Nearly two tons of flour were thrown at the start of Carnival's most impressive of Tabasco. In the town of Tenosique hundreds of people of different ages are covered with layers of flour, egg and water, while anxiously awaiting the start of the carnival festivities, famous for the ritual dances of "El Pocho" and "Whitey". These customs are unique Tenosique.
Among the peculiar customs of this region is one that is distinguished by the fact that it has retained, through many years, its primitive characters, despite their elaborate ceremonies, the custom is a dance called "El Pocho" that takes place during carnival days, beginning on January 20, Feast of San Sebastian. The mythical character of this dance is unquestionable and it is considered that its origins are traced back to before the Conquest, as practiced by indigenous people as part of a religious ceremony to worship their gods. When the conquerors converted the natives to Christianity, the dance continued running, but since then the intimate relationship with the Catholic religion, although not part of worship, and this is how it retains to this day.
Pocho is a series of dances and other ceremonies performed to the beat of a melodic and melancholy music, produced by a whistle made of bamboo cane, accompanied by drums, all this symbolizes the purification of man through the struggle between good and evil. The characters of these dances are the "cojoes" (men), the "pochoveras" (maids) and "tigers." According to the plot, the upper cojoes are creatures of nature, in whom the gods have placed positive and negative traits, the evil god called Pochó want the destruction of men and sent the Tigers to remove them; pochoveras group acting ambiguously, first as a liaison between the Pochó and earthly beings, and then as a mediator between cojoes and tigers. The three groups of characters finally decide to "pick his steps", ie retrace his life of reprehensible acts, and destroy it within themselves to God Pochó. The latter is symbolized by the fact of removing their masks in the same place where the glasses, he had absorbed its negative aspects, and to go throwing in a career by several blocks, dress up the vegetables cojoes locker room. It is then a return to innocence by an act of purification.
The number of performers of this dance is variable. At the beginning of the festivities are about fifty men, mostly youths and children, but the culmination of Mardi Gras is more than a thousand cojoes, pochoveras twenty and ten tigers.As for the ritual clothing, the use cojoes straw hat covered with flowers and long leaves and fresh cañita, two handkerchiefs tied to the head and face covered with a wooden mask, carrying a bag of hemp on his shirt, a towel or cloth on their shoulders; gloves (or socks that do the same function of covering the hands); skirt big chestnut leaves, woven into a rope tied around the waist and leggings dried banana leaves (sojol " ). The pochoveras dress hat covered with flowers, white blouse, flowered skirt, a shawl or scarf over her shoulders and collars. Finally, the Tigers have the whole body except the hair and back, muddy yellow earth ( "we drew) with round black spots applied to the mouth of a bottle cap or a small bottle, about the head and shoulders carry a ocelot or jaguar skin, and the height of the snout of the animal, a red flower. The cojoes use several accessories such as sticks, rattles (shiquis ") flour or water containers and even obscene objects
It should be mentioned that there is a character named "Captain" (formerly known as the "judge"), which is responsible for preserving the tradition and the sacred fire, and carried out all the rituals involved. To name the "master of the Pocho" the community agrees on the person who will fall next year appointment, which is always a renowned Indian, and then given a tumultuous meeting against the elected house, throwing stones at the ceiling bottles, oranges and other objects. The owner comes to the door and announced that he accepted the job. Finally, when the night people are installed in the outgoing captain's house to attend the "death of Pocho" that from that moment he fell seriously ill. This ceremony takes place as a wake, which recalls the events of the season while consuming tamales, candy, coffee and brandy, all accompanied by the rhythm of the drums all night Tuesday. At dawn the morning of Ash Wednesday, the beat of the drums is becoming slower and finally silent before the death of Pocho, so all they say goodbye until next year.
Moreover, in regard to the dance of "The Whitey" which also takes place during Carnival, it is a mixed dance of protest which probably originated in the Peten region of Guatemala for the Blacks brought as slaves to the Spanish conquerors. It is believed that could be introduced to Tenosique by the year 1890 by a character named Jose Perez.
The dance is that 10 or 12 young dancers dressed in cotton trousers and body smeared with lime mud (shosclok "), try to imitate the skin of the white masters, to ridicule, as a protest against the bad treatment they gave to the black slaves in the hard work of clearing the forest hardwoods for the Spanish exploited.
The dancers, known as "Whitey" look on his head a cylindrical plume with colored confetti and bear tattooed on his chest and back a cross that symbolizes achiote Christian religion of the whites, they are abused by a black foreman that is accompanied by their wives and that the lashes during the dance to make them work. The "Whitey" they spend complaining over representation.
These customs, unique in the region and throughout the Republic, still remain living with their burden of symbolism and tradition can be witnessed during the carnival celebrations that take place in the town of Tenosique, Tabasco.
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