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Important civic processions of a more solemn and stately nature took place during the innumerable state funerals of the Porfiriato. When a distinguished statesman, illustrious general, or renowned man of letters passed away, the federal government decreed periods of mourning, issued thousands of mortuary announcements to friends of the deceased, and posted broadsheets on street corners that invited citizens to attend the funeral obsequies. In preparation for the solemn procession through the streets, high officials established the processional route and order of march, asked businesses to close shop, modified streetcar schedules, and draped the city in mourning black. Every available public servant and soldier was asked to join President Díaz in escorting the elegant hearse to the cemetery. Popular attendance depended greatly on three variables: the organizational efforts of the federal government, the day of the week the funeral was held, and the reputation of the deceased hero. For the state funerals of General Jesus Gonzólez Ortega, former presidents Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada and Manuel González, statesman Manuel Romero Rubio, and General Mariano Escobedo attendance easily exceeded 100,000 citizens.

State funerals were special civic celebrations that evoked both the emotional power and aesthetic expression of Mexico during its belle époque. In 1895 the government exhumed the remains of the 13 Independence heroes from the Altar de los Reyes in the Nacional Cathedral and reburied them in another splendid ceremony. Patriotic and mutualist societies purchased a special urn to contain the venerated remains. Minister of the Interior Manuel Romero Rubio commissioned a special monument to be erected to the heroes. And Federal District employees decorated the city with black crepe, tricolor bunting, and national flags. The great procession took place on July 30, the anniversary of the execution of Miguel Hidalgo, the father of Mexican Independence. The urn containing the skulls and bones of Hidalgo, Morelos, Allende, and other heroes was placed on a long railroad platform car, elegantly decorated with black velvet and roses, and pulled through the streets by magnificent black steeds. President Díaz, government officials, and delegations of patriotic and working-class societies followed reverently. Lining the processional route, thousands of citizens, their hats in their hands, watched the sacred relics pass before them. Silence was interrupted every 15 minutes by the distant boom of cannon fired from the Ciudadela. The cortege returned to the cathedral and the urn was interred in a crypt beneath the Capilla de San José. In 1903, a similar procession was held in honor of insurgent leader Nicolás Bravo, whose remains were brought from Chilpancingo, Guerrero, and deposited with those of the other Independence heroes.

The conciliation policy of Porfirio Díaz is demonstrated by government participation in religious processions from 1876-1911. As if to publicize the state's rapprochement with the church, Díaz and his cabinet members often marched at the head of important religious processions, including the funeral corteges for archbishops of Mexico Pelagio Antonio de Labastida ( 1891) and Próspero María Alarcón ( 1908). As padrinos at the episcopal consecration of Alarcón, Díaz and his father-in-law, Minister of the Interior Manuel Romero Rubio, both participated in the ecclesiastical procession through the streets. Díaz, a mason, and his ministers, such as the anticlerical Romero Rubio, took part in church ceremonies to demonstrate the new alliance between church and state and to reassure the Catholic world that rabid anticlericalism was a thing of the past.

Processions were held in conjunction with a number of church coronation ceremonies during the Porfiriato, especially with the crowning of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1895. On August 11, 1859, Benito Juárez decreed December 12 an official religious holiday honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe. The first pontifical coronation in Mexico, however, did not take place until February 14, 1886, when the Virgen de la Esperanza (Virgin of Hope) was crowned in Jacona, Michoacón. Perhaps inspired by the exhortations of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum ( 1891), Catholic leaders in Mexico reinvigorated the centuries-old campaign to coronate Mexico's premiere patrona, the Virgin of Guadalupe. It was the dictator's wife, doña Carmen Romero Rubio, who led the elite in raising $30,000 to purchase an elaborate silver and gold crown for the virgin. In the second week of October, 1895, numerous religious processions lent some sobriety to an atmosphere of merriment and rejoicing. Finally, on October 12, the anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, the Virgin was crowned before an international audience that included 11 Archbishops, 28 Bishops, and prelates from the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Panama. The coronation ceremony revitalized subsequent celebrations of December 12, gave impetus to the crowning of the Virgin Juan de los Lagos ( 1904), and paved the way for improved relations between the Mexican government and the Vatican. After 30 years without an apostolic delegate in Mexico, Pope Leo XIII sent Archbishop Nicolas Averardi to Mexico City in 1896. In 1910, Pope Pius X proclaimed the Virgin to be the "Reina de los Mexicanos" and the "Celestial Patrona de América Latind".

The nineteenth-century civic procession reached its peak during the Centennial of Mexican Independence celebration in September 1910. On September 15 spectators lined the streets of the Centro Histórico to witness a history parade that surpassed all others. Instead of presenting individual allegorical floats to symbolize distinct eras in Mexican history, organizers devoted entire sections of a panoramic historical cavalcade to represent each period. Thus, the "Epoch of the Conquest" section, which dramatically retold the first encounter of Moteuczoma and Cortós, required a cast of 839 persons. More than 200 indigenous people from San Luis Potosí were brought in to play the part of Moteuczoma's court.

In contrast to Díaz appearance on Juárez Day, Porfirio Díaz always wore the uniform of a Division General during military parades on Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day. The military parade gained primacy under Díaz with the reorganization of the federal army, the establishment of the Gendarmería, the expansion of the Rurales, and the inclusion of the military cadets of Chapultepec in national ceremonies. All four groups participated in parades and became sources of national pride on days commemorating the glorious victories of the Mexican military. Soldiers marched through the principal avenues of the city and ended either at the Plaza de la Constitución (also called the Plaza de Armas, or zócalo) or at the foot of Chapultepec Castle. On Cinco de Mayo bureaucrats and civilians marched in separate processions from the Alameda to the San Fernando Cemetery to lay wreaths upon the grave of Ignacio Zaragoza, the victorious general at Puebla.

During the Porfiriato, Independence Day parades grew more elaborate and popular than ever before. Beginning in 1883, large numbers of tourists came to Mexico City to participate in the Independence fetes. The completion of the Mexican Central Railroad brought provincial Mexicans and North Americans face to face to commemorate Mexican Independence. In 1883 over 30,000 visitors witnessed a grand cavalcade of Mexico's history. That year's parade featured 13 horse-drawn floats depicting historical scenes in chronological order, including Columbus's discovery of America, Mexican Independence, the Republic, and 10 others. The final and most popular float "Progress—Industry and Peace" presented the image of a locomotive emerging from a tunnel. Expressing in words and symbols the primary slogans and goals of the regime, the float also highlighted Mexico's crowning achievement, the railroad. Moreover, the float gave new meaning to the parade as spectacle and educational tool. Businessmen quickly recognized the parade's potential for advertising their products. In 1899, 23 companies sponsored Independence parade floats. The ingenious decorators of these floats used national symbols of the past to help sell commercial products in the present. The procession of carros alegóricos became a mainstay of Independence Day celebrations, reaching perfection in the gigantic cavalcade of the Centennial of Mexican Independence in 1910.

The conciliation policy of Porfirio Díaz is demonstrated by government participation in religious processions from 1876-1911. As if to publicize the state's rapprochement with the church, Díaz and his cabinet members often marched at the head of important religious processions, including the funeral corteges for archbishops of Mexico Pelagio Antonio de Labastida ( 1891) and Próspero María Alarcón ( 1908). As padrinos at the episcopal consecration of Alarcón, Díaz and his father-in-law, Minister of the Interior Manuel Romero Rubio, both participated in the ecclesiastical procession through the streets. Díaz, a mason, and his ministers, such as the anticlerical Romero Rubio, took part in church ceremonies to demonstrate the new alliance between church and state and to reassure the Catholic world that rabid anticlericalism was a thing of the past.

Processions were held in conjunction with a number of church coronation ceremonies during the Porfiriato, especially with the crowning of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1895. On August 11, 1859, Benito Juárez decreed December 12 an official religious holiday honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe. The first pontifical coronation in Mexico, however, did not take place until February 14, 1886, when the Virgen de la Esperanza (Virgin of Hope) was crowned in Jacona, Michoacón. Perhaps inspired by the exhortations of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum ( 1891), Catholic leaders in Mexico reinvigorated the centuries-old campaign to coronate Mexico's premiere patrona, the Virgin of Guadalupe. It was the dictator's wife, doña Carmen Romero Rubio, who led the elite in raising $30,000 to purchase an elaborate silver and gold crown for the virgin. In the second week of October, 1895, numerous religious processions lent some sobriety to an atmosphere of merriment and rejoicing. Finally, on October 12, the anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, the Virgin was crowned before an international audience that included 11 Archbishops, 28 Bishops, and prelates from the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Panama. The coronation ceremony revitalized subsequent celebrations of December 12, gave impetus to the crowning of the Virgin Juan de los Lagos ( 1904), and paved the way for improved relations between the Mexican government and the Vatican. After 30 years without an apostolic delegate in Mexico, Pope Leo XIII sent Archbishop Nicolas Averardi to Mexico City in 1896. In 1910, Pope Pius X proclaimed the Virgin to be the "Reina de los Mexicanos" and the "Celestial Patrona de América Latind".

The nineteenth-century civic procession reached its peak during the Centennial of Mexican Independence celebration in September 1910. On September 15 spectators lined the streets of the Centro Histórico to witness a history parade that surpassed all others. Instead of presenting individual allegorical floats to symbolize distinct eras in Mexican history, organizers devoted entire sections of a panoramic historical cavalcade to represent each period. Thus, the "Epoch of the Conquest" section, which dramatically retold the first encounter of Moteuczoma and Cortós, required a cast of 839 persons. More than 200 indigenous people from San Luis Potosí were brought in to play the part of Moteuczoma's court.

The triumph of the Tuxtepec Revolt that brought Díaz to power compelled him to search for legitimacy by upholding traditional republican state ceremonies such as the civic procession. Complying with national law, solemn inaugural ceremonies were held every time Díaz was reelected. Public officials, members of patriotic societies, and elites came from all over the republic to take part in formal civic manifestations. Leading bankers, businessmen, and industrialists organized parades, banquets, and fireworks displays in Díaz's honor. Most notably, the Círculo de Amigos de Díaz and the Círculo Nacional Porfirista, organizations devoted to keeping the general in power, coordinated the students, urban professionals, business owners, and bureaucrats who marched in support of Díaz every April 2, the anniversary of his siege of Puebla in 1867. Workers' associations routinely demonstrated their loyalty to Díaz by staging processions. In 1887, over 10,000 members of the Gran Congreso Obrero marched in a show of support for Díaz's reelection, and 34,000 select delegates participated in the Independence Day parade. In an attempt to co-opt labor, Federal District governor Guillermo Landa y Escandín established the Sociedad Mutualista y Moralizadora, the membership of which staged a pro-Díaz demonstration in April 1910. The patriotic march involved 5,000 workers from various Federal District factories.

From 1878 to 1887, important civic marches also took place every February 5, the anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution of 1857. Díaz naturally promoted the legality of his own regime by endorsing the patriotic activities held on this date. The celebration of Constitution Day soared practically overnight after Díaz returned to power in 1884. In 1885 city councilmen and patriotic societies hired a musical band and invited delegates of mutual and workers' societies, students of the national schools, and the original signers (Constituyentes) of the Constitution of 1857 to march from the Alameda to the San Fernando Cemetery. Conspicuous on this day was the horse-drawn allegorical car representing Law, which carried a silver wreath that students later deposited at Benito Juárez's tomb. Rarely did the military participate in Constitution Day marches, which emphasized the ideals of popular liberalism and civilian rule. In reality, Constitution Day was less an occasion to commemorate the national charter than to exalt Juárez, its principal defender, who embodied these ideals. In 1887 Congress declared July 18, the anniversary of Juárez's death, a national holiday, displacing Constitution Day as the most important day of civilian procession. Thereafter, the celebration of February 5 was reduced to short speeches in the Alameda, while July 18 occasioned enormous civilian processions headed by Díaz in black homburg and topcoat.

Rather than squandering funds on self-aggrandizement and royal decor, the governments of Juárez and his successor, Sebastiin Lerdo de Tejada, stressed republican principles and material progress during national holidays. For example, Mexico celebrated Independence Day in 1869 by inaugurating the recently completed Mexico-Puebla railroad line. High government officials from Mexico City embarked on a "steampowered procession" to the City of Angels, drawing attention to the nation's newest vehicle of modernization. In keeping with liberal republican interpretations of ceremonial propriety, the most elaborate public events from 1867 to 1876 were neither religious processions nor military parades, but state funerals. City fathers and federal government officials allocated more money for the republican funerals of former president Ignacio Comonfort, statesman Manuel Doblado, and generals José María Arteaga and Carlos Salazar than it did for Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day. The state funeral of President Benito Juárez surpassed all previous ceremonial events held in Mexico City in terms of attendance. On July 23, 1872, 100,000 mourners filed past his body as it laid in state in the National Palace, and an incalculable number participated in his magnificent funeral procession.

The liberal caudillo (strongman) and military dictator Porfirio Díaz ( 1876-80 ; 1884-1911) gave new meaning and expression to the art of public performance. Citizens of his era of economic progress and political stability witnessed the perfection of the political uses of the civic procession. For the first time in national history, funds were consistently available for the immodest celebration of Independence Day and Cinco de Mayo. Holidays were occasions to profile the professional military, the rural constabulary (Rurales), and the urban police force (Gendarmería) in the most elaborate of patriotic parades to date. Supporters of Díaz both in and out of government circles organized giant civic marches both to show their support for Díaz's reelection bids and to inaugurate each of his new presidential terms. The president also marched at the head of dozens of state funeral processions that honored the nation's illustrious dead, and he participated in the major religious processions of the era. The Porfirian pageant culminated with the Centennial of Mexican Independence of 1910, an elegant capstone for those of the Porfirian persuasion and a primera piedra for those with more revolutionary convictions.

Although many colonial traditions continued after Mexico separated from Spain in 1821, Independence and other nineteenth-century achievements brought forth new dates to commemorate with civic processions. In fact, the first civic march in the history of Independent Mexico was the triumphal entry of Agustin de Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees on September 27, 1821, a date deliberately selected by Iturbide—it was his thirty-eighth birthday. A month later, officials rendered the traditional Paseo de Pendón flag ceremony, this time flying the tricolor flag of the Ejército Trigarante. For the event workers covered the equestrian statue of Carlos IV (El Caballito) with a wooden globe, effacing the memory of Mexico's status as Spanish colony and reaffirming Mexican sovereignty. Citizens from all parts of the city walked to the zócalo (main plaza) to scream "vivas" to their favorite heroes of Independence. Riding a wave of popularity, General Iturbide staged a mass demonstration in his favor on May 18, 1822. Troops loyal to him left their barracks and united with civilians in the streets to shout "Viva Agustin I, Emperor of Mexico." The demonstrators then marched to the general's residence and demanded that he pronounce himself emperor. Iturbide obliged. On July 21 he and his imperial court processed to the National Cathedral for his coronation ceremony. While in power, Iturbide made a dramatic statement of continuity by celebrating San Hipólito Day with the standard cavalcade march from the cathedral to city hall.

Among the most impressive civic events following Iturbide's abdication was the original burial of the Independence heroes in the Nacional Cathedral in 1823. Congress declared 13 insurgents to be "Beneméritos de la Patria" and ordered their cadavers to be transferred from all parts of the republic to the capital. Within days delegations from various states conducted the bodily remains of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, José Maria Morelos y Pavón, Ignacio Allende, Juan de Aldama, and nine others to Mexico City. The groups met at the Villa de Guadalupe, collected the remains in a special urn, and later processed it to the Nacional Cathedral. Following a religious ceremony, high priests, government officials, and prominent military officers joined hands, marched the urn through the city, returned to the cathedral, and ultimately deposited it in the Altar de los Reyes, the same crypt that housed the corpses of many Spanish viceroys.

The arrival of a new archbishop also called for unrestrained pomp. Three impressive ceremonies held for Archbishop-Viceroy García Guerra between 1608 and 1612 illustrate the prominence of religious processions as civic events and demonstrate their significance as symbols of church-state unity. In 1608, high priests and colonial officials met Mexico's newly appointed archbishop at the Veracruz waterfront and processed with him to the local Dominican church for a special Te Deum. Similar processions of cross-bearing priests and chanting followers were performed in every major city on the road to Mexico City. On the outskirts of the capital, the archbishop stepped down from his sumptuous carriage, mounted an ordinary mule, and joined civic and church leaders in the final leg of the journey. The humble entry was followed by a majestic procession. Dressed in elegant robes, Archbishop García Guerra walked slowly beneath a purple and gold episcopal pallium that was held aloft by 22 uniformed magistrates. Rich tapestries and colorful bunting hung from buildings along the route. When the marchers reached the entryway of the metropolitan cathedral, they passed through a gigantic arch that functionaries had decorated in typical Baroque fashion. García Guerra repeated these official processions again in 1611 when he succeeded Luis de Velasco as viceroy. This time he led church and state officials on horseback. When García Guerra died in 1612 his funeral was grand and imposing. Mourners draped the entire city in black while church bells sounded his passing. Clerical leaders, public functionaries, and soldiers solemnly processed to the cathedral to the sound of muffled drums, high-pitched fifes, and somber-toned trumpets.

The most important of Mexico City's annual religious festivals during the colonial period was Corpus Christi, the day celebrating devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Members of the viceregal government, municipal council, confraternities, guilds, merchant's chambers, and parishes all sent delegates to participate in the march. In this way processions reflected the corporate nature of colonial society and drew attention to its main political and religious authorities. Immense columns of people formed at the cathedral, weaved through the main thoroughfares, and returned to the central plaza. At the turn of the eighteenth century, processions stretched up to three-quarters of a mile long and incorporated all classes of society. Enormous effigies in the forms of giants, cabezudos (costumed individuals with enormous heads), devils, and dragons were constructed for the parade, epitomizing the splendor and pageantry of the Baroque age. Revelers dressed in devil, pirate, gypsy, and other costumes marched alongside parade floats that depicted devotional scenes. Countless other religious processions and pilgrimages took place took place during devotions to the Virgin of Remedios and the Virgin of Guadalupe, and on Carnival, Lent, and Easter (Holy Week), and All Saint's Day. The liturgical calendar extended to every settled region. Even in sparsely populated Chihuahua, local magistrates organized public processions on the feast day of San Andrés every November 30. Notwithstanding the Bourbon campaign to curb corporate privilege by limiting public ceremony, 21 processions took place in Mexico City during Holy Week alone in 1794.

Despite the chronic political turmoil, civil wars, and foreign invasions that plagued Mexico from the 1830s to the late 1860s, civic and religious leaders continued to hold extravagant ceremonies to mark occasions that they deemed significant. Both Antonio López de Santa Anna and Emperor Maximilian proved to be imperious masters of ceremony, orchestrating spectacular state ceremonies to bring grandeur to their regimes. During the age dominated by Santa Anna ( 1833-55), military parades were held annually on September 27, the day marking political Independence from Spain, on Santa Anna's birthday of February 21, and on his saint's day in June. Newly appointed bishops passed before "His Most Serene Highness" during their investiture ceremonies. In 1842 government functionaries exhumed Santa Anna's leg, lost in battle during the Pastry War against France, and reburied it in Mexico City. A cortege composed of govern ment officials, diplomats, and the military processed the urn that contained the gruesome appendage through the principal streets of the city to the Santa Paula Cemetery. Sporting a new cork leg, Santa Anna watched as the urn was set atop a stone column, a cenotaph that symbolized the missing limb and served as a sepulchral monument. The leg funeral resembled the glorious return of Napoléon's ashes from St. Helena to Paris less than two years earlier in 1840. Like the Bonapartists of midcentury France, Santa Anna derived a great deal of sympathy and political capital from the event.

Processions also figured prominently in the lavish celebrations under Emperor Maximilian ( 1864-67). On June 12, 1864, Maximilian and his wife Carlota entered Mexico City in their sumptuous imperial coach and rode through hundreds of triumphal arches with General Bazaine at their side. The Mexican Imperial Guard, detachments of Zouaves, Chasseurs, and Hussars, French infantrymen, and 60 carriages filled with bureaucrats, priests, and nobles escorted the royal couple. Sporadic cries of "death to the mochos" were drowned out by "vivas" to the new emperor. During Maximilian's empire, military parades were held on Independence Day (restored to September 16) and on the emperor's birthday. Religious processions continued on Corpus Christi and Virgin of Guadalupe Day (December 12). But to Maximilian's dismay, civic demonstrations commemorating Mexico's defeat of the French at Puebla in 1862 sprouted in Puebla and Mexico City on May 5, 1865, and May 5, 1866. Such manifestations did not bode well for the future of Maximilian's empire.

Thousands of citizens welcomed President Benito JuArez as he entered Mexico City in victory over imperial and French forces on July 15, 1867. His ordinary travel-worn black coach contrasted markedly with the pretentious goldtrimmed carriage that had carried Maximilian to the city. After the expulsion of the French, republican governments continued to celebrate national holidays with great enthusiasm, but the constant challenge of empty treasuries obligated them to withhold expense. In addition, by adopting some measure of fiscal and ceremonial austerity, the republican government highlighted its departure from the exorbitance of Maximilian's empire.

Processions have formed the most important part of Mexican civic and religious ceremonies since colonial times. Linear sequences of people moving through public areas resided at the center of royal celebrations mandated by the Spanish Crown and national holidays decreed by Mexican governments after Independence. Processions also comprised the heart of many devotional rituals associated with Roman Catholicism. Various types of processions, including royal pageants, military parades, religious pilgrimages, and funeral corteges, served different purposes. Generally speaking, processions were performed to inspire loyalty to the Crown or republic; commemorate important events; extol historical figures; reaffirm religious piety; reinforce corporate and social hierarchies; promote social cohesion; educate the masses; coalesce national identity; and entertain the people. Other forms of processions broke down the status quo. The numerous triumphal entries of invading armies into Mexico City and antigovernment demonstrations called attention to changes in Mexican history. Processions in major cities involved thousands of participants and spectators, but even smaller processions in rural villages drew attention. Regardless of their size and purpose, processions remain the most spectacular and meaningful rituals in Mexico today.

Inhabitants of New Spain had countless opportunities to witness or participate in extravagant royal ceremonies that included processions. From 1528 to 1540, Fernando (Hernán) Cortés ordered the Paseo de Pendón on the feast day of San Hipólito, every August 19. Mandated by the Crown's real cédula in 1530, this flag ceremony commemorated Cortés's conquest of Mexico and represented the first Spanish civic-religious festival performed in the New World. The parade route originally extended from Cortés's palace in Coyoacán to the San Hipólito Church, but after the first Spanish viceroy's arrival, the alférez real (an appointed official) unfurled the Pendón Real and paraded it proudly through most of the principal streets of Mexico City. Viceregal officials, nobles, and clergymen followed in proper order according to rank. Allegiance was also demonstrated symbolically through processions honoring a monarch's ascension (the jura del rey) and celebrating royal marriages, births, and deaths. Colonial functionaries also arranged grand cavalcades to welcome the arrival of a new viceroy or high royal official to New Spain. Inspired by the beneficence of Felipe III of Spain, members of colonial Guadalajara's municipal council organized a splendid parade in 1608 to salute Juan de Villela, the new president of the Royal Audiencia (High Court). Government officials and gentlemen lined the streets on horseback as trumpeters announced his entrance to the city.

As can be seen, aside from the daily celebration of the mass, the procession was the public ritual form that most defined colonial Mexican Catholicism. In the aforementioned cases, processions were part and parcel of the celebration of honoring the saints. However, processions of the faithful also sought divine intervention at the parish or community level to prevent or assuage some calamity, usually a natural disaster such as drought, flood, pestilence, or an epidemic. Participants solemnly renounced their sins, prayed as they walked, and sought to impress their suffering and piety to the saint and to God. The primary images to receive such supplication were manifestations of Mary, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe or Remedies. Through the procession, residents sought to form a spiritual contract with the saint or the Virgin. Their ritual act, completed with true heartfelt remorse, would gain the understanding and assistance of the saint. Processions of flagellants, both European and Indian, formed parts of these larger processions. These participants actively demonstrated their suffering and devotion through their selfinflicted pain. This was done for themselves and on the community's behalf. Spectators were not there merely to watch the procession but were expected to pray and review their own conduct. It was believed that all members of society had to repudiate sin and repent in order to bring about the miracle so needed by the village. The procession also was accompanied by novenas, nine days of masses and prayers. Individuals also actively sought the aid of saints, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, particularly for miraculous cures from injury and illness. Many images, in village and city alike, were purported to be miracle workers. Supplicants made a formal vow that if their prayers were answered, they would perform some designated act or service that could range from the building of a new chapel for the image to aid for the sick and poor to sweeping the chapel each day for a year. Shrines dotted the Mexican colonial landscape, and many vows included pilgrimages to Our Lady of Guadalupe or Our Lord of Chalma. Later, individuals commissioned local artists to depict the miracle performed, which depictions they hung on the walls of chapel or shrine entrances. Small images of legs, arms, hands, hearts, or other items represented literal body parts that the faithful wished to have mended through the saint's intervention. These silver items were pinned directly onto the image's garment or onto nearby pillows or cloth. Thus, rituals became one of the most profound mediums, along with prayer, for discussion and interaction with the divine. Individuals sought divine intervention and expected to see it on a regular basis.

The outward European ritual forms gradually were accepted and became standard religious activities. However, religious ritual during the period also reflected both ethnic diversity and cultural mestizaje (mixing). For example, Indians danced traditional dances and wore their own special ritual garments for ostensibly Spanish and/or Catholic rituals and festivals. They also performed religious plays and songs in their own language. They, as well as Africans, interpreted religious ritual from their own perspective. For example, there are ceremonies in which Africans and Indians joined together to call upon the saints by performing indigenous dances in indigenous dress and experiencing ecstatic trances, all the while including elements of African ancestor worship. Another interesting example of popular ritual is the oratorios or home altars phenomenon. These home altars became extremely popular during the colonial period, especially during the seventeenth century. Participants devised and performed their own religious rites that included scapulars (special sacramental clothing) and devotion to St. Anthony of Padua. All ethnic groups were represented, but the ceremonies appear to have been organized primarily by women. Individuals danced, sang, and feasted on sweet cakes and hot chocolate. Although these fiestas were repeatedly banned by the Inquisition, little could be done to stop their occurrence, a fact admitted by the inquisitors themselves.

In conclusion, ritual in colonial Mexico served a myriad of functions. Rituals such as public festivals created over time a complex of shared symbols and acts that alluded to a shared belief system that civil and religious leaders hoped to foster. In this regard, ritual was didactic and sought to encourage a particular mode of behavior from its participants and spectators. Diverse peoples were linked by ritual form imported from Europe. However, individuals changed and combined those forms, reflecting the evolving social milieu of a heterogeneous American colony. Civic events postulated Spanish superiority but not without, in some cases, attempting to integrate the segments of society that actually constituted the majority. On a more personal level, this ritual bolstered the position of the elite, not only because they sponsored these lavish displays, but because they invariably placed themselves next to the very heart of the essential symbol. Rituals also strengthened communities and brought solace to the afflicted, providing a prescribed manner in which to deal with the trials of life and death. However, rituals and accompanying symbols could divide people and breed rivalry and even hostility, such as was the case with competing cofradías in Mexico City.

Although the civic spectacles could be extravagant, they generally did not mark the lives of individuals and communities like purely religious ritual did. In fact, religious ritual permeated daily routine from baptism, marriage, death, evening prayers, and weekly mass and confession. The introduction of these traditions in the Novohispanic world began immediately after contact as missionaries, recognizing the importance of large-scale public ritual to the indigenous belief system, quickly introduced their Spanish Catholic counterparts. These ritual forms included the mass, religious drama, processions, novenas, and flagellant and rosary parades; among the first festivals recorded for central Mexico was Corpus Christi.

The establishment of the devotion to the saints and accompanying ritual developed quickly among the Indian population and coincided with the increasing success of the cofradía, the institution of lay brotherhood that consisted of members, usually male, who came together officially to worship a particular saint, manifestation of Mary, or Christ. They maintained the image and its garments and jewels, the chapel where it was located, sponsored regular masses, and patronized a large festival in honor of the saint on its feast day. They also provided for members and their families in case of death or severe hardship. In Indian towns, the confraternity consisted of the local elite who maintained a devotion to the community's patron saint, a mark of prestige, responsibility, and power. It gave them both spiritual and secular authority much as in the pre-Columbian era. Funds were controlled directly by members and this, consequently, gave them a measure of autonomy vis-à-vis Spanish or criollo (American-born Spanish) priests. In addition, these funds aided the local economy because confraternity brothers owned and rented lands to maintain the devotion, hired workers, patronized local merchants, and contributed to charitable causes. Thus, the rituals surrounding the confraternity system reinforced the position of Indian leadership.

In large urban areas, a parish could host more than one cofradía, each sponsoring some sort of festival on its saint's day. In places such as Mexico City, the total number of cofradías could be very large; for example, at the end of the seventeenth century there were at least 85 brotherhoods in the capital. There was strong rivalry between them that led to blatant catering to spectators for approval. Members competed regarding their dress, the apparel and ornamentation of their saint, banner, ephemeral altars, music, and poetic recitals; they even minted coins and threw them to the crowd. The competition came to a head during the Corpus Christi procession, when they lined up one after the other before onlookers. In some cases, the rivalries resulted in legal disputes over placement in the processional line, as each wished to be located as close as possible to the sacred image. In addition to cofradías patronage of saints, parishes also celebrated devotions to particular saints. These events were limited to parish members but did include processions around the parish neighborhood. Between the festival sponsored by parishes and those of the cofradías, city inhabitants could have spent a goodly part of the year in celebration.