNCARNIVAL

The roots of moder Carnival in Veracruzextend back to the colonial period when residents living in neighborhoodslocated just outside the city wall (barrios negros or extramuros)forged new forms of music and dance drawnfrom European,African and Indigenoustraditions.11 Graduallygrowthe out of June Christi fashioned celebration, ing Corpus religious portenios Carnivalinto a local, pre-Lentenevent.12 In the late eighteenthcentury,Carnivalgoers in the port wearingcolorful costumes and dancing to African derived chuchumberhythmshad attracted the attentionof local clergy who subsequentlycommunicatedtheirconcerns to church officials in Mexico City.13 Despite disapprovalin certain conservative corers, Carnival steadily evolved during the nineteenth century as participantsincluded both members of the local elite who tended towards more exclusive, indoor balls as well as the city's popularclasses who gathered for dances in various tenement courtyardsover the two week period leading up to Ash Wednesday. By the time French EmperorNapoleon III sent an occupying army to Mexico in 1861, the festival had grown significantly.But as the warbetween republicanand Frenchforces took a decisive turnin late 1866, political conditions motivated imperial bureaucrats(namely ArchdukeMaximilian and his conservativeMexican collaborators)to regulatethe popularfestival. The resulting 1867 "El Carnavaldel Imperio"restrictedcelebrants to a mere three days of partyingand stipulatedthatpublic processions only take place
summaryof Carnivalin ancient and medieval times see Gilmore, pp. 9-10. VeracruzhistorianAdrianaGil Marono suggests that Carnivalemerged out of CorpusChristicelebrations.AdrianaGil Marono, "Vidacotidiana y fiestas en el Veracruzilustrado(siglo XVII)," Thesis in history,UniversidadCristobalCol6n, Veracruz,1992. On CorpusChristiin Mexico see also LindaA. Curcio-Nagy,"Giantsand Gypsies: Corpus Christi in Colonial Mexico City," (in) William H. Beezley, Cheryl English Martinand William R. French(ed.), Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culturein Mexico (Wilmington,DE: SR Books, 1994), pp. 1-26. 13Cortes Rodriguez, "Mascaras," p. 23-4. See AGN (Archivo Generalde la Nacion), Serie Inquisici6n, vol. 1,181, fojas 121-123v for clerical denunciationsof chuchumbeand otherpopularpractices.See also Sdnchez Fernmndez, Bailes y sones deshonestos, pp. 15-38.
12

1 For a concise

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within the walls of the city between the hoursof six and eight in the evening. The ruling allowed for three public dances to be held either at an areajust outside the city wall (laterto be dubbed"El recreode la Alameda")or at the AduanaQuemadanear the waterfront.Meantime, approvedcostumed balls for the city elite were held at the TeatroPrincipal.14 As the more limited festival schedule and sanctioned events introduced by the 1867 regulationsreshapedthe celebrationinto somethingresembling its more currentmodem form, Carnivalin Mexico duringthe late nineteenth centurysoon came to be seen by Liberalpolitical elites as an unwantedvestige of Spanish colonialism and a threatto social order.Gradually,authorities in Veracruzand across the nation sought to discourage public observance beginning in the 1880s. Still, popular and elite groups in the city continuedto celebratethe pre-Lentenholiday-albeit most often within the private spaces of working tenementcourtyardsor well-to-do salons.'5 Whereas authoritiesduringthe late nineteenthcenturyhad grown suspicious of Carnivalbecause of its reputationas a rite of rebellion, the postrevolutionarycoalition that sponsoredthe festival in 1925 somewhatembraced this essential characteristic. the inclusive revolutionaryideal Appropriating of "Mexico for the Mexicans," the CarnivalOrganizingCommittee helped articulatea key mass political message of the new regime.'6 Working to reestablishthe event as an important holiday weekend in the city, they hoped Carnivalwould provide the Veracruzpublic not only with an opportunityto celebrate after years of social strife but also an effective means by which people of differentclass and ethnic backgroundscould take partin a collective affirmationof postrevolutionary civic values. Indeed,as Carnivalwould encouragea ritualisticdissolutionof the old orderwhile simultaneouslydisdiscourse, city boosters believed the celebraseminatingpostrevolutionary
14 Cortes Rodriguez, "Mascaras," pp. 28-29. See also Garcia Diaz, Puerto de Veraruz,p. 226 and JuanJose Gonzalez, "Aportaciones El Carnavalde 1867,"El Dictamen,June parala historiade Veracruz: 11, 1964. 15While generalizingfrom sourcesconsideringCarnivalat the nationallevel, less is known aboutthe observance of Carnivalin Veracruzduring the Porfiriato.A very brief treatmentof this history can be found in Cort6s,Los Carnavalesen Veracruz, pp. 32-37. For a discussion of Carnivaland other holidays in nineteenth century Mexico see William Beezley, "The Porfirian Smart Set Anticipates Thorstein Veblenin Guadalajara." (in) Beezley et al (ed.), Ritualsof Rule, Ritualsof Resistance,p. 174 andWilliam Beezley, Judas at the Jockey Club and other episodes of Porfirian Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), p. 103. For reference to various local elite views on Carnival in Spain see Gilmore, pp. 11-13. 16 Some scholars talk about the "wateringdown of carnival"under government supervision while have apparentlyresisted"official meddling"in festival production.See elsewhere, Carnivalparticipants for example, Jerome Mintz, Carnival song and society: Gossip, sexuality and creativity in Andalusia (Oxford:Berg, 1997).

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a unique opportunityto imagine themselves partof a tion affordedportenios renewed local and nationalcommunity.'7In this complex endeavor,the role of the local press would prove essential.
IMAGINING COMMUNITY: THE ROLE OF THE PRESS

Anticipatingthe big event, the editors at the port's only daily newspaper El Dictamen busily preparedfor Carnival in late January 1925. A critical component in festival production,their coverage made details of nearly all public activities availableto a wide readership.18Daily reportageof the celebrationplayed an importantrole in encouragingresidentsto feel a part of society.19 postrevolutionary As publicity appearedin El Dictamen, festival promotersmade frequent use of the paperto advance their idea that Carnivalrepresenteda means by which the people of Veracruz could come togetherin civic celebration.With the event drawingnear,editorsprinteda message sent by the CarnivalOrganizing Committee to President Plutarco Elias Calles that proudly proclaimed, "for the first time in over forty years, veracruzanosof all classes are eagerly awaiting the celebration of Carnival [and] you are cordially invited to attend." The same day, El Dictamen also publisheda telegramsent to recently elected Veracruzgovernor HeribertoJaraurging him to join in the festivities.20 Making this kind of official communicationavailableto the
17 In the words of Roberto DeMatta, the Carnival encounter brings together "characters. . . not relatedby a hierarchical principlebut by sympathyand by an understanding resultingfrom the trucethat suspendsthe social rules of the plausible world, the everydayuniverse."DaMatta,p. 42. Looking at Carnival in Andalusia,Stanley Brandeswrites "[thesefestivals which] ordinarilymightbe perceivedas highlighting social differentiation may be viewed equally well as bringingdistinctive and opposing segments of a communitytogether." Stanley Brandes,Metaphorsof masculinity(Philadelphia: Universityof Pennsylvania Press, 1980), p. 208. Quoted in Gilmore, p. 31. See also Bakhtin,Rabelais and His World. 18 Still relativelylow literacyrates may have limited but did not necessarilypreventaccess to printed informationon Carnival. 19Two classic works on the emergence of nationalcultures and consciousness are Benedict Anderson, ImaginedCommunities: Reflectionson the Origin and Spreadof Nationalism(London,VersoPress, 1983) and Eric HobsbawmandTerenceRanger(ed.), TheInventionof Tradition(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). For the Mexican context see essays in William H. Beezley and David E. Lorey (ed.), VivaMdxico! VivaLa Independencia!:Celebrationsof September16 (Wilmington,DE: Scholarly Resources Inc. 2001). 20Comite Organisadorde las Fiestas de Carnival to President PlutarcoElias Calles, February 19, 1925, El Dictamen, February20, 1925. On the appeal of revolutionarynationalismand the forging of "official"history see FrederickC. Turner,The Dynamic of Mexican Nationalism (Chapel Hill: University of North CarolinaPress, 1968), pp. 163-9 and Thomas Benjamin, La Revolucion: Mexico's Great Revolutionas Memory,Mythand History (Austin:University of Texas Press, 2000). For a trenchantcritique of certain revolutionary programs see: Alan Knight, "Racism, Revolution and Indigenismo: Mexico, 1910-1940," (in) RichardGraham(ed.), The Idea of Race in LatinAmerica, 1870-1940 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990) pp. 71-113.

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Veracruzpublic during Carnival season, the newspaper took on its own ritualidentity as official propagandist for the city celebration. Shortlybefore the festivities began, the OrganizingCommitteeannounced the official programfor the 1925 Carnivalin the pages of El Dictamen: Saturday Afternoon and Early Evening: and funeralof Mal Humor Populardemonstrations Saturday Night: Coronationof the queen and her court Sunday: Carnivalsuspended(to markthe death of FranciscoMadero) Monday: Carnivalcourt landing at the waterfrontand city parade Tuesday: Paradeof floats Monday and Tuesday Nights: Dances and Balls Tuesday Night: Burningof JuanCarnaval The newspaper'sregularcalls for the "participation of all veracruzanos" made it clear that El Dictamen editors in conjunctionwith the Coordinating Committeesaw Carnivalas a catalyst in the making of a new civic culture. a high turnout, the festival would put on displayboththe richtraAnticipating dition of the city as well as what organizersenvisionedas its futurepromise. Justbefore the startof the festival, El Dictamen announcedthatGovernor HeribertoJarawas scheduledto arrivein the city on MondayFebruary23 to endorse what editors termed the "essentially popular"celebration. Again urging participation by the entire local citizenry,the paperdeclaredthat the festivities would include not only local authoritiesand military February but "all the personnel city's social classes." Accordingly, the governor's presence ensured"thatthe desires of Carnivalorganizerswould be fulfilled and that absolutely no element [of Veracruzsociety] would be excluded."21 With this, city officials soon announced that businesses would be closed Saturdaythrough Tuesday to allow residents "to enjoy themselves fully" duringCarnival.22
21 El Dictamen,

22

February18, 1925. Ibid., February20, 1925.

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Stressing the inclusive characterof the festival, El Dictamen informed readersthatvariousspecial commissions were makingpreparations. Repeatedly, reportstold how "everyonein the city" would have a partto play in the spectacle. Furtheremphasizing this point, the paper even mentioned that people in ZamoraHospital, the Women's Hospital, the local sanitariumas well as inmatesin Allende Jail all looked forwardto the alegria of Carnival. At the same time, newspaperreports described ways that residents had brightly decorated the outside of their homes, the city's main streets and with banners.Ownersof commercialhouses Zaldo Hermanos,La waterfront Avenue as well as memVilla de Vinuesa and La Europeaon Independence bers of the Casino Espafiolon Cinco de Mayo Streethad also heeded the festival call and adornedthe outside of theirbuildings with streamers,flowers, flags and othercolorfulmaterials.Meanwhile,trolleys, autos andothertransportdecked out in beautifulflowers, bannersand papertrimtraveledthe city in mid-February. their Accordingto El Dictamen,residentshad transformed center into a for celebration. city public shared-nearly sacred--space "VIVA LUZ" With the city ready for the big party,Veracruz next anticipatedthe crownof"their" Carnival Queen. EarlypublicityregardingCarnivalQueen had ing in appeared the pages of El Dictamen as the newspaperfeaturedpicturesof fourteendebutantesnominatedfor the coveted role. When all the candidates had been presented to the Veracruzpublic, a "popularvote" said to have been collected by variouslaborunions, civic associationsand neighborhood groups subsequently notarized by the Organizing Committee determined which of the contestantswould serve as queen. Posting "election returns" hourlyin a local theaterthe night of February16 and on the frontpage of El Dictamen the next morning,officials announcedthat Rotary Club nominee Luz Maria Raygadas had won. Although some alleged that the young woman from the northernstate of Sonora may have been an Organizing Committee inside candidate,the editors of El Dictamen continued in their Carnival discourse. Said to possess a name befitting an enlightened monarch,her court was comprised of runnersup MariaTeresaArzani and Luz Ortiz de Montellano who would serve as "princessesof the fiesta," as well as Lupe Leycegui, Rosa LoperenaCarrau, CarmenMortera,Lulu Perez Morteo who had been designated as "marquesas." After this, a handful of "maidsof honor"roundedout the Queen's entourage.23
23Providinga democraticflourish to what otherwise engendereda purely medieval trope, the report in El Dictamen made a point of informingreadersthat the selection process had included a careful tabulation of votes by a notarypublic.

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a story the reignof QueenLuz, El Dictamencirculated Intenton legitimating in a of Veracruz collective of society engaging process self-representation24:
Last night, a small crowd of people from all social classes and a numberof studentsfrom the Naval School circulatedthroughoutthe streets of Veracruz shouting "vivas" in honor of the seioritas Luz Maria Raygadas and Maria TeresaArzani who, arm in arm with the gallant students, happily acknowledged the cheers of those aroundthem.25

Continuing down IndependenceAvenue the account then described how admirersof the newly selected Carnival court soon delivered each of the women to their homes. Once Queen Luz entered her house she then appearedon a second story balcony with her sister to say goodnight-all to the delightedamusementof a cheeringcrowd below. Following this, a group of jubilantyoung people were said to have closed out the evening by traveling with MariaTeresathroughoutthe centralcity before taking her home. Given El Dictamen's diligent reportingon election results as well as the apocryphaltale surroundingthe naming of Queen Luz, it is clear that the OrganizingCommitteewas determinedto presentthe young Sonoranto the Veracruzpublic as the legitimate and popularCarnivalhead. Providedwith an early taste of "festival excitement,"this process of inaginingVeracruzas happily integratedcommunity would continue to unfold as the new queen "presidedover" the three day ritual.26 Her coronationtook place on Saturdaynight underthe guise of local business leaders inside the Lonja Mercantilheadquarters. During the elaborate affair, songs were sung in her honor and municipal officials presentedher with the keys to the city. After the official ceremony,Luz led her court over to the CarrilloPuerto Theater where a large crowd had assembled for the evening program.Reportingon events the next day, El Dictamen offered a glowing descriptionof the queen and her court. "A marvelousspectacular," the headline raved, "one in which the triumphantbeauty of the Veracruz woman was loudly exalted by thousandswho took partin the ceremony."In awe of the brilliantdisplay,the newspaperlavished praiseon Luz and Maria Teresawhile encouragingreadersto marvel at their talent:
24The classic phrasereferringto this process is CliffordGeertz's notion of a society "tell[ing] stories to themselves about themselves." Clifford Geertz, The Interpretationof Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973). 25El Dictamen, February17, 1925. 26For an in-depth analysis of beauty pageants see Sarah Banet-Weiser,The Most Beautiful Girl in The World:Beauty Pageants and National Identity(Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1999).

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INTRODUCING LA REINA DELCARNAVAL

Withthe theaterfilled with light, beauty and happiness... the women created a hypnoticeffect on membersof the public. With applausefor the artfulqueen and her court, those assembled could not have been more ecstatic. The gracious majesty was crowned amidst a shower of applause,flowers and multicolored streamers.At her side was the spiritualMariaTeresa, white as snow and aristocraticin her deportment.27

Idolizing not only the queen but her entire entourage, the account described the two princesses "as exuding beauty and grace" as well as all four marquesas who "representedthe jarocho territory where exquisite flowers grow."28Not surprisingly, descriptions of the maids of honor stressed a similar set of attractivefeatures:Consuelo Ferrerhad "beautiful eyes and a dreamy smile"; Lucha Fentanes possessed a "splendid criolla beauty;" Maria Torres Abascal appeared "graceful and sweet;" Margot Belchez represented "another flowering spiritual beauty;" Margarita Wood, said to be "very distinguished;"Blanca Lagunes, whose presence suggested an "overflowing congeniality" and Rafaela Peredo seemed "smooth and sweet like all Mexican women." From the report in El Dictamen one is led to imagine that for those few hours on Saturdaynight, the majesty of the Carnival Queen united all the people of Veracruz."Naturally" ordered from the stage, orchestra and first grandstandto the cheap seats high above the proceedings, everyone in the theater came under the spell of the queen whose charming beauty cast a bright and shining light over the entire city. The inauguration of CarnivalQueen representedan importantperformative process. Furtherarticulatingthe shift from historicalto ritual time following the sacrifice of Mal Humor,Luz and her court providedan essential feminine element in the largerCarnivaldrama.With full authoritybestowed upon her, the attractiveyoung queen stood as the embodiment of all veracruzanos.Under her festival rule the city was remade into a peaceful and coherent social order. However multidimensional the reception of this -in close highly staged vision of political power may have been, promoters cooperationwith the editorsof El Dictamen- seemed determinedto offer an attractive female compliment to masculine postrevolutionarynation-state formulations. Central in this ritual equation, the Carnival queen and her court acted as a mediating force meant to aid in the reintegrationof local postrevolutionary society by serving as an alluringmetaphorfor real forms
27El Dictamen, February22, 1925. 28Jarochanrefers both to the Gulf Coast and by extension their regional blend of people of Veracruz Indian,African and Europeanheritage.

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Carnival Queen and Court-Courtesy of the Veracruz State Archives With the queen and her court serving as the focal of political authority.29 in the official Carnival discourse, an unfetteredpopulardimension of point the festival asserteditself when thousandspoured into the Veracruzstreets to take partin paradesand public celebrations.
POSTREVOLUTIONARY PARADES: CIVIL SOCIETY ON DISPLAY

After suspending the celebration of Carnival on Sunday February22, 1925 to markthe death of martyredPresidentFranciscoMadero,festivities resumedon Monday morningwith a maritimeprocession of the queen, her court and members of the Carnivalcommittee. The event began with Luz and her entourageaccompaniedby a small bandboardingdecoratedboats at YachtClub.30 the Veracruz Next, they made theirway aroundthe harborand
29 As beautypageantscholarSarahBanet-Weiser suggests, these women mediatean accepted"incitement of legitimatedesire"engineeredto reinforce"an institutionalizedsystem of beliefs and practices." Banet-Weiser, p. 8. For an interestingdiscussion of beauty pageantsin Jamaicaand the selection of Carnival Queen in Trinidadsee NatashaB. Barnes, "Face of the Nation: Race, Nationalisms,and Identities in JamaicanBeauty Pageants,"(in) Consuelo L6pez Springfield(ed.), Daughters of Caliban: Caribbean Womenin the Twentieth Century(Bloomington:IndianaUniversity Press, 1997), pp. 285-306. 30The maritimeprocess had been adaptedfrom the Club de Regatas private"La Reina de la Marina de Guerra" celebrationsin previousyears. For reportagesee the Veracruz weekly El Arte Musical (albeit defunct by the end of 1924), September23, 1923. The procession route subsequentlychanged slightly after a September 1926 stormdestroyedmuch of Villa del Mar and the YachtClub.

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100

INTRODUCING LA REINA DEL CARNAVAL

Waterfront Procession-Courtesy

of the Veracruz State Archives

finally to the malecon where they disembarkedamidst a cheering crowd. The ensemble then met briefly with local notables and membersof the various elite families before steppinginto several decoratedautomobiles.Touring the city, more thanthirtyvehicles proceededalong a paraderoute as residents cheered and showered them with confetti, streamers and flowers. Eventually, the queen and her court stopped outside the Lonja Mercantil where members of a local scouting group had formed an honor guard to receive them. In line with previous reports emphasizing an aura of social harmonycreatedduringCarnivaltime, El Dictamen declared,"not one discordantnote was sounded"at any time duringthe city tour.31 Once the queen had made her rounds,the stage had been set for residents to join in a whole day of paradesand public events. Several school bands took part in the fun by filling the Veracruzstreets with music during the morningbefore headingoff to play in the neighborhoods.By mid-afternoon, various groups began to crowd onto the city streets to join in the Masked Parade. Traveling in cars, bicycles and on foot, revelers danced, waved
organizing nineteenthcentury paradesin U.S. cities see Mary Ryan, "The American Parade: of the Nineteenth-Century Social Order,"(in) Lynn Hunt (ed.), The New CulturalHisRepresentations tory (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress, 1989), pp. 131-55.
31 On

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streamers and set off firecrackers while circulating throughout the city
center.32

With many residents watching from nearby sidewalks and balconies, of a wide range of local Tuesday's "Paradeof Floats" saw the participation associations and leading individuals.For theirpart,the railroadworkershad createda mountainlandscapewith a locomotive on top. Selected by Carnival judges to win the first place prize, their success was thought to reflect labor's newfound respectabilityin postrevolutionarysociety. Second place went to a local business who had built a replica of a Ford automobileout of cardboard,wood and other materials.Paintedred, white and blue, the float poked fun at gringos by carryinga costumed "Uncle Sam" among its many passengers.Roundingout the field of prizewinners,a team ofpulque makers came in thirdplace with a folksy tableauthat included two burrosand renderings of various popular songs. Articulatinglabor, nationalismand rural heritage themes, all three symbolized importantaspects of official revolutionarydiscourse. Revealing a certain cross section of Veracruzsociety, floats featuring individuals associated with local government, the customs house and the Naval Academy representedkey pillars of the porteniopolitical economy. Entriessponsoredby El Dictamen,the Veracruz YachtClub, Red Cross, several neighborhoodfire stations and the RotaryClub "testified"to the diverof several local sity of voluntaryassociations.Additionally,the participation businesses as well as several immigrantgroups including members of the Cuban, Syrian/Lebanese,German, British and Chinese communities sugto gested a highly inclusive social collaboration.33 Carefullychoreographed a of local these fulfilled an events provide descriptiverepresentation society, importantpolitical function in that they promotedthe idea of Veracruzas a cohesive community.34
32El Dictamen took special care not only to documentparadeactivities but also to provide a list of participants'names, occupations and their addresses whenever possible. Descriptionof Monday's children's parade,for example, included mention of CommodoreArturoF. Lapham,engineer Francisco de Rabeau,senorita A. Lechuga, and several other individuals. 33 Several "theme"floats includedone by a groupdescribedas ridingdonkeys and calling themselves "KuKlux Klanes"(supposedlya local dancingclub). El Dictamen, February25, 1925. For discussion of this group's participationin Carnivalsee JuanAntonio Flores Martos, "Los encapuchadosdel carnaval una indagaci6netnograficaen la memoriaculturale imaginaci6nurbana." del Puertode Veracruz: Careful not only to mention participation by an assortmentof individualsand groups, editors at El Dictaman published a correctionregardingthe name of the woman featuredalong with the Syrian/Lebaneseentry in the auto paradeas well as the constructionmaterialsused for the car.El Dictamen, February26, 1925. is borrowedfrom HannaPitkin. Cited in Ryan, "TheAmer34The term "descriptiverepresentation" ican Parade,"(in) Hunt (ed.) The New CulturalHistory, p. 137.

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102

INTRODUCING LA REINA DEL CARNAVAL MASKED BALLS, STREET DANCES AND CARNIVAL AS COMMERCE

In addition to the many daytime Carnival activities, various evening events held over the weekend suggest a variety of social encountersat sites throughoutthe city. After the Saturdaynight coronation, for example, the queen and her court, accompaniedby a host of well-wishers, had attended masked balls at the Centro de Dependientes, the Circulo Espanol and the Casino Veracruzano.Reporting on one of these gatherings, El Dictamen mentionedthe grandappearanceof the site and a long list of local notables in attendance.35 At the same time, the vast assemblage that gathered each night in city streets,parks and local tenementsenjoyed their own rowdy combinationof music, drinking,dancing and masquerading.36 Fully embracingthe Carnival
tradition from a somewhat different perspective, the anonymous revelers

who partook in the merry making began to establish a postrevolutionary Carnivaltraditionthat embodied an implicit spiritof local solidarityamong the port's popularclasses. As long time resident and local chroniclerPaco Pildora (Francisco Rivera) hinted at when considering how by the mid1930s Carnivalhad been transformed by the port's working masses into an essentially popularcelebration,"it was just expected that one step foot on Cinco de Mayo and dance to the tune of Reina Mora,El Pagareor La Virgen de Regla."37 Despite the official discourse aimed at promoting community spirit, in practicethe 1925 Carnivalproved the festival could not help but also reflect social divisions within the city. Thus, as the celebrationcame to a close on
Tuesday night with the raucous parading, shouting, singing and setting off

of firecrackers before the eventual torchingof (an effigy of) King JuanCarnival in the central square, some among the nearly one thousandgathered (including members of the railroadworkersunion who oversaw the event) surely must have begun making their own plans for Carnivalthe following year. 38With the Carnival King reduced to ashes, Organizing Committee members also prepared for coming the 1926 event. Part of their plan included not only the realization of expanded civic but also commercial opportunities.
35El Dictamen, February24, 1925. Throughoutthe entire weekend, detailed reportsof well-to-do residents attendingprivate, indoor gatherings in clubs, business associations and private homes highlighted the activities of more elite elements in Veracruzsociety. 36 See the 1933 film La mujerdel puerto for some actual street scenes of Carnivalin Veracruz. 37Quoted in GarciaDiaz, Puerto de Veracruz, p. 226. 38El Dictamen, February26, 1925.

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ANDREwGRANT WOOD10
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EcONOMY REVIVING THELOCAL

With its revival in 1925, Carnivalorganizershad attemptedto promotean idea of and identificationwith local and nationalpostrevolutionary "official" community. Expanding their developmental discourse, festival boosters and begin to market would also seek to createnew commercialopportunities
the city as a tourist destination. Anticipating an increase in event participation, local businesses in 1926 constructed various promotional appeals designed specifically for Carnival goers. Advertisements appearing in El Dic-

for example,announceda new perfumecalled "Luz"for sale in a shop tamen', Blanca"' on 5 de Mayo Street.The pharmacy""Cruz encouragedresidentsto maintaintheirhealthand "keepMal Humoraway"by using medicines available from their shop. Variousstationaryand printingbusinesses advertised

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104

LA REINA DELCARNAVAL INTRODUCING

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Bayer Aspirin Ad- Courtesy El Dictamen confetti and streamers. Clothiers Natalio Ulibarri and Company announced a sale on costumes and gifts for the occasion. "La Imperial" retailers informed readers of their wide selection of women's pumps in styles appropriate for queens and other embajadoras de Carnaval. Hotel Terminal promoted a special menu for Carnival days along with "music, light and happiness." Perhaps most appropriately, Bayer Aspirin made a special appeal with an illustration featuring Carnival dancers and the inscription "happy times." With the help of their product, the ad read, Carnival could be enjoyed to its fullest with vir-

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105

tually no fear of painful after effects the next day.39As the celebration of Carnival caught on during the late 1920s, many in the city saw the festival both as an opportunity to promote postrevolutionary social harmony and an extraordinary boost for the local economy. An editorial in El Dictamen printed in 1927 claimed: [Carnival]signifies an annualgatheringof new elements, of renewedenergies that give rise to more than a few productsand benefits for the entire population. . . . Because the organization of a festival like Carnival creates an extraordinary degree of commerce, various transportservices, hotels, commercial houses and entertainmentproviders will see tremendouseconomic benefit. Subsequently, Veracruz will have the opportunity every year to improve this situation by beautifying its buildings, parks and avenues thus making the city a more attractivetouristdestination.With this effort, the city will no doubt [again]become the indisputablefirst portof the Republic in the Gulf region offering all the conveniences and progressive touches that one would hope to find in any country.40 In appropriating selected elements of revolutionary discourse, promoters helped provide the city with various "beautifications" as well as a number of new, modem conveniences. Before long, the informal partnership established between Veracruz businesses, city boosters and print capitalism in the staging of Carnival would prove an attractive formula for others to emulate. Judging from one report at the time, the growing number of participants, promotions and sponsoring organizations in Veracruz caused a journalist from Mexico City to remark: [With the resurgenceof VeracruzCarnival]we have seen a great increase in commerce and the number of businesses. And while realizing the festival requires the cooperation of many individuals-a majority of whom (merchants, industrialists,professionals and the local government) will benefit directly from the increasedactivity in the city-Carnival is clearly good business. In organizinga celebrationhere, we [in Mexico City] would do well to learn from the example of those in Veracruzand invest a little money and more effort in organizingthe event.41 Echoing these sentiments, many not only in the nation's capital but several other Mexican cities would soon sponsor Carnivals of their own. As in
39El Dictamen, February14-15, 1926. 40Ibid., February18, 1927. 41 Ibid., February16, 1926. Reports in El Dictamen from February1926 describe the Mexico City Carnival taking place in Chapultepec Park and along Reforma Avenue. On February 17, the paper reportedthat five people had died duringthe celebration.

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106

INTRODUCING LA REINA DEL CARNAVAL

Vera-cruz, various postrevolutionarycoalitions--also hoping to develop civic pride as well as new sources of revenue-formed among business and civic leaders. In 1926 the Veracruzcity of C6rdobainitiated its own celebrationcomThe following year, resiplete with a contest to decide CarnivalQueen.42 dents of the Veracruztowns of PuertoMexico (today Coatzacoalcos)Otatitlin (near TierraBlanca), Coatepec (outside Jalapa),Tlacotalpanand San Cristobalorganizedfestivals. At the same time, El Dictamen remarkedthat a large numberof visitors from neighboringareas had come to the port to Indeed, the promotionof Carnivalboth as a new join in the celebration.43 postrevolutionary "holiday"and a pleasurablecommercialopportunitywas a successful combination. proving highly
CONCLUSION

In a nation turnedupside down by more than a decade of social, political and economic crisis, Carnivalorganizersin Veracruzarticulateda powerful message that encouragedresidents"of all social classes" to find a place for themselves in the new postrevolutionaryorder. Promoting Carnival as an inclusive public event, local leaders hoped that participationin the festival would not only re-establishthe pre-Lentenlocal partytraditionbut also help disseminatethe idea of a new, postrevolutionary In conjunc"community." tion with the various political and culturalimplicationsof Carnival,the festival gave rise to a variety of new business opportunities. From an elite perspective,Carnivalserved as an importantculturalchannel for official revolutionarydiscourse. Just as national leaders in Mexico City issued variousproclamationsannouncingthe dawn of a new inclusive, democraticsociety, festival organizersarticulated a similarmessage in print, parades and performance.Whateverthe more complicated social situation behind the scenes, official Carnival discourse resonated with postrevolutionarypolitical and culturalprogramming duringa time of critical national reconstruction by promotingVeracruzas an attractive,well-integratedlocal on the rise. Whetherfor cultural,political or commercialpur"community" poses, Carnivalorganizersin 1925 had reinventeda local tradition.Following their lead, others soon establishedtheir own local festivals elsewhere in Mexico. postrevolutionary

42 El Dictamen, February9, 10, 1926. 43Ibid., February3, 5, 1927.

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The 1925 revival of Carnivalbroughtjubilantmerrymaking to the streets and salons of Veracruzaftermany years of social crisis. Officially, organizers sought to promote community pride and commercial opportunityby claims that Mexicans of "all social making use of official postrevolutionary classes" had an importantpartto play in the making of the new civic life of the nation. To this end they staged elaborate public spectacles that were reportedon in effusive detail by the city's only daily newspaperEl Dictamen. In reality,the event appearsto have been more divided as descriptions of elites attending fancy masked balls held in local elite salons contrast sharply with popular merrymakingin local tenements and streets. Taking notice of the apparentgap between Carnivaldiscourse and festival practice, in 1926 porteiiosorganizedthe election of a "Rey Feo" (Ugly King) who, in contrast to the Carnival Queen, would "represent"ordinary men and women. Obviously intended to poke fun at the local social hierarchy,Veracruz Carnivalin futureyears would graduallybecome an even more inclusive affair as various labor unions, neighborhoodgroups, civic associations and a wide assortmentof the urbanpopulace invented all sorts of creative ways to participatein the public spectacle. Developed from the startfor the explicit purpose of social integrationthroughsymbolic means, the modern Carnivalhas extravagantly reflectedlargerpolitical, ecohistoryof Veracruz nomic and culturalnegotiationtaking shape in both the local communityand to a certainextent-the nation as a whole.44
University of Tulsa ANDREW GRANT WOOD

Tulsa, Oklahoma

44 The changing characterof modem Carnival following the first celebration in 1925 is part of a larger collaborativeproject making extensive use of historic photo collections at the State Archive in de Culturain the Port of Veracruz. Xalapa and the InstitutoVeracruzano

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