TITLE: Barrabás Mask
TYPE: face mask; accessories
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Queretaro
ETHNICITY: Otomí
DESCRIPTION: Barrabás Mask
CATALOG ID: LAMX108
MAKER: Jorge Luís Velásquez (El Doctor, 1984- )
CEREMONY: Semana Santa (Holy Week)
AGE: 2015
MAIN MATERIAL: denim
OTHER MATERIALS: glue; resin; cardboard; paper flowers; paint; vegetable fiber
STICK: wood; paint; vegetable fiber
NOISEMAKER: wood; hardware

During Semana Santa (Holy Week) in the small mountain town of El Doctor, Queretaro, townspeople celebrate the Passion of Jesus Christ in a unique manner. Participants wear stiff cloth animal masks, known as fariseos (Pharisees) in the form of animals (implying that the Pharisees are bestial) or popular characters. They wear a long wig made of ixtle (agave fiber) and dance in the town square holding a noisemaker (matraca). While dancing, townsfolk often try to set their ixtle wigs on fire, which they have to extinguish, sometimes with the help of others. During the dance, characters known as Judas, who can wear any kind of mask (including a lucha libre wrestling mask), appear in the square and dance through the fariseos, striking their cheeks with small bags of coins. The Judas character now wears paper flowers and balloons on his hat, which townsfolk (and sometimes fariseos) try to pop. Other characters include:

  • Devils, who carry a noisemaker and chain, to represent the sins they drag around with them, and who dance much like the Pharisees.
  • Barrabás, representing the thief who was pardoned by Jesus and who appears in a black, white and red mask with a pointy cap. Barrabás carries a noisemaker, a stick to defend himself, and a cloth bag (morál) with a bottle of tequila in it. He adopts the mannerisms of a drunkard (borracho).
  • Elders, witches, or young women, who may also participate in the same manner as fariseos.

At the end of the festival, the devils and sometimes fariseos light on fire one or more paper maché bulls on a bamboo or stick framework covered in fireworks (the toro de fuego) and carry it through the crowd, showering everyone with sparks. This is the symbolic burning of the Devil. Afterward, devils appear with torches and set alight an effigy of Judas hung in the town square. The effigy is made of straw and fireworks stuffed into clothes, and sets off explosions throughout the plaza.

The masks are made of layered strips of cotton cloth, glued together like paper maché and formed over a unique clay mold (which is broken in the course of removing the mask). The mask is then covered in resin to make it hard and water resistant, then painted. This specific mask represents Barrabás.