Por acá los xhitas. La noción de territorio en la geografía ritual de Calpulalpan, Jilotepec, Estado de México
Por:
Christlieb F.F., Tovar-Cabrera R.I.
Publicada:
1 ene 2025
Resumen:
The concept of territory has been intensely discussed in the field of geography during the last decades not only because borders have been weakened by the global economy but, above all, because, in multi-ethnic countries such as Mexico, it is not sustainable that it means the same for all cultures. Five hundred years after the conquest, Mexico is still a country where local traditions hybridize and syncretize with the traditions of Western culture. This article addresses the issue of territoriality in two festive manifestations that are celebrated at the same time in the town of Calpulalpan, municipality of Jilotepec, in the State of Mexico. In both manifestations there are traces of indigenous Mexico and colonial Mexico. During the festivities related to the Carnival, two types of ritual routes are carried out in Calpulalpan: on the one hand, the local authorities organize processions in which they march in an orderly fashion carrying three sacred images that start from the parish church and visit two other churches on their way. On the other hand, some inhabitants characterized as xhitas, drink and run unpredictably from one house to another shouting “this way, this way!”, thundering their chicotes and making way for an older xhita who carries, inside a glass case, a small effigy of the Lord of Humility, invocation of Christ that serves as the patron saint of the community. The xhitas are young people from Calpulalpan who agree to participate -disguised and masked-in the festivities for seven consecutive years in which they manifest their devotion. Through a geographic analysis with a cultural approach, combined with an ethnographic look, it is shown that both types of routes refer to the notion of “territory” from the point of view of identity, but that the limits and the formal structure of the territory that such routes imply, do not coincide spatially. For the authorities, both civil and religious, the ordered procession confirms the existence of legally supported limits. On the other hand, for the Xhitas, the erratic trajectory in search of neighbors, up to the doors of their house, reminds that the territory is not marked on the ground but in the people who are part of the community. In order to describe the differences, thematic maps are presented, constructed with field work based on the survey of GPS points during the 18 holidays in which the Xhitas demonstrate. Our research question was: do the authorities and the inhabitants of Calpulalpan coincide in the limits and spatial structure of the territory they conceive, or are there two discordant spatialities? Based on previous texts, we constructed the following hypothesis: the displacement of the Xhitas, during their festivities, reveals a popular conception of the land that belongs to them while confirming the way in which they conceive themselves as a group with common interests, and such conception does not coincide with the limits and organization of the territory formally accepted by their authorities. While for the Xhitas the territory is dynamic and evolving, for the authorities, both civil and religious, territorial integrity tries to be safeguarded through processions and formal documents. Understanding territory as a changing and fluid space means opening the door to a conception that in the West has been rejected and that in Mexico has been systematically combated by both colonial institutions and those formed during the independent era. Territory in the West is, above all, an entity of precise limits, preferably defended by legal norms. What we see in Calpulalpan is a territory that still exhibits features of the traditional societies of ancient Mexico, such as political autonomy and boundary permeability. © 2025 Instituto de Geografia. All rights reserved.
Filiaciones:
Christlieb F.F.:
Instituto de Geografía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación Científica s/n, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación Científica s/n, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
Tovar-Cabrera R.I.:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación Científica s/n, Ciudad de México, 04510, Mexico
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