In honor of Saint Matthias, the faithful express their devotion to the saint and gratitude for the garrobo through a dance.
The delicious meat of the garrobo
In northern Honduras, along the Caribbean coast, one of the most exquisite dishes is made from garrobo meat, also known as Jamo negro.
It is a reptile similar to an iguana, but smaller and without a large scale on the side of its head. It is characterized by its green color and its long tail.
There are myths and legends surrounding the garrobo. It is said that one day, in an area where there was previously a lagoon with no houses around, a hunter arrived with his dogs. One of the dogs found a garrobo and killed it. The hunter, feeling repulsed by this lizard, buried it inside a hollow in a ceiba tree.
A bit of tradition
After a short time, the hunter returned to look for the lizard, but to his surprise, it had disappeared, and only the image of Saint Matthias remained.
He took this image and carried it to a nearby village called Teocautzin, but the image kept returning to the tree where the hunter had buried the garrobo.
The villagers, upon seeing the image, found the statue of Saint Matthias and decided to build a temple in that place. The popular belief is that thanks to the garrobo, the saint was found.
The fact that the image of the saint returned to the place where it was found inspired the people to create the famous Dance of the Garrobo, which commemorates the discovery of Saint Matthias. The dancer wears black pants, shirt, and hat; additionally, their face is covered with a wooden mask, and they dance while holding a stick with a stuffed garrobo embedded in it.
