Women of the Oaxacan Community Remember Their Traditions with Floral Baskets

The community women's calenda of flowers during the procession in honor of San Miguel.

Esther Lopez celebrates San Miguel like a true woman of Oaxaca: Making floral baskets to display on the day of the Calenda.

Lopez has been doing just that since she was 12 years old, when she would carry her hand-made floral basket on a procession through her home village of San Miguel del Valle in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Esther Lopez celebrates San Miguel, her patron saint, carrying her floral basket.

"We would go around the whole village," Lopez says. "All the women participate, girls — young women, and older ones, like now."

Lopez now continues the tradition of the Calenda of Flowers in her new home parish of Santa Anita Church in the city of Santa Monica. She and a group of other women made the procession on September 27, the annual feast day in honor of San Miguel.

Lopez began participating in the Calenda in Santa Monica in 2003. She remembers that participation by the women who had come to the U.S. from San Miguel del Valle was scarce, but notes that their numbers have grown.

"There were some 10 or 12 of us, then 15 — and now there are more or less 25 of us who participate, counting girls, young women and ladies," she says.

Banda San Miguel del Valle

Each of the women makes a floral basket in honor of the saint, using white, yellow or red daisies. They also use banana leafs and toothpicks to dress up the reed basket.

The weight of each basket depends on its size, according to Lopez, who carried a two-and-half-pound basket on her head this year.

The process was short compared to her childhood days in Oaxaca — only one block — but Lopez said the excitement was the same because she can see that her customs remain in place even if they are carried out far from their place of origin.

The Festival Committee handing out tepache

"This holiday is very traditional," said Gonzalo Hernandez, a Santa Anita parishioner who serves on the organizing committee for the Calenda. "We don't want to lose it — it allows compatriots who can't go there (to San Miguel del Valle in Oaxaca) to enjoy the holiday here."

Cristobal Policarpo, another member of the committee, said that the purpose of the celebration is not only for parishioners to honor their patron saint, but also to bring the Oaxacan community together and to raise funds to send back to their home village to meet various needs.

Mireya Olivera is editor of Impulso.

Photos by Impulso

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