Santa María Sundays
Zoot suits, Dorilocos and a six hour dance-a-thon
On a typical weekday in Santa María La Ribera’s central square dancers shake their hips to Zumba soundtracks, teenagers lock lips on park benches and off-leash dogs splash around in gushing fountains (Mexico City’s water crisis be damned). Weekdays pulse with energy and yet seem downright subdued compared to Sundays, when the Alameda transforms into a makeshift carnival whose electricity courses throughout the entire neighborhood.
Sundays start slowly, as Saturday night revelers recover and families return from church, but by 1pm the generators are humming, the music is blaring and the Alameda is a hive of activity.
Children gather in the southwest corner, which is anchored by a bounce house and several arts and crafts tables. Toddlers pull their parents towards a stand displaying motorized ride-on cars and ATVs. For 50 pesos, kids can spend 30 minutes zooming around the park.
Nearby a group of women gather in chairs around an umbrella-covered shopping cart full of fabric skeins. They exchange gossip as they stitch flowers into embroidery hoops. Beside this boisterous collective an older gentleman in a flat cap instructs a group of novice painters to create Bob Ross-esque landscapes with Kodachrome sunsets.
The Alameda is lined with food stalls, many of which seem geared towards kids, or at least towards the kid in all of us. Four stands advertise Dorilocos, the ultimate Mexican junk food, wherein vendors slice open a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and add an outrageous assortment of toppings: cueritos (pickled pork rinds), cacahuates japonés (deep-fried peanuts with a soy-sauce flavored shell), gummy bears, sliced jicama, shredded carrots, lime juice, Tajín and some type of hot sauce. It’s sticky, sweet, salty, crunchy, sour — a glorious mess.
Also on offer are pepilocos, peeled cucumbers carved into a cup for holding many of the same “crazy” ingredients, as well as an ingenious creation known as the jicaleta (jicama-paleta). The refreshing root vegetable is shaved down to an oblong slab and skewered on a popsicle stick to resemble its namesake paleta. The vendor slathers the jicama with chamoy, the mouth-puckering sauce made from picked fruit, chile and lime, then coats it in a rainbow of colored sugars.
In addition to these gooey concoctions, frozen desserts are also wildly popular. Long lines form at the ice cream and sorbet stand, where delighted patrons young and old walk away with freshly-churned scoops covered in magic shell. I love observing the raspados seller, who repeatedly pushes an industrial metal scraper over a large block of ice to create fluffy snow cones that he douses with flavored syrups.
My favorite cold treat is crema de coco, which resembles horchata made with coconut milk. I linger after the vendor hands me my cup because I adore watching him fulfill an order for fresh coconut.
He plucks a coconut hanging from the post affixed to his tricycle and whittles the top to create a small opening. For a to-go order, he empties the liquid into a plastic bag outfitted with a straw; otherwise he commands the customer to drink it on the spot. Once the water is emptied, he whacks the shell apart with a machete and coaxes delicate slices of tender white flesh for snacking (often dressed with chile and lime). He hucks the empty hulls into the back of the trike to be carted off.
These perimeter activities and food stands are the sideshow attractions at Santa María La Ribera’s Sunday circus: the main event is a six hour dance-a-thon stretching across one of the plaza’s main walking paths. Week after week, dozens of dancers, mostly above the age of sixty, shuffle to the sweet sounds of cumbia, salsa and son cubano that blast from an old school sound system provided by area resident Joel Alejandro García Flores.
At this open-air dance hall, pensioners dressed in flamboyant fashions show-off gravity-defying moves. I love to dance and think how fun it would be if BB and I were to join in, but after observing a gentleman donning a zoot suit and fedora effortlessly twirl and dip his elegant partner in the ninety-degree heat, I realize these dancers are well out of our league.
Just witnessing this weekly spectacle is invigorating. I can’t wait to return next Sunday and the Sunday after that to experience the neighborhood in its most vibrant context.
Photos by Jared Wheeler
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I experienced a Santa Maria Sunday with Whitney, and the energy was unbelievable.