VILLAHERMOSA, Tabasco – March 20 marks the Villa Luz Sardine Fishing event in the Tacotalpa municipality, which celebrates the conservation of pre-hispanic traditions from the Zoque culture region.
The mayor of Tacotalpa, Efraín Narváez Hernández, said that the ritual is carried out once a year on Palm Sunday during Holy Week.
As part of the tradition, members of the Zoque communities in Villa Luz, Arroyo Chispa and part of La Colonia Isabel de Tapijulapa ask the gods for the start of the sardine fishing season.
Narváez Hernández also explained that the sardine is a blind species, the only one of its kind, and is raised in a cave with sulfurous water in a naturally protected area in Villa Luz.
Infrastructure projects have also been carried out for the event, like a stone auditorium and the restoration of the Tomás Garrido museum. This was possible thanks to federal and state resources of 16 million pesos ($892,233).
THE NEWS