Carrying the Word: The Concheros Dance in Mexico City

Illustrations

ix I l l u s t r a t i o n s 0.1. The sergeant of a group of Concheros at Los Remedios in 1995    xx 1.1. The flower form constructed during a vigil held in a house on the northern outskirts of Mexico City 1993    xxiv 2.1. Dancers moving into formation before a dance at Chalma    20 2.2. Mexico City and the various places with which the dance has close associations    23 2.3. Santo Niño de Atocha dancing on the outskirts of Mexico City    27 2.4. One corner of Compadre Ernesto’s altar arrangements    28 2.5. Compadre Ernesto with his niece Carmella, his great-niece, and greatnephew Ricardo    29 2.6. Angelica censing a new pair of leg rattles during a dance at La Villa    32 2.7. Compadre Ernesto taking refreshment during a dance in Valle de Bravo    35 3.1. The flower form on completion in a Catholic home    42 3.2. The flower form under construction at the vigil in Puente Negro    47 3.3. An alabanza being sung during a vigil    49 3.4. A cleansing being carried out at the end of the vigil held for All Souls Day (Day of the Dead)    51 3.5. The flower form at the vigil for All Souls    54 3.6. En route to the church in the early morning after the vigil in Puente Negro with one of the bastónes and bunches of flowers for the saint    57 I l l u s t r a t i o n s  3.7. Preparing to dance outside the church in Puente Negro    58 3.8. Dancers in Aztec-style costumes enacting in the Zocalo while being watched by passersby    59 3.9. A dancer in the 1960s    61 3.10. Dancers at Los Remedios    64 4.1. Two dancers singing as they play their conchas as the permiso is enacted before the dance at La Villa    66 5.1. The various alferezes from the mesas who have been dancing together ritually disengaging at the end of the obligation at La Villa    86 5.2. Three banners leaning against the wall as a dancer and his family dress for the dance at Tlatelolco    92 5.3. Miguel Gutierrez with the banner of the mesa of his father (Alberto Gutierrez)    93 5.4. The standard of the mesa from Amecameca, one of Ernesto Ortiz’s more important allies. 97 5.5. The images on Compadre Ernesto’s banner    98 6.1. Dancers at Tlatelolco    104 6.2. General Guadalupe Hernandez dressed in Chichimeca/Azteca style    108 6.3. Dancers dressed in Chichimeca style at La Villa    109 6.4. Dancers at Santiago Tlatelolco in 1958    112 6.5. A dancer at La Villa in 1964    113 6.6. Dancer dressed à la Aztec    116 6.7. Male dancers displaying their headdresses between dances    117 6.8. Sahumadoras between dances at La Villa    120 6.9. A young dancer wearing a tight Aztec-style dress    121 6.10. A sergeant from Los Remedios wearing a wig of black hair, a red kerchief , a mask, and white manta trousers    123 7.1. Dancer at Los Remedios in 1960    130 8.1. The various mesas who have danced together, singing at the end of the dance at La Villa    148 9.1. Josefus de Ribera y Argomanis, Our Lady of Guadalupe as Patron of New Spain, 1778    177 10.1. Mexica dancer playing a drum    192 10.2. Mexica dancers blowing their conch shells at Tlatelolco    202 11.1. Dancers resting and eating their comida in the early afternoon before resuming the dance    210 ...