[Illustration: Hacienda de Tenache, Oaxaca: twin bells on roof of residence.]
[Illustration: Hacienda la Calera, Jalisco: second residence on the property, 1890.]
[Illustration: Hacienda Pixoy, Yucatán: brick-adobe residence and storage rooms. 18th century, eleven rooms.]
[Illustration: Hacienda de los Ricos, Guanajuato: residence.]
[Illustration: Hacienda de los Ricos, Guanajuato: bullring entry door.]
Every fiesta had popular dances: Cora Paixil, Moro, Tapatío, Jarana. The _gente_ (people) danced in the sala or on a cool veranda or outside by kerosene lamps, by torches, by candlelight, under chandeliers in the big house, by gasoline lamps--the illumination changing with the epoch. Orchestras--brought by train from the cities--played polkas, waltzes, rustic Bach, "La Bamba," "Torres de Pueblo," "There is Someone," and other current favorites. Mariachis, in their sequined black suits and sprawling black hats, played and sang. They were always the favorites at every fiesta.
Dating from Aztec days, _Los Voladores_ (pole dancers), were the sensation. Customarily, five men participated, first dancing on the ground, then climbing a lofty pole where they hurled themselves into space, roped by the feet. Spinning round and round the pole, they gradually descended, unwinding.
Fiestas lasted a single day or several days; sometimes they became a _feria_, a market where vendors would set up booths and display fabric, produce, herbs, pottery, machetes, knives. Poultry and livestock were sold or bartered. Early in the sixteenth century, Spanish bullfighters arrived and performed at haciendas near the capital.
The elegantly-dressed cowboy, the _charro_, spent $1,000 on his outfit; his trousers were skintight and had single or double rows of silver buttons trimming the outside seams. His shirt was homespun cotton or handsomely embroidered linen. His jacket was embroidered and sequined. His boots were made of inlaid leather, expertly fitted. His sombrero was ornamented with silver and silver banded. His stirrups and spurs were chased silver or gold, and his saddle was inlaid with silver or gold.
It is not known when the first _castillo_ (bamboo tower) spat fire. When there was ample gunpowder, someone fashioned a windmill for pinwheels, rockets, Roman candles, blazing globes of flame, and strings of tangled lights. It was a windmill of bamboo, a shivering, shaking tower of color, 20 to 30 feet high.