Califaztlan Love

This last weekend I was invited to enjoy the amazing ceremony held by various indigenous families upholding their Aztec roots dancing to celebrate their families, their bright future, and the year of the rabbit. While this has been an ongoing tradition held right here in San Diego’s Chicano Park in Logan, I had no idea that such rich history existed so close to where the college kids ruin my life right in downtown? This is a three day ritual, and has been passed down generation by generation. All head dresses and outfits are hand made by the members themselves with extremely deep meaning behind everything from the abundance of feathers, colors they wear, and prayers behind each movement. Every single detail of every movement, dance, and even the removal of their costumes is an art in and of itself.

I felt pretty useless sitting on a cart with my boy Johnny Black in my flask, but everyone that I encountered amazed me in how much they taught me about the sacred meaning of the park and ceremony. There is actually a specific map of the park in how to navigate through the history laid out behind each pillar. If thats not enough to blow your mind, the route itself coils itself into a serpent, with the head of the serpent being the center stage and pyramid of the park. I don’t want to demean its beauty with more of my cliffnotes version, so I will let you take a visual journey of what I was given the pleasure to witness and explore.

Here we go.

Oh haaay.

Holla