Stop! Whoa! Drop everything!
Carnaval Internacional Mazatlán is coming Feb.19-24, and everything else will just about come to a halt during this citywide celebration that dates back to 1898. Actually, the observance of Carnaval here has gone on much longer than that. Legend has it that as early as 1810, when a protest by some soldiers at the Mazatlán military outpost in Villa Union, who hadn’t received their pay on time, took the form of a Carnaval-type masked manifestation.
Carnaval — the time to eat, drink and be merry before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday — is celebrated in one form or another throughout the Roman Catholic world. Much to the chagrin of church officials, the festivities often become excessive in the extreme. The roots of these observances seem to be pagan in nature, but they have been adopted by the faithful and you just can’t keep the excuse for a good party down.
Through more than a century the people of Mazatlán have celebrated Carnaval year after year with pageants and parades and a rowdy good time. Every Mazatleco can look back and remember Carnival from earliest memory. In fact, the local schools close for the last two days before Ash Wednesday so the kids (and their teachers) can get in on the fun.
And speaking of the younger set, Carnaval as locally practiced reserves one of its coronation pageant especially for them: the Carnaval Monday coronation of the Child Queen. While the pageants for the crowning of Queen of Carnaval and Queen of the Juegos Florales or Flower Games have programs aimed more toward an adult audience, the children’s event includes a performance by a star soloist or group that has its greatest appeal with the youthful crowd.
This year’s theme, International Fantasy, gives a nod to Carnaval celebrations around the world, so the pageants and parades will carry out that idea in the lavish decorations and costumes that will be seen at every event. Except for the children, who have their own costume ball and contest, nobody else wears costumes as they might in some other parts of the world.
If you have not experienced Carnaval Mazatlán before, you have two choices: For peace and quiet, stay as far away from the goings-on as possible. Or you can join in on the noisy, splashy fiesta. The coronation pageants at the baseball stadium always feature name-brand entertainment, the parades are a delight with scads of cleverly decorated floats, the fireworks are awesome and — if you really want to be rowdy — the street dance along Olas Altas offers enough musical variety and Pacifico Beer to keep you moving to your own beat on any evening you choose to go there.
But Carnaval-related events actually begin well before the official six days of celebration in Mazatlán. This month’s arts and entertainment calendar also includes several non-Carnaval arts events. A major one is a concert in the Angela Peralta Theater celebrating the 50th year since the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception actually was named a cathedral and the seat of the Diocese of Mazatlán.
This jubilee program will include the Sinaloa Symphony Orchestra conducted by world-renowned Mazatleco Enrique Patron de Rueda, the orchestra’s Opera Chorus, and guest soloists Martha Felix, mezzosoprano, and Ricardo Rodriguez, tenor. The program will include works by Manuel de Falla, Borodin and the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
But wait! the following week brings yet another gala musical event, the Evening (Velada) of the Arts that ties in to long-standing Carnaval tradition: the conferringof the Mazatlán Prize for Literature and the Antonio Lopez Saenz Prize for Painting. It’s always done amid the framework of a concert featuring major participants. This year is a truly special velada, for it marks the 135th opening of the Angela Peralta Theater. For that reason, a re-enactment of the arrival of La Peralta, the Mexican Nightingale, at the Port of Mazatlan in 1883 is in the works.
History says the townspeople were so overjoyed to welcome the famous diva that the men untied the horses from her carriage and pulled her themselves to the Hotel Iturbide (now the Mazatlan Arts Center) next door to the theater. And it is said that to thank everyone for the jubilant reception, Peralta stepped out on the balcony of her room and sang “La Paloma” to the cheering crowd below.
Following the reenactment of those events, Olivia Gorra (la Peralta) will appear again with other renowned Mexican opera stars during the velada starting at 7:00 p.m. in the theater. This