¡VIVA Mexico!

Mariachi melodies, sacred dances and a cascade of crafts drew throngs of visitors to the Santa Fe living history museum El Rancho de las Golondrinas and its annual ¡Viva Mexico! weekend celebration.

They discovered a country more rich in culture than crime.

Rooted in the pre-Hispanic period, La Danza de los Voladores – Dance of the Flying Men – formed the centerpiece of the festivities.

Performed by five members of the Totanac people of the state of Veracruz, the ceremony consists of a dance capped by the ritual climbing of a 60-foot pole. The leader, called the Caporal, stands on top of the pole playing music on a flute and drum dedicated to the sun, the four winds and the four cardinal directions.

When the music ends, the four dancers fling themselves into the air, their ankles tied to the platform by long ropes that slowly unspool as they orbit the pole.

Most strongly identified with the village of Papantla, Veracruz, the ceremony was named an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

This weekend’s appearance marks the group’s sophomore year at Las Golondrinas. The dancers pray for good crops, harmony and balance. The state of Veracruz is home to about 30 groups practicing the ceremony. It coincides with festivals, carnivals, the equinox and the solstice.

“This is something that has been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years,” Las Golondrinas executive director John Berkenfield said. “This ritual predates the Spanish. It’s not a show; it’s not a spectacle. It’s a ritual.”

Los Voladores will fly again today at 11 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. as ¡Viva Mexico! continues for another day.

On Saturday, guests at the historic ranch south of Santa Fe nibbled on handmade tortillas and shopped at a mercado of artisans from across Mexico.

The artists hawked handcrafted silver jewelry, pottery, carved and painted animals and Toltec rugs. Others were promoting crafts for a cause.

Gloria Sotomayor Asain and her partner, Adriana Guerra Reyes, sold pottery hand-painted by the widows and orphans of Juárez’s drug wars. Its rippled triangular forms represent the wind-sculpted sand of northern Mexico, they said.

“We use local painters,” Asain said. “Our mission is all the widows from Juárez. People don’t want to hire them.”

The pottery included platters, bowls and chip-and-dip sets splashed with colorful renderings of horses, roosters and Mexican serpents.

“The air blows into the desert – the triangles,” Asain said. “We try to represent the northern part of Mexico, where we live. Now with so many killed, there are so many widows and orphans.”

They’re also helping to train former prostitutes enrolled in a friend’s rehabilitation center.

“This is very therapeutic,” Asain continued. “We’re doing a matter of soul healing. They start healing from the inside. They start giving a value to their lives. They have the capacity to earn money.”

Lizards and AK-47s

Nearby, Elvis Castillo of Oaxaca was selling colorful carved animals from gnarled copal wood. Many of his lizards, scorpions and Day of the Dead figures sported pinprick dots of color made with cactus needles. He said his father taught him the art form 30 years ago.

“Every piece is different, because I pick up the branches,” he said. “I see what form is it, and I work with the form.”

Albuquerque’s Luis Garcia was selling colorful earrings made from the molted feathers of parrots and macaws. “I do the sterling silver wirework,” he said.

Carlos de la Vega of Guadalajara featured handcrafted silver jewelry. Among the expected hearts and crosses were pendants shaped like AK-47 rifles. Sometimes, war veterans ask for the motif, he explained through an interpreter.

This marks ¡Viva Mexico’s! fourth year at Las Golondrinas. The event is a partnership between Las Golondrinas, the Mexican Consulate in Albuquerque and the state of Veracruz. Its debut brought 671 visitors, Berkenfield said. The second year lured a crowd of 2,830. Last year, the crowd skyrocketed to 5,155 –– an eightfold increase marking the first appearance of the Voladores.

“The Mexican flag in 1820 flew over this property for 20 years,” Berkenfield said. “We do this to understand the cultures and traditions of our neighbor Mexico.”