![]() The sacred understanding of “El Popo” varies from town to town, but many agree that the volcano does not threaten their lives. This could lead to a catastrophe, he said, as bad weather can destroy the crops and leave people hungry. A group of drunken men may have profaned its soil.Īlcohol is forbidden in the volcanoes, Vega said, because spirits can get drunk and interfere with the weather. A thief may have stolen the crosses from their sacred spots. Someone may have climbed its slopes to perform an animal sacrifice, which is against the community’s beliefs. The roar of “El Popo” tells him that something is wrong. “I respect the (Catholic) religion because we grew up in this place, but the mountain speaks to us in the words of our grandparents, not in the words of the conquerors,” he said in reference to the evangelization led by the Spaniards after 1521. They are painted in blue, to represent the sky, or white, to emulate clouds. ![]() In addition to flowers and fruits, shrines have crosses, but not crucifixes. He said the rituals he performs are a fusion of pre-Hispanic and Christian elements. On a recent Sunday, Vega pointed to a replica of a shrine built to show visitors what real temples devoted to volcanoes look like. But they want to preserve their ancestral legacy and responding to inquiries from anthropologists, journalists and tourists helps them do that, he said. Montero said it's not easy for contemporary “graniceros” to remain well-versed in ancient knowledge, given that many have to take a variety of jobs to get by. He also works as a traditional healer and makes additional income explaining El Popo's story to tourists visiting a volcano museum in Amecameca. ![]() He mostly leads these ceremonies in stone shrines built by the locals in “El Popo” or “El Izta," His main task is to perform rituals three times per year to ask the volcanoes for good weather just the right amount of rain needed for the crops. He was ordained to fill that role in a ritual in 1998. “I knew I would become a ‘granicero’ since I was a boy,” Vega said. Many locals believe that only men who are struck by lightning and survive - Vega among them - are the ones who can claim the job. He estimates that there could be a similar number in nearby towns. Vega says that in Amecameca, the city where he lives 44 miles southeast of Mexico City, there are only four (himself included). It's unknown how many “graniceros” are in Mexico. “They are regulators of the weather who believe that the mountains are spirits of nature.” “Their work is based on the pre-Hispanic notion of conciliation with nature,” said archaeologist Arturo Montero, from the University of Tepeyac. There is no English translation for his profession, but among the inhabitants of the towns of central Mexico, men like him are called “graniceros." On the contrary, their exhalations are blessings because they give us life.” ![]() "They are providers of water and we are not afraid of them. “The Popocatépetl is our father and the Iztaccíhuatl is our mother," he said, referring to a neighboring volcano. For Vega, though, the 17,797-foot (5,425-meter) mountain, known as El Popo, is a living being that never fades from his sight. Mexico lowered the alert level on the Popocatépetl volcano by early June after its eruptions of gas and ash had drawn international attention. AMECAMECA, Mexico (AP) - Moisés Vega has a distinctive job: The 64-year-old Mexican says he can speak the sacred language of volcanoes to ask for good weather and a good crop.
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