The line stretched the entire length of the steep cobblestone bridge in the historic part of town. Many had waited a year to participate in the event and were anxious to register before the spots filled up.
All of them held the same thing in their hands on Tuesday afternoon: a melon.
Mexico is full of unique and vibrant traditions, both ancient and new. There is a century-old radish-carving competition, and a race of people with potbellies in Oaxaca State. There is a mascot obstacle dash in Mexico City.
The annual melon race in Xalapa is not only one of Mexico’s most colorful traditions but also one of its most random. What began as a mockumentary among friends two decades ago — filming melons racing down the city’s sloping cobblestone bridge while streets were closed on Mexican Independence Day — morphed into a yearly tradition, drawing hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators.
“I really love seeing people come together for something that isn’t just mindlessly spending money,” said Sabrina Salem, 28, an actress from Xalapa who lives in Spain but planned a visit back to see her family during the melon race.
“Plus it’s seeing your city united by something that’s absurd,” she added. “To me, that feels like the most Mexican thing ever.”
Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz State in eastern Mexico, is often known as a surrealist city. Its nearly half a million people are surrounded by volcanoes and cloud forests, which creates a daily fog that adds a magical element. It is dotted with steep, winding cobblestone streets. House numbers sometimes lack logical order and skip around in odd ways. A local tradition has diners eating pizza with yogurt.
“I wouldn’t say that just Xalapa is surreal, but various places in Mexico,” said Kevin Sameer, 25, wearing a Spiderman lucha libre mask and holding a melon decorated in the same style. “You could keep walking on the bridge here and say, ‘Hey, why is there a gorilla planted on top of that building?’”
(There is indeed a large gorilla statue on top of a nearby building.)
“But there are artistic and novel things that you’d hardly see anywhere else in the world, only here,” he added.
Manuel López Rocha, 39, one of the original organizers of the race, said that he and his friends never ended up finishing the mockumentary because people started cheering and betting on the fastest melons. The following year, he said, his friends decided to hold the race again — and it caught on.
“Because, ultimately, it’s people going out into the street to play,” he said. “That’s really powerful. And it has been especially powerful during times when the city was going through really difficult moments.”
A group of 10 residents, including Mr. López Rocha, a university professor, volunteer to organize the annual event. They find local businesses to sponsor it. The prizes are coupons to those places, such as free cinnamon rolls from a bakery, a haircut from a barbershop and a consultation with a psychotherapist.
A few years into annual race, Mr. López Rocha said they added another competition: the most handsome melon.
Anyone can participate in either contest. They are free and held rain or shine. Participants must use a melon of any size of the Cucumis melo species — honeydew or cantaloupe — for the race. (Sorry, watermelons.) Prizes are awarded for most handsome for the children’s and general categories, and to the top three finishers in the race.
The most handsome melons are determined by applause. People filled a square underneath the bridge to judge, many peering over the sides to hoot and holler for their favorite fruit.
There were melons decorated with serious themes, such as a woman in a wheelchair, submitted by a local group of survivors of sexual violence. A group of researchers entered a melon decorated as a vulture, hoping to raise awareness about the bird’s importance to the ecosystem.
And there were melons decorated with more comical themes or pop culture, from Minions to Charlie Brown to Pokémon.
Ms. Salem and her girlfriend, Anna Marchessi, 34, a Spanish actress and screenwriter also visiting from Madrid, had two entries: a depiction of the famous Olmec colossal head statue at Xalapa’s anthropology museum and another of President Trump, who recently said Mexico offered the United States few things it needed beyond tamales.
Their Trump melon showed him selling tamales with the words, Make Melones Great Again.
“We get pleasure from seeing Trump’s head roll around here,” Ms. Salem said.
The three entries that won in the general category all depicted themes from Mexican culture. First place used six small melons to recreate the ancient Indigenous ceremony of the Veracruz fliers, who spin atop a tall pole. The runners-up portrayed the famous Mexican singer Juan Gabriel, during his well-known Palace of Fine Arts performance, and a traditional Veracruz musician of Son Jarocho, an energetic, communal folk genre, with the melon’s arm moving to play a small guitar-like instrument.
Diego Mortera, 40, and Ángel Mena, 32, said they decorated their Veracruz musician melon in five hours. The friends met in Xalapa last year and decided to compete after hearing so many residents talk about the event.
Others have been competing for many years.
Mara Yerena, 36, an architect from Xalapa, has participated 15 times. She said the entries have gotten more elaborate over the years and she loved how the event fostered a sense of community, with so many young people participating.
She and her friend, Marbet Salazar, 39, also an architect who was visiting from Mexico City just for the race, won second place in the race last year. This year, they finished third.
For the race, there were nine rounds of 25 melons each, with the top five advancing to the two semifinals and then the top 10 from each to the final. The melons were lined up at the top of the cobblestone bridge and then all released at the same time.
Some zipped downhill, while others bounced slowly over the bumpy street. The sidewalks of the bridge were stuffed with spectators, cheering on slow melons and laughing as participants chased after their rolling fruit.
“I didn’t think it would get so crowded,” said Marcel Trinidad, 21.
She and Iván González, 22, medical students at a local university, finished first in the race and walked away with their arms full of gifts, coupons, a plaque, a trophy and their nine-pound melon with a snail painted on it. They bought it for $9 at a market earlier in the day.
The secret to picking a winning melon? “It has to be very round, smooth and have lots of luck,” Ms. Yerena said.
The post Behold the Most Handsome Melons in Mexico appeared first on New York Times.
