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Travel

The Mexican Town That Fist Fights to Summon Rain

Indigenous people in La Esperanza, Guerrero, have the very lovely tradition of beating the shit out of each other in order to ask the gods for a good rainy season.

Our VICE Mexico team took us to La Esperanza. A little town in the nowadays violent state of Guerrero where indigenous people have the very lovely tradition of beating the shit out of each other in order to ask the gods for a good rainy season.

Their host, Lucia Anaya, got to be a part of a full day of drinking mezcal, dancing, praying, and inflating turkey stomachs like balloons. Then, the people of La Esperanza took them to the battlefield, where once a year they meet up with their neighbor town and fight. The tradition says that every drop of blood will turn into a drop of rain, and Lucia was determined to spill some blood in the name of La Esperanza.