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Los Papaquis
One celebration which dates back to early times and which has given a seal of identification to Carnaval Mazatlan is undoubtedly the papaqui. The name apparently dates back to indigenous celebrations which, in the northwest of the country, are associated with Catholic observations of Lent.
It is is a melody which is customarily played during Carnaval, always before Ash Wednesday, floating through the city in the guise of a carnaval hymn. This was the initial name of the tournament of satirical verses that developed as part of the culmination of the popular fiesta on the Tuesday of Carnaval. Hearing it sounded through the streets served to popularize the hymn and connect it forever to the great civic fiesta.
Some versions of the story have it that the papaqui tune would be played during the pitched battles that always took place between the market workers and the dock workers during some of the earliest carnavals. These began with spontaneous verses that derided publicly and in detail the faults of the enemy, which ultimately disintegrated into bloody rock-throwing fracases.
Another much more subtle opinion held that the papaqui were fiestas given by one family for another, or one village for another, and had a lot in common with the Christmas posadas. So that to give a papaqui signified proof of friendship among rivals, that is to say, if one family gave this type of party for another, the friendship between them would grow, the same with one village and another. The preparations for giving a papaqui, according to this version, lasted for many weeks. After fixing the date when one family would give the papaqui for those who would receive it, both sides began to accumulate the “parque” (ammunition). This consisted of empty eggshells painted in gaudy colors and filled with colored confetti and glitter, which would be burst, in a civilized way, on the bodies of each and every participant inside the home of one of the participants.