Carrying the Word: The Concheros Dance in Mexico City

Epilogue

209 “The historical contacts and impurities that are part of ethnographic work . . . signal the life, not the death, of societies.” —J. Clifford1 In the last chapter, I elaborated on the Mexica and why they have appropriated the Concheros’ dances and their various associated practices into the larger context of their multifaceted and essentialist movement of Mexicanidad. Despite the frequent assertions made during the 1990s by the older generation of dancers (including Jefe Ernesto) that the obligations never change, most aspects of the dance have historically always been open to outside influences and hence in a state of flux. Today the dance is as vital and the mesas as numerous as at the time of the celebrations of 1992 for the “discovery” of the Americas. In part, this is because the Mexica’s way of dancing has revitalized a form that especially in the eyes of a younger generation had become too staid and unchanging, too Roman Catholic, and lacking in dynamism. In part, this has also occurred because as many of the older jefes—who came in from the countryside and who were staunch Catholics with indigenous contacts—have died, and their successors have been much more interested in and open to the political rhetoric and practices of Mexicanidad. Here I assess how the Concheros’ practices have been affected by the various ways in which the Mexica have reformulated aspects of the dance and place those changes that are recent in the context of those that are longer term. Epilogue E p i l o g u e 210 Although the forms of the actual dances appear to have constancy through time, transformations in practice are always historically difficult to assess. Will the Concheros’ dancing become with time much less to do with inner spirituality , the quest for self-knowledge, and the emergence of religiosity? Will following the word continue to lead to the attainment of a transcendent state in a public place, thereby extending a spiritual ontology to others, or will it become more like the dancing of the Mexica, which is concerned with external attainment and identity politics. Recent modifications in many of the Concheros’ other representations have been more rapid and wide-ranging than at any other time in the second half of the twentieth century. Although stimulated in the last decade by the Mexica and their ideology, many have also been brought on by more general social transformations that are linked to a changing sense of what it is to be Mexican. Broadly, these have been occasioned in part by the dwindling significance of the Roman Catholic Church as a spiritual mentor, which is closely related to its declining power in a society that has seen a vast rise in Protestant sects and furthermore is becoming increasingly ecumenical and even secular.2 Changes have been occasioned too by the burgeoning of the media and particularly the 11.1. Dancers resting and eating their comida in the early afternoon before resuming the dance. E p i l o g u e 211 Internet, which has created a greatly increased global interdependence that is as much cultural as economic.3 Changes have also resulted from migration, not so much to Mexico City but rather from there (and the countryside) to the United States, as well as other parts of Mexico; migrants can now be as much a part of the association elsewhere as when living in Mexico City. At the same time, the linked and increasingly pluralistic nature of culture generally has fostered an intensified awareness of what is local, particular to, and part of the nation’s heritage, as seen in the rise of indigenous reivindicación movements.4 In many parts of the world, most live in increasingly multicultural societies where peoples of many different ethnic backgrounds seek to coexist. Differences still remain but are usually cultural rather than political and are not detrimental to the construction of a greater social cohesion.5 In Mexico the program of mestizaje inaugurated this process early in the twentieth century. Yet, recently in the search for ethnic origins, many have attempted to resurrect ethnic differences or identities that have long since been transformed through time or have simply been elided. This re-creation is thus predominantly performative and enacted for the benefit of those concerned and sometimes too for outsiders, often tourists. The literature on this trend is a growing one: the Mexica are just one of...