Making Alfombras for Corpus Christi Feast

The making of carpets from sawdust, pine-needles, flowers, vegetables, et cetera is a community-forming tradition. People get together by block or near-by neighbors to create the carpets on which the processions will walk through. Sometimes the making of the carpets is done at night, all night so they are ready for next day’s procession. The colorful processional carpet elaboration process involves the whole family, close friends, the neighborhood and the entire community. It does not matter if it’s just grandma throwing some corozo (corozo palms) and dried purple flowers to elaborate a humble alfombra in front of her home or it is a team of members of the cuadra (the block), or if a son lends a hand to a dad to put the final touches on the brightly-colored sawdust carpet, the devotion and the do-good spirit are present everywhere you look.

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