Travel Guide Chalma

About ten kilometers from Malinalco, this is the country's most famous pilgrimage center, where people come to honour the Señor de Chalma, "el hijo de Dios". The village was established on a pre-Hispanic site where local deities were worshipped; one version of the origin of the cult recounts that idols were found by Augustinian clerics in the nearby caves in 1537: when the Augustinian clergymen ordered the destruction of these pagan representations, to which, it is said, human beings were offered as sacrifices, they were surprised to discover three days later the sculpture of Christ on the cross with the destroyed idols at his feet; it is this same representation that is still honoured today... The sanctuary of the Señor de Chalma was built in the 17th century, then rebuilt and completed in 1830 in neoclassical style. People flock to thank him for his blessings by walking to the shrine from their homes in states as far away as Queretaro, Michoacán, Puebla or San Luis Potosi: whole groups of people gather in "villages" to walk along the roads, accompanied by a truck carrying the equipment needed for the long journey. Once there, the tradition is to take a purifying bath in the river, cover oneself in flowers before entering the church, and then dance the night away.