Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas

8 inches, painted wood, glass eyes, fiber eyelashes

The parachicos performance is said to derive from colonial times when a woman in the village began paying tribute to San Sebastian for miraculously curing her son of a terrible illness, thus the name para chico (for the boy). Today this event features hundreds of elegantly dressed dancers wearing masks with Europian features and glass eyes. They parade and dance through the village on the Feast Days of San Sebatian. Carved by P. Jimenez, a santero, or professional maker of masks, carvings of saints and other decorative objects for the church.