Otatlán

Otatlán is a village in the municipality of Zapotlán del Rey, in southeastern Jalisco, a little over an hour from Guadalajara. The name is Nahuatl and means "place where otates abound", otate being a tough cane used in the countryside. The municipality sits at about 1,550 metres above sea level, on low hills and flat farmland, with the Santiago River as its southern boundary. In 1995 the census counted 1,117 people here, one of the five largest localities in the municipality.

The village is known for its devotion to the Virgen de la Candelaria and for the Morisma, a Moors-and-Christians play staged jointly by Otatlán, La Noria and El Sáuz. It is passed down by oral tradition and its organisers reckon it is more than a hundred years old. Around 15 January a group of "Moors" on horseback, in capes and paper-flower crowns, arrives at the main temple and stages the theft of the Virgin's image, carrying it off to La Noria or El Sáuz. On 1 February the Christians of Otatlán come to rescue it and trade lines with the Moors in a theatrical dialogue; on 2 February the battle is fought on a sports field in Otatlán. The Moors fight on horseback and the Christians on foot, and the aim is to unhorse a Moor and take his crown, which is handed to the Virgin as a sign of conversion. Some years the Moors win.

The rest of the year the village is quiet. An old chapel of brick and stone with a bell gable, which appears in photographs of the village, is among the oldest structures in view. The fair that accompanies the festival brings rides, snacks and cold drinks, as at any patron-saint fiesta.