Nine years ago, the realejero photographer Isidro Felipe Acosta decided to undertake the adventure of capturing the most intimate essence of Holy Week outside Tenerife, that which is not seen with the naked eye but is latent in the soul of the brothers, members of brotherhoods and the faithful.
It focused especially on Castilla La Mancha and Andalusia because, without detracting from other parts of Spain, the main processions take place in these two autonomous communities, which pass through the historic centres, in cities that are also World Heritage Sites.
“At the beginning I focused on this question because for a photographer it is impressive to be able to photograph inside the historical centres”, he maintains.
He had to give up some initial objectives in order to reach more cities because he was always clear that he wanted to do “the other Holy Week in Spain”, the one that many Canarians were unaware of and unaware of.
The photojournalist assures that Spain has more than 3 million brotherhoods and about 11,000 brotherhoods. However, 90% do not know any other way to celebrate this Christian event other than their own. “Those from Zamora are unaware of the one from Valladolid, which is an hour away by highway”, but “the same thing happens in almost all of Spain”. There are also many differences within the same province. Córdoba capital, for example, has an Andalusian Holy Week but in towns like Baena and Puente Genil, the celebration is completely different.
In the first, white-collared and black-collared Jews procession that are distinguished by a detail of their military attire; the horsehair tails that hang from their helmets that, by family tradition, are of one color or another, linked to different brotherhoods and brotherhoods of the town.
In the case of the second, the Biblical Corporations stand out, representing the figures of the Old and New Testaments in which the brothers, in addition to being dressed in colorful clothing, wear masks and the attributes or martyrdoms of each saint. It is one of the processions with the greatest representation since there are almost 300 people who parade.
“People prepare almost all year round because in some Andalusian and Castilian cities Holy Week is lived with an exacerbated passion, people cry, and that is not seen in other places,” says Felipe Acosta. “The brotherhoods and brotherhoods are like small clubs, people live and depend on them all year round and women, men and children participate, because those who veto the presence of women are already minimal,” he points out.
The anecdotes that this experience has left him are many. From “very nice” processions, such as the Cristo de los Gitanos de Jerez, which currently takes place normally but in the 1960s was even suspended by a bishop because it generated too much party. “The Christ of the gypsies is salt shaker, joy, many things do not agree with the ritual of the Catholic Church, but the gypsies got behind the saint and began to criticize the bishop with arrows and palms,” he says.
The first municipality that was marked on the route was Bercianos de Aliste, a town of about 200 inhabitants, in Zamora, on the border with Portugal, which on Good Friday has one of the most overwhelming processions, because the brothers, very old people, they wear the robes with the robes in which they are going to be buried.
The processions in some points are very long, up to ten hours, like that of El Abuelo, in Jaén, which is a Nazarene that leaves from Good Thursday to Good Friday and travels twelve kilometers. “I arrived at one in the morning, after having visited two other cities, the procession left at three and there was no room for a pin,” he says.
For the third consecutive year this photographer realejero wanted to share his experience with the readers of DIARIO DE AVISOS. On Saturday, the Dean of the Canary Islands press published 16 pages in full color with the most spectacular steps of that ‘other Holy Week’. On this occasion, as a novelty, ancestral customs of Tenerife were added that have been lost over the years, such as the Quema del Judas, in Taganana, and others that are more alive than ever and that attract large audiences, such as the Holy Burial that takes place on Good Friday in the parish of San Juan, in La Orotava.
Touring 32 cities and having more than 52,000 photographs has required a great deal of prior documentation and organization work. He had to balance the days, the distances, the times and even the parking lots where he left the car in order to leave once the procession was over, and contact the locals. “I think that in seven years, on Good Friday I never slept,” she jokes.
According to the artist, there is still a lot to learn about the ‘other Holy Week’ in Spain. His next challenge, which he hopes to make a reality next year, is Murcia, a region that, in addition to having one of the best carving sculptors such as Francisco Sarzillo, has a peculiarity in its Holy Week: the thrones, floral bouquets that are rather “ authentic battles of flowers” than a step of Holy Week.
