The festival of La Heredad, a neighborhood of Ixmiquilpan with less than 1,000 inhabitants, was a great show of fireworks, great music bands and for me the first time to dance Norteño as well as Huapango.
Mexicans love to celebrate, if you're searching for a fiesta you do not have to go far away! So did Araceli and I as we went to the Feria de la Heredad in the evening of the 2nd of February. One tradition of festivals of villages and cities in Mexico is el torito (the little bull). This is a man running around with a vehicle on the shoulders with a bull's head. This construction is over and over equipped with fireworks, which burn down gradually. After that, a metal construction called el castillo (the castle) sprays sparks in a similar way, only much bigger and longer. As we didn't know when all the fireworks would start and also none of the Mexicans could tell us we visited the little church in the meanwhile. Furthermore we bought a pan de fiesta / pan de feria (celebration pastry), one of it filled with blackberries and cheese.
After the fireworks had ended we entered the huge party tent which was framed on both sides by stages. Alternately the two bands Los Auténticos de Hidalgo and
Huapangueros Diferentes were performing their best. They are known as one of the most popular bands within the state and played the two music styles Norteño (a genre of Mexican music related to polka and corridos; traditional musical expression from Northern Mexico) and Huapango (a Mexican
folk dance and music style mainly common in the state of Hidalgo). Araceli practiced both of the dance styles with me among the dancing masses.
Critical comment: From my point of view it was a great experience to see this magnificent event but the amount of money the people of the community of La Heredad had to spend to organize this festival are far too high. The costs for the torito, the castillo and all the fireworks around are immense if one compares them with the income and possessions of the inhabitants of the region. This money is literally burned within half an hour, which most of the guests do not even notice because they are in the tent.
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