Mirta Sanchez, right, takes her turn carrying the statue of St. James The Greater, known in Spanish as El Patron Santiago during a 12-hour parade and procession in Sahauyo, Mexico. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Wearing a three-foot high mask weighing 80 pounds, Dean Magaña, right, who just graduated form Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, participates in the 12-hour parade. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Jesus Martin Chavez, 44, of Westminster, owns a Santa Ana tire shop, but his heart lies in his hometown of Sahauyo, Mexico (background). Every July, Chavez returns to Sahauyo to enjoy the two-week festival honoring St. James The Greater, known in Spanish as El Patron Santiago. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
On the eve of a 12-hour parade, people dance to mariachi music around a bonfire to honor St. James The Greater, known in Spanish as El Patron Santiago in Sahauyo, Mexico. Ocote wood, which has the consistency of pine, burns for hours in the main plaza of this remote town located in the south-central state of Michoacan. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Thousands of people fill the streets in Sahauyo, Mexico. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Rodrigo Segura, 4, joins more than 1,000 dancers wearing three-foot high featherd masks, some weighing 80 pounds, in a 12-hour parade through the streets of Sahauyo. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
At the 10-hour mark, celebrants walk shoulder to shoulder as they follow the procession into the main plaza. The festival is a 475-year-old tradition the fuses indigenous, Spanish, and Catholic cultures. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
A young child falls asleep on his father’s shoulder, 10 hours into a 12-hour parade honoring St. James The Greater. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
A dancer, known as a Tlahual twirls through the main plaza, lined tightly with crowds (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
Daniel Galvez Chavez, 8, waits until it’s time to put on his two-foot high, heavy mask to dance in the parade. His tunic has hundreds of stainless steel tubes sewn into it for the sound they make when the dancers move. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)
A parade dancer, adorned in a three-foot high mask, weighing 80 pounds twists and twirls through the center aisle inside the 300-year-old Santiago Apostle church. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)