The Guadalajara Reporter

City Living - March 23, 2013

Passion Play

Next week, residents of San Martin de las Flores, a small community in Tlaquepaque, will stage their annual Judea, or Passion Play. The three-day event recreates the trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The commemoration has been a tradition in San Martin for 200 years, although it was interrupted by the anti-clerical movement of the early 1900s. Attendance at the Passion Play grows each year. Past crowds have reached 100,000, making the pageant the second biggest after the one in Iztapalapa (in Mexico City). The event attracts visitors from all over Mexico, the United States, Europe and Asia.

About 35 young people from the town of San Martin take the leading roles while another 120 make up the supporting cast.

The pageant begins Thursday, March 28, 5 p.m. as Christ is led to the main plaza, Mary Magdalene washes his feet, and the Last Supper is staged.

Beginning at noon on Good Friday, the group enacts the trial before Pilate, Jesus’ flagellation, and the fitting of the crown of thorns, accompanying Jesus as he climbs the hill to be crucified, a climb not for the faint-hearted – the slope is 45 degrees for a kilometer. Saturday celebrates the resurrection. At noon, Jesus leads the procession back to the heart of the city. In the plaza, the festival includes food and dancing.

To reach San Martin de las Flores from Guadalajara take Lazaro Cardenas past the Carretera to Chapala. Then take the Carretera Libre to Zapotlanejo. After a few kilometers, at El Canelo Restaurant, take the right fork following the sign to San Pedrito. You will enter San Martin after about one kilometer.

Zapopan half-marathon

Mexican Nayra Sanchez came first in the 26th Zapopan half-marathon last Sunday, ending four years of dominance by African athletes.

Sanchez, from Toulca, finished the women’s race with a time of one hour, 15 minutes and 14 seconds, beating Kenya’s Gladys Onwonga by 29 seconds. Rodgers Ondati Gesabwa, also from Kenya, won the men’s race with a time of one hour, 4 minutes and 56 seconds. Mexicans Juan Carlos Carrera and Pedro Espinosa came second and third respectively.

Some 2,700 runners took part in the race, with prize money of 466,000 pesos shared out between the 129 quickest athletes.

Iceland

Head over to the Iceland skating rink this weekend to see some of the best skaters in Mexico take part in a national tournament.  Saturday, March 23, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.  Sunday, March 24, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Av. Mexico 2582. Call (33) 1368-0172 for more information.

Happy Zapopan

A recent study of Mexico’s happiest populations found that those who live beside the beautiful Lake Chapala or at one of Jalisco’s many tropical beaches are not the happiest in the state. The residents of Zapopan are in fact the happiest in Jalisco and the 29th happiest in all of Mexico.

The metropolitan area seems to breed content, with residents of Tlaquepaque and Guadalajara respectively ranked as the 53rd and 70th happiest in Mexico.

The Happiness Ranking conducted by Imagina Mexico found that Apodaca, Nuevo Leon has the happiest inhabitants in the country, followed by Lerdo, Durango; Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon; La Paz, Baja California; and Coyoacan, Mexico City.

‘Bosnian Anne Frank’

Dubbed “the Bosnian Anne Frank,” Nadja Halilbegovich gave a talk at the Tec de Monterrey’s Guadalajara campus on March 13.

Having grown up and lost friends and family during the conflict in Bosnia during the mid-1990s, Halilbegovich kept a diary of her thoughts and emotions, which she later adapted into the book “My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary.”

“It was just a book, but a book that saved my life, saved me emotionally and mentally and made me the person I am today,” she said of the work which won numerous awards and drew comparison with the famous diary by Holocaust survivor Anne Frank.