Each Easter take to the streets of Atlixco, Puebla, some men dressed in black robes carrying heavy chains around their necks and lacerating themselves with whips and thorns. They are known as “los engrillados”.
And although we have seen them so many times that it seems that they have always existed, the reality is that it is a tradition that began a little over 100 years ago, with a man who used witchcraft to win the love of a woman.
José Muñoz “La becerra”, who started with the “grilled”
They called that lover “La becerra”, but her real name was Jose Munoz Arizawho by someone’s bad advice, went to the municipal pantheon in search of a fresh corpse to make an amulet.
Once he had dug up the body, he took out his knife and mutilated one of the deceased’s fingers, put it in his pocket and went home, where, as advised, he made an amulet with the mutilated limb, as well as a scapular. He only had to wait for the love of the woman he wanted.
The remorse for doing witchcraft
But that did not happen, instead José Muñoz felt remorse. Night after night he was tormented by thoughts of having disturbed the peace of a dead man. All the time he thought his soul was going to hell. Those nocturnal laments that “La becerra” emitted were heard by his neighbors; the rumor that something bad was happening to him spread throughout Atlixco.
On one of those many nights of torment, the man came up with the idea of offering to God to hang heavy chains and lacerate his own body during all the holy weeks of the next 50 years in the temple of Santa María de la Asunción. And so he did.
The “grilled” became a tradition
Others saw it, joined him in doing the same. There have been years when there have been up to 100 “chained”.
Not long ago the authorities catholic Poblanas took action on this tradition, conditioned participation to each person interested in covering their faces, putting on a crown of thorns and hanging chains around their necks to attend talks.
That caused the number of shackled to drop, however the tradition has not yet been lost.
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