Ucazanastacua is a small Purhépecha village located on a dirt road that follows along the lake behind Tzintzuntzan. There were many things that amazed me there. Enjoy this gallery! Bob Freund 7/7/2005

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Ucazanastacua is one of those unexpected happenings, those fortunate encounters where the mystery reveals itself. I was traveling with some friends who were roaming the market of Tzintzuntzan. Since I had been there many times I decided to take a shot at some of the shoreline villages. The maps I had indicated three villages before I would reach Cucuchuchu. As I followed the road around the edge of the lake it became a dirt road, the towns were visible from up above where I was on the road. However there was no obvious road down into the villages. As I rode along the island were all visible of in the distance. After a while I encountered some men walking on the road and asked them how to get into the villages. They said to follow them and we ended up on a small path down to their village. They were in the process of constructing a restaurant as a community project. The town leader directed me to a home the down slope, where I found a large extended family living there. The woman who was obviously the matron was wearing a nice embroidered blouse. They had fish drying and reed mats being woven. She brought me into her home and showed me all the different types of embroidery, she and her daughters we working on.
However the real surprise came when she asked me if I wanted to see the map that they had drawn of the village. This drawing was an amazing drawing that included every thing in their environment. I published here a segment of the map but it stuck me to be very similar to a codices. A codice is a pre-Hispanic form of writing. Take a close look at it.
Maria Campos Sira was the name of the woman that was so helpful and her daughter who came out in her finest costume with angels embroidered on her blouse and a fully embroidered delantal. Maria is on the next page, which I strongly suggest that you visit.
Then to top every thing off, the granddaughter came out with her hair put up in ribbons and with an embroidered blouse with deer on it. STUNNING… she was so scared that it was difficult to take her picture, but there were a few shots where after a while she relaxed.