Adoring the Saints: Fiestas in Central Mexico

Five. Dances, Dance Dramas, and Entertainments

dAnCeS, dAnCe drAmAS, And entertAinmentS From the time of the arrival of the Spaniards to the present day, observers have been fascinated and impressed by the spectacular dances and dance dramas of Mexico.The Aztecs had elaborate dances, and the Spaniards introduced the dances of the Moors and Christians (Moros y Cristianos) to convert the natives and to celebrate this conversion. Today, performances of dances and dance dramas are major moments in patron saint fiestas. The same dance groups that participate in processions also perform on their own. Rattle dancers (danzantes de sonaja), young girls and boys, shake tin rattles (sonajas) as they dance, adding still another element to the soundscape of the fiesta. If there are several groups, as is usually the case, each group is accompanied by a small ensemble of musicians—one trumpet, one saxophone , and two violins. They play short, catchy, melodious tunes in a major key, constantly repeated, with the string and the wind instruments alternating . The children perform figure dances derived from French court dances. They move in various formations, creating oblong figures, each in front of or next to an adorned panel (crucero), often in the atrium of a church. When they parade in processions, they perform the same figures. They take their task seriously, with order and discipline. In front of a church or on a square adjacent to it, French and Apache (Franceses y Apaches) or French and Chichimec (Franceses y Chichimecas) dance groups, opposing Europeans and Indians, stage constant skirmishes. These two opposing groups fight with real machetes or wooden sticks and are accompanied by loud drumming. In some places, for example Cruz del Palmar, these battles are choreographed into full-blown dance dramas during which French soldiers and fierce Indians engage in mock battles or create figures to the rhythm of music. Characters dressed as Death, the Devil, and Monkey are part of the spectacle.They play tricks on dancers and bystanders. Indeed, this is truly total theater. Some rather extraordinary events take place, five  dances, dance dramas, and entertainments with astonishing outcomes.1 These dance dramas are called by some scholars danzas de conquista. It is intriguing that such dances take place in twentyfirst -century Mexico (the implications are discussed in chapter six). Very popular and spectacular plumed dancers (danzantes de pluma, con­ cheros) offer imagined renderings of Aztec dancers and dances. One or several dancers play drums and an armadillo shell (concha) with strings, similar to a lute. An important aspect of the music is the tinkling of the small bells (cascabeles) worn on the dancers’ ankles. Men, women, and children line up in military formation and perform stylized energetic figures.These groups are associations of individuals who want to recreate a mystic Aztec past, with its spirituality and rituals.2 Crazies (locos), accompanied by a powerfully amplified sound system, dance the meringue and other popular contemporary Latin dance forms in wildly exaggerated fashion, with no overt choreography or special spatial arrangement . In Mardi Gras style, these rowdy groups often give candy and beads to children. Men and cardboard and wooden bulls perform mock bullfights accompanied by musicians playing a violin, trumpet, and a little drum during the dance of the bulls (baile de los toritos). This dance takes place either in front of a church, or in a square, or during processions.Giant puppets (mojigangas) also perform, accompanied by a loud brass band.They make odd movements as they sway back and forth, gesturing provocatively. Dances and dance dramas last for hours and can take place several days in a row. All that was noted previously for the dances of the conquest—the agility and physical strength of the dancers, the rhythmic quality to the gestures, the kinesics, the music—is true for all fiesta dances, in varying degrees. Young boys and girls, adolescents, and adult men and women all participate.3 Dancers often perform because they promised their saint they would or they asked him for favors. “I have a cold, but I dance for my saint” (Soy res­ friado, pero le bailo a mi santo), a boy told us. An official from San Luis de la Paz explained that he had to dance because “the dance, like the Chichimec language, is my race” (la danza como la lengua chichimeca es mi raza). However boisterous or bawdy the dances might be, the dancers are deeply religious, and that is why they dance. At various moments during the patron saint fiesta they enter the church and...