Bodas! Las bodas grandes de Oaxaca

Our house in Oaxaca is very near to the lovely Santo Domingo de Guzman church. This isn't the cathedral (that's La Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción) or the church of the patron saint of Oaxaca (that's La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad). Both of those churches are lovely in their own right but our favorite is Sto. Domingo. It is also a great favorite of Oaxaqueñxs because of it's incredibly gilded interior and its graceful fachada (façade) and belltowers that, well, tower over the plaza. We've been told it costs quite a lot of money to get married at Sto. Domingo but that doesn't mean there are hardly ever bodas (weddings) there. More to the opposite. We constantly see weddings coming and going.

The lovely Sto Domingo

Bodas are somewhat unique in Oaxaca, even as compared to other Mexican weddings I've been to (a couple of my primos have gotten married in San Miguel de Allende). So I thought this deserved a blog post of it's own. To that end, and because I just like taking fotos, and because Thalia had several hours of ballet in a row in the middle of Saturday, I, and my foto assistant (aka Eric) went down to Sto. Domingo to see what was going on. Sure enough, after a few minutes sitting in the shade, bridesmaids started to show up, identified by their floor-length, vibrant purple dresses, flawless hairdos, makeup perfect, and incredibly high heels.

Now, this was a daytime wedding, but it's still a good bit fancier than a similar wedding in the US. Take my word for it that the evening weddings are EVEN fancier, *both* for the wedding party and the guests. None of this wedding party is dressed to the hilt and the guests more casual, nope, especially as it pertains to women. We are talking what might have been called ball gowns or opera dresses, nothing less. In fact, one day we came upon a calenda (more on those later) of a US or Canada groom and a Oaxaqueñx bride and you could immediately tell who the Americans in the crowd were from the Mexicans or Oaxaqueñxs just by their dress style alone; we laughed so hard. Anyway, at this daytime wedding there seemed to be 8 or so bridesmaids and the matching number of groomservants, in lovely gray suits and coordinating purple ties.

wedding party lined up to go into Sto Domingo ahead of the bride

Guests- guests are liable to show up for a Oaxaqueña boda at *any* time from before the service starts (in which case they mill around the front of the church until the last possible moment) and right on through to the last moments of the mass. Seriously. I don't know if its just natural relationship to time in Mexico that is much more relaxed or if they don't want to sit through mass or some combination or what. But people show up-- dressed waaaay up!-- like 45 minutes after the mass started! lol. I speculate that there are people who never go to the ceremony at all, and just go to the reception, as we did for a First Communion here recently. For this daytime wedding, there were a variety of approaches to dress-- from floor-length as you can see in the woman in all red in the photo below, or shorter, but still very elegant knee-length dresses as in the two below in bright blue and black. Men were wearing anything from formal suits to elegant guayaberas (which are always appropriate formal wear for men).

Here are some guests milling around in front of the church before the wedding mass. I identified the lady on the left as the mother of either the groom or the bride, given her purple dress (which was really awesome, this is not the right angle). The woman in the purple to red dress may have been the other mother? not sure but I did covet her dress! The woman in the all-red ankle-length dress was the pareja of one of the groomsmen.

At some point after the wedding party goes into the church, the bride and her escort showed up. Paused for awhile in the plaza as random tourists took fotos of them (including me except I'm waaay to shy to actually stand in front of them with my camera, instead relying on my zoon lens and being 25 feet away and behind them, JA!!) -- honestly, if you get married at Sto Domingo (or the Catedral probably) you are going to be in the photos of a hundred tourists or so...kinda weird.

bride and her dad(?) pause in the plaza of Sto Domingo before going in

During the mass (no, I didn't go in to it! Taking fotos during religious ceremonies is a line I don't cross, generally speaking. Although Eric and I have joked about getting all dressed up someday and crashing a wedding mass just to see it), the participants of the calenda start to show up. What is a calenda?! This is, as far as I can tell, a unique Oaxaqueña tradition. It is a procession (which is generally Mexican) that takes place for any number of reasons- XV Años, graduations, anniversaries of any and all kinds, in honor of hospitals, artist cooperatives, really any old thing, and including especially bodas! Now processions after weddings are pretty common in Mexico (both of my primos had them) but calendas in Oaxaca always always have certain aspects in common that are special-- 1- dancers- always including the China Oaxaqueñas but sometimes also dancers from other regions and traditions in Oaxaca; 2- a banda (music is absolutely essential; every once in a while it is mariachi but vastly more typical is a Oaxaqueña banda); 3- giant puppets representing the wedding couple; 4- a giant globo- balloon type thing that is carried at the top of tall heavy looking stick. Often there's also puppet type things of guajalotes (turkeys) and fireworks.

I'll start with the China Oaxaqueñas. All of whom, for this wedding, showed up at the plaza before a good 3/4 of the wedding guests, jajjajajaja. You can read more about China Oaxaqueñas here, but the short story is that these are the traditional dancers of the city of Oaxaca de Juárez. They are ever-present at any and all celebrations, parades, convites, concerts, calendas. They carry baskets on their heads, filled with flowers, sometimes puppets of guajalotes or fireworks or other things and they dance that way!  They are accompanied by music particular to their dances. It's a ever-present tune, the music that accompanies the China Oaxaqueñas...I hear it in my dreams! Anyway, so the China Oaxaqueñas show up with their baskets and hang around until the wedding emerges from the church...

A China Oaxaqueña and her basket of flowers arrives in the plaza

Four of the China Oaxaqueñas hired for this boda

 Meanwhile, they have their photograph taken with any number of visiting tourists, random people and children, whoever. They do this without fail and with great humor and warmth. They are guapas in every sense of the word. Truly ambassadors of Oaxaca de Juárez and holders of tradition and customs that are unique to this city and its gente.

posing for a photo

The banda. Cannot have a boda calenda (or any other!) without a live band. Usually a Oaxaqueña banda which is a lot of brass and a couple of drums and a clarinet or two. We've sometimes seen a boda calenda with mariachi instead of a banda but it's not the usual thing (mariachi are traditional in Jalisco and more typical in other parts of Mexico, including California...which is why we had mariachi at our own wedding! ja!). The banda shows up a lot later than the China Oaxaqueñas but they are usually warming up in the nearby Plazuela de Carmen Alta before that.

the sousaphone arrives! I could not resist the color/reflections of the sousaphone- so sublime.

The banda has a can...or two...of Tecate beer before they have to start playing. I was sitting right near the guys of this banda and as always when I overhear young men speaking, I learned lots of new profane/curse words!!!

The giant puppets! At a calenda for a boda, these puppets represent the novios (couple) and are constructed of a bamboo frame covered by clothes and paper-maiche heads. These are carried far above the head of the puppeteer and they dance around with the music during the calenda. One of the puppets was ready to go and the other required some extra work once they showed up to the plaza in front of Sto Domingo so I didn't get good fotos of him.

This is a really beautiful example of a boda puppet, her top half was sitting on the ground so I got an upclose foto of her.

These are actually two puppets arriving to get ready for the *next* wedding immediately following the one I was really taking fotos of... But here you can see the bamboo frames and the other parts that will be attached/assembled in place.

 The globo is another aspect of a calenda that I've never seen any where else but Oaxaca. It is generally white material with multi-colored banners strung around it, generally as seen in the below foto with variations for particular holidays (so banners with muertitos in the papel picado for Dia de Muertos, for example). For bodas they also feature the names of the novios. The carrier of the globo has a special leather carrying strap and he also dances around and twirls the globo around in time to the music.

Guy with his globo has shown up! Must be getting close to the time for the wedding to emerge from the church!

Diana & Javier are today's novios! Note that this foto was taken  5-10 minutes before the wedding mass and those people to the right? Wedding guests. And they weren't the last to arrive....

Next thing I knew all the members of the calenda got suddenly pretty busy, I knew it was time for the wedding to come out of the church. The puppeteers got into their puppets, the China Oaxaqueñas put their baskets on their head, the band stopped drinking their beers and lined up along the edge of the plaza, all the tourists and locals hanging around start to stand up and move closer...

Helping the baskets to get up on top

As soon as the novios step one little toe out of the church, the band starts playing and the dancers dancing! It's a controlled chaos and very joyful and beautiful.

China Oaxaqueña, puppet, and globo, all dancing. You can also see some of the guests from the NEXT wedding watching, as well as tourists, visitors, locals...

the puppets and globo flank the novios

The novios- Diana and Javier- flanked by two China Oaxaqueñas dancing!

the wedding party and guests then pour out of the church-- the novios get hugs from all the wedding party

From here, the calenda, with all its traditional elements, the novios, the wedding party and all the guests who have showed up so far, starts and heads off to parade through the streets of the centro of Oaxaca, to the delight of everyone. Music, dance, love, friendship and family, a love of color and tradition on display, the great pride of Oaxaca clear to see and hear and experience.