home-sweet-mexico.com

We were in the zocalo the other night and had the best time. There is a group of people who do African drumming in the Cuernavaca and Tepoztlan zocalos and they are really good. Sometimes they even have people who do traditional African dances along with the drumming, though the dancers haven’t quite reached the level of excellence as the drummers. I’ve also seen groups of young men competing at “gymnastics/break dance” sometimes. They take turns doing head stands, elbow perches, etc. I love to watch them and see how strong and agile they are.

Well the other night the young men who do break dance got together with the African-style drummeres. The interaction among the two teams of “dancers” and the drummers was joyful.

The young men were on two sides or teams and they took turns showing off. Wow! They do wonderful moves. The other team members would come out and “measure” their poses, if they did a particularly good one. Then, of course, they would have to try to outdo the moves with some of their own. The crowd would often ooh and ah. The dancers would strut after doing something really impressive. Sometimes the marimba players in the front would shout out when a dancer did something really impressive, like bounce down onto their head and spring onto their feet or lift their legs up and over their body while on one elbow. It was neat to see how much the drummers loved to see the skills being displayed in time to the music they were creating. I wished I could drum too. I would love to be able to produce something that captures and moves so many people all at once.

We stood in a tight crowd that never dispersed. We had jockeyed our way up to the front and could see all the drummers and marimba players who sat on the ground. Our little son was tired and insisted that I hold him in my arms. I completely forgot how much my arms ached and cheered and clapped (when I could). I was bouncing to the music without worrying about who might see me. The music was holding me up with its energy and the rapt attention between dancers and drummers was so clearly inspired creativity it made me feel warm. I was smiling from ear to ear. As we were leaving my husband said, “Wow. That was great,” and I wholeheartedly agreed with him. When we got home our son tried some new “moves” going down on his knees on the kitchen floor.

Zocalos are really good things. If you retire in Mexico, make sure you spend time in the zocalo.