Bernalillo to host San Lorenzo fiesta
Dances, parade, rodeo among events
La Fiestas de San Lorenzo, which will be held next week in Bernalillo, featuring the ritual dance drama known as Los Matachines, is not only the largest such dance in the region, but it is also one of the oldest.
The fiesta and dances have been held continuously for 324 years, according to Mike Kloeppel, director of economic and community development for the town of Bernalillo.
He traces the history of the event to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when native pueblo people rose up against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico.
By this time, there had been a fair amount of intermarriage between the Hispanics of what is now Bernalillo and the Native Americans from Sandia
Pueblo. Local residents, it is believed, were given advance warning of the impending revolt and fled south to El Realito de San Lorenzo, what is now the El Paso/Juárez area, Kloeppel said.
Nevertheless, some 400 Spanish were killed and 2,000 settlers from throughout the province were driven out — at least for a while.
The Bernalillo area refugees arrived in El Realito on Aug. 10, the same day the uprising began. It was also the same day the Spanish and their descendents celebrated the Feast Day of San Lorenzo, said Kloeppel.
According to a number of online sources about Catholic saints, Lorenzo was a deacon under Pope Saint Sixtus II. He was condemned to death in AD 258, during the persecution of the Christians under the Emperor Valerian. Lorenzo was commanded, but refused, to deliver the riches of the church to the Roman Prefect, Cornelius Saecularis, so Saecularis had Lorenzo placed on a gridiron and roasted alive.
As he was being grilled, Lorenzo is said to have told his executioner, “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.”
Lorenzo is considered the patron saint of cooks, comedians, librarians, August crops, souls in Purgatory, schoolchildren, students and a protector against fire.
As a result of being spared and allowed to escape the 1680 Pueblo uprising, the Bernalillo residents prayed to San Lorenzo and learned the traditional Matachines dances in El Realito. They subsequently brought the dances back with them in 1693, after Don Diego de Vargas, the Spanish governor of New Spain, led the reconquest of the territory and the re-establishment of the Gonzales Bernal Camp, which later became Real de Bernalillo, and finally Bernalillo, said Kloeppel.
The dances of Los Matchines de San Lorenzo tell the story of the triumph of Christianity over paganism, as personified by Montezuma, ruler of the Aztecs, and his conversion. The dances are performed at Catholic fiestas in New Mexico, Mexico and Latin America.
In addition to the Match ines dances, which are held at venues throughout Bernalillo, the fiesta will also feature a parade, rodeo, car show, and live entertainment. Vendors will sell food and crafts. All events are free, and most will be held at Rotary Park.