ABSTRACT
In some Mexican communities connected to Nahua heritage, such as in the northern Veracruz coast area; there have been very substantial conversions to Protestant evangelical religions over the past several decades. At the ecclesiastical level involving priests and the world religion of Catholicism there is a clear devotion to the sacraments of the Church that sits uneasily with communal fiesta performances held outside of its walls. The contemporary religious worlds that rural Mexican Catholics inhabit are a fused ceremonial landscape solidified in the second half of the sixteenth century. Magical powers of saints, especially those celebrated through fiestas, hold a special place in the spiritual beliefs and oral mythology traditions of Amanalco's residents. Although in many ways the campesino traditions of Amanalco imbue people with a down-to-earth sense of how to easily accomplish many practical things, the spiritual and magical aspects of such tales of lost animals reveals another level of Amanalco's culture.
