331 Years of Las Fiestas de San Lorenzo

For the past 331 years, the town of Bernalillo has upheld a longstanding tradition celebrating the resettlement of New Mexico following a revolt in Texas.

Las Fiestas de San Lorenzo is an annual event that has been passed down from generation to generation since Aug. 10, 1693.

Each year, the community gathers Aug. 9-11, regardless of which days of the week they fall on, to dance and pray.

There are several different dances that are performed every year, each with their own story. As a whole, the dances, "danzas," tell a larger story of how the indigenous people of New Mexico were converted to Catholicism.

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"Each dance is a drama of why we do things, and this whole dance is a drama playing out, good versus evil, or Christianity versus paganism," said Mike Kloppel, Bernalillo's director of recreation who also danced in the Matachines dance for 30 years.

"The whole reason for the dance is to show the importance of St. Lawrence, which was a deacon of the early church in the 200s. He was martyred because, for all intent purposes, that was his job. And so he was martyred by the Romans because he wasn't going to follow what they wanted," Kloppel explained.

He says Bernalillo dances in his honor because the day the indigenous people revolted against the Spanish happened to be the feast day for St. Lawrence. After that, the town promised to honor St. Lawrence on his feast day every year on Aug. 10.

"It also commemorates the founding of of our town, and so there's not just the religious aspect of our Fiestas. There's also the secular aspect of the Fiesta," Robb Sisneros, accounts receivable supervisor for the Bernalillo town treasurer said. He has also been dancing since he was 8 years old.

Margaret Duran, a lifelong resident of Bernalillo, says she has attended Las Fiestas since she was little, even dancing once in the 1950s.

"This has been part of our heritage for many, many years," she said.

Over the years, the Fiestas have evolved.

Kloppel says that it is the physical items that have changed, such as the clothes and props.

Sisneros remembers a time when the danzas were performed on dirt roads, before the town paved the streets. He also says that there is a change in language since Spanish is now a secondary language. The language surrounding the events have also changed because the handwritten texts that were passed down through the years are being corrected for spelling errors, and ways to make the the writings more clear. The writings are also being digitized.

The one thing that has stayed the same is the portrait of San Lorenzo.

Each year, a new family hosts the Fiestas and the community by bringing the portrait into their home. This family becomes the Mayordomos.

It's not only the Fiestas they hold at their family home, but the rosario, which consists of praying the rosary, firing of rifles and a meal. It is held on the 10th of every month.

Nowadays, the rosario is also livestreamed on the Bernalillo Fiesta de San Lorenzo Facebook page.

The first day of the fiesta was Aug. 9, Las Visperas. It began with La Novena, a prayer, at 2:30 p.m. before jumping into the Matachines dance. The festivities ended at 7 p.m.

The celebrations continued Saturday for Las Fiestas, running 9:30 a.m. to noon, resume and Sunday for La Entrega from 6 a.m. to noon.