As late as 1500, Christianity was still a new religion to our forefathers.  Christian doctrine was being dramatized and in that way entered deeply into the lives of the people.

On platforms in front of village churches Christ was crucified anew each year in hundreds of places in France, Britain, and Spain.  The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Jesus were themes into which were woven the old folk beliefs of the pagan religions and the everyday morality of the people.  These old Miracle Plays were full of homely events and coarse humor; but they were at the same time alive with faith in the new God.  They were a very vital element in European culture at the time new Spain was being established.

The missionaries who came to the new world brought with them these little dramas that had spread so widely in Europe.  They brought not only the Passion Play itself, but also other dramatizations with religious themes.  There was a series which dealt with the wars of the Moors and the Christians in Spain.  In Mexico, the Yaqui Caballeros participated in such a drama.  There was another which told the story of the conversion of the first Indian in Mexico.  The Yaqui Matachinis once dramatized this event.  Now, in Mexico and the countries to the south, these religious plays survive in many different forms, all reworked according to the particular dramatic genius of the Indian tribes who adopted them.

The people of southern Arizona are fortunate in having preserved one of the most elaborate and most original of the Mexican Indian religious dramas.  The Passion Plays of the Yaquis of southern Arizona span a great historical gap; they carry us back to the period in Europe when religion had not yet become too sacred for the theater and the market place.  They remind us also of the intensity of the faith which converted the Indians.  Above all, they demonstrate how fundamentally similar the village Indians of America must have been to the village people of medieval Europe who first conceived the Miracle Plays.

The Passion Play was held at Tumacácori during Semana Santa (Holy Week) from 1900 until 1929.  A man by the name of Pedro Calistro, who was a Yaqui Indian, brought the pageant.

The celebration would begin on Wednesday of Holy Week with about 150 people gathering in the church.  Leaders, who were chosen prior to the pageant, sang the rosary and one chanted the stations of the cross.  The Fariseos (Pharisees) attempted to enter the church, each time falling backwards but with each attempt getting closer.  Once they entered the church they would rush the decorated altar, eventually stopping and hiding under it.  They did all of this on signal from their Captain.

On Thursday, a procession would begin at 12:30 PM from the entrance of the church.  A bier of Saint Anthony was carried by boys and a bier of Santa Rosa was carried by girls.  To the west of the procession,  Christ would appear in a black shawl and a crown made of thorns, carrying a cross decorated in black.  To the east, the Fariseos ascended, led by their Captain.  The two parties would meet and go back into the church.  At 4:00 PM a procession re-enacting the death of Christ took place, with a re-enactment of the burial of Christ at 9:00 PM.  On Good Friday there were two processions that went around the stations of the cross, one at noon and the second at 4:00 PM.  At 8:00 PM the women would pray to the bier of Christ while the Fariseos took turns guarding the altar.  A last procession of the stations of the cross took place at 9:00 PM.

On Holy Saturday the burial of the effigy of Judas took place after much dancing by the Fariseos.  The Fariseos then went into the sacristy of the church and unmasked.  As they emerged a group of young boys whipped them with river cane branches, in so doing, the evil forces disappeared.  The Fariseos were dead and rebaptized men appeared.  The ceremony was concluded with a rosary said at 8:00 PM by the women.

Semana Santa at Tumacácori was revived in 1937 by the local Mexican people.  Full-scale pageants were held in 1937 and 1938 and by 1942 it died off completely.