Most days Nuyoo is a sleepy little place, with people leaving
early in the morning to work in their fields and gardens and not
returning until late afternoon. In sharp contrast are days when
fiestas are held. Nuyootecos maintain an elaborate cult of the saints, with
twenty-four separate feasts celebrated annually. Some of these feasts last
for as long as three days. For important saints, such as the town patron,
Santiago, markets are held, basketball tournaments are organized,
elaborate processions are staged, and a priest comes to town to offer a
Mass. Key actors in all of this are the mayordomos, a man and a woman,
usually husband and wife, who are charged with organizing the cult
activities and providing as many as nine separate meals for the hundreds
of participants in the celebration. Because no household can possibly
acquire and prepare all the food needed to feed so many guests,
Nuyootecos rely on a system of reciprocal exchange, called saa sa'a, to
finance the fiesta. For the one to two years before they hold their own
fiesta a couple will attend the fiestas sponsored by other Nuyootecos,
making contributions of tortillas (usually a basket of sixty, a standard
measure), beans, liquor, and cash which are used to provide meals for
fiesta guests. When the date of their own fiesta approaches, the
couple expects that what they have given will be returned in kind. At
the same time other Nuyootecos with fiestas to sponsor in the future
will arrive with foodstuffs, liquor and cash, which the sponsoring couple
will return when their fiestas come around. Saa sa'a thus allows

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