On the Day of the Marquesoteras, the women who beat, bake and dance during the preparation of the bread known as marquesote, two Zapotec towns of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec reaffirm their ancestral brotherhood, guided by their patron saints, Santiago Apóstol and Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
Every 24th of July, just one day before the feast of Santiago Apóstol and 10 days prior to the celebration of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, while “the Marquesoteras” make more than 10 thousand loaves of bread, a delegation from the municipality of Santo Domingo Petapa, goes to Guevea de Humboldt, to lay flowers and candles at the church of Santiago Apóstol.
The breads made by the Marquesoteras, who used about 10 clay ovens, over a wood fire, will be distributed by the stewards to the participants of the festivities in honor of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the patron saint of the Catholic community of Santo Domingo Petapa. The main celebration will be on August 4th.
Next Sunday, August 4th, as a confirmation of the brotherhood between two Zapotec coffee-producing towns, whose territorial origin is established in the Guevea Codex of 1540, another delegation, but now from Guevea de Humboldt, formerly Santiago Guevea, will visit the church of Santo Domingo Petapa, with flowers and candles and participate in the festivities.
“We Marquesoteras are delighted that our celebration coincides with the twinning of Santo Domingo Petapa with Guevea and other Zapotec towns such as San José Lachiguiri and Santa María Guienagati,” says with pride Doña Orquídea, a teacher who has trained the new generations of women who make the bread known as marquesote.
Making marquesote requires rhythm in the semicircular movement of the wooden paddle that goes back and forth inside the clay pot that contains wheat starch, sugar and raw eggs that the population gives away. Once the ingredients are beaten, they walk dancing, carrying the pots, towards the ovens. That is why the phrase: “the Marquesoteras beat, bake and dance.”
Source: oaxaca.eluniversal
