In keeping with yesterday's religion theme, Don Phillipe, the shaman of Joloniel prays before 3 crosses in a cave in the mountains of Chiapas as part of a Day of the Cross celebration. It is a Catholic ceremony with deep deep Maya roots. Maya religion found refuge within the Catholic church and has existed sometimes happily, sometimes not for centuries. In fact if you ask people in Joloniel they will say that their Day of the Cross service is Catholic. The practice is somewhere between Christian and Maya in a syncretic netherworld.
The cross in Maya religion can represent the corn plant and the day of the cross falls at the end of the dry season in Chiapas. Fields are cleared and planted in anticipation of rains that should come soon. The crosses in the cave are the cross of christ but they are also the Maya corn plant that give Maya society life.
Maya cave ceremonies are notoriously closed events. I was only able to photograph this one with the help of Karen Bassie-Sweet who had been working in Joloniel for years. At one point shooting in the cave my long time assistant Jesus Lopez leaned close to me and said "Stephen, NO ONE has ever seen anything like this before."
My response was, "I know, Jesus, give me another roll of film."
-Stephen Alvarez
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