|
|
|
The
sacred mounts
The most visible symbolic marks in this cultural
landscape are the three elevations that we have mentioned previously: The
rock of Bernal; El Zamorano and the hill of El Fronton, without stopping to
consider other hills that also have symbolic importance and ritual for some
communities of the area, as the hill of El Canton, El Calvario and El
Boludo.
|
|
|
The
hill of El Fronton and the pine forest of El Zamorano constitute, in the
villagers' myths, the places of origin of San Pablo and San Miguel's
communities, respectively, which in turn, represent centers of articulation
of diverse neighborhoods and populations of smaller magnitude. In these two
hills that flank the territory conformed by San Pedro, San Pablo and San
Miguel Tolimán, is settled down the symbolic elements of the cult to the
previous chichimecos that constitute for San Pablo's natives and San Miguel,
the distinctive component of their origins in front of the village of San
Pedro that was the seat of the first convent and the first foundation otomí
in the XVI century, in lathe of which San Miguelito and San Pablo were
constituted, as chichimeca congregations subject to San Pedro.
In turn,
those two mounts, El Fronton and El Zamorano, were consecrated for the population ñhañha
of the region, that believes in the miraculous appearance of
two images: "The Holy Cross" that appeared near the community of Maguey
Manso, at San Miguel's north, and that is taken year with year to the hill
of El Zamorano; and "El Divino Salvador", appeared, according to the
legends, exactly in the hill of the Fronton. Both images have similar
characteristics, because they are constituted by a wooden cross in whose
center Jesus' face is inserted; these constitute the banner of the most
important pilgrimages in the region that have for destiny to the hills that
we have mentioned.
|
|
|
|
This
enormous rock constitutes the setting element between the indigenous
communities of the region and the encounter point with the mestizo society
that erected the village of Bernal placed on the valleys and more fertile
plains, toward the south and the occident of this axial point of the
territory. The rock of Bernal is a intrusive igneous formation,
technically well-known as 'tonalita' that was exposed at a time, by way of a
great monolith, by virtue of long processes of natural elements and erosion,
which underlies in tuneless form to a sequence riolitic volcanic of tertiary
age. With a height 288 meters from their base to the peak, it is considered
the third higher monolith of the world, reason for which is not difficult to
understand its place like significant landmark in the regional landscape, as
evidence of that which is the great quantity of archaeological materials
associated with this rock formation, and that they are dated at least of the
first years of our era. The physical and aesthetic characteristics of this
rock, unique in the country, grant him a considerable attractiveness, even
for the villagers, as for the growing number of visitors that arrive to the
place. |
|
|
|
