Kimbalá

So two weeks ago or there abouts now I went with my Rural Anthropology professor to Kimbalá which is a small town just outside of Izamal. Starting Friday and ending Monday they were having a sort of “town party” where they had food stands set up and things for sale, a game of darts, and, the more spectacular events of dancing and la corrida de toros (which in the Yucatan is more like a bull fight).

When we got there, they had strung together this stadium type thing where everyone was gathered and in the center were the bull and several bullfighters teasing the bull. Several times he was put back into his cage, and then let out again so they could continue to harass him. Lucky for me, they had already killed one bull before I got there and weren’t going to be killing anymore. The meat, however for the first one, was strung up outside. Hence your lovely picture there at the top of the page.


After the bullfighting, we learned that the dancing didn’t actually start until midnight, so we took a very quick trip over ot Izamal to see the city which was very pretty. It was interesting to see people still out and about at eleven o’clock at night. Either way, after we just took a circle around the painted centro, we went back to Kimbalá and got seats for the traditional dancing.

Groups were introduced one by one and the head couple for each group was lead around by a host couple. They began dancing and it was neat to see. There was a large variety in age groups from very young to quite old. Everyone seemed to be having fun.

We headed back to Merida and got back in around 1 or 2 AM. It was definitely one of those really special things that we got to participate in because most times people wouldn’t be aware of the festival, etc. We were sort of special to get the invitation just because my professor was doing a study in the pueblo.