La fiesta del caldo en San Andrés Zautla: los procesos de simbolización en la recreación de una tradición

This text intends to reflect on the importance of the festival, within the framework of the religious cult of indigenous communities, as a context of social interaction and ritual processes, where various symbolization processes that nourish and convey the transmission of traditions are articulated. This leads us to consider the religious festival as a scenario of hegemonic dispute, as its regulated organization, as well as a vehicle of counter-hegemonic confrontation, from the experience of the sacred. We carry out a brief conceptual review to address what has been called "popular religion" or, from Mesoamerican studies, "Mesoamerican religious tradition" (L. Austin). We outline the categories of analysis with which we complement a hermeneutic model for the study of festivals and rituals from the studies of the imaginary (G. Durand; B. Solares) and the symbolic anthropology of Lluís Duch. We apply our model to the case study of the Fiesta del Caldo in Honor of the Dulce Nombre de Jesús, in San Andrés Zautla, Oaxaca, focusing on two problems: the form of organization of the fiesta through a brotherhood and the forms of participation in the party crossed by gender.