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  • Introduction
  • William H. Beezley (bio)

Puppets, small marionettes actually, accompanied Hernán Cortés and the Spanish conquistadores on their first expedition to Mexico. From that time through the recent muppet-like characters on television newscasts, puppets have participated in Mexican life. Marionettes and other puppets had a role in the evangelization and entertainment of the persons of all social and ethnic groups during the colonial era. After independence, they became a popular form of casual evening and weekend relaxation for much of the nineteenth century. The arrival of the second decade of the twentieth century brought the Revolution of 1910 as well as increased urbanization and an expanding mass media. All three developments affected changes that shaped puppet theater, until the advent of television in the 1950s almost ended the entertainment.

The four essays in this special issue of The Americas address puppetry and puppet performance from the late colonial period until the mid-twentieth century. The authors examine in particular marionettes and entertainment, and hand puppets and education. The essays need to be placed in the context of the Spanish entertainment traditions in the peninsula and in the colony. Puppetry, like many other popular pleasures and cultural practices that appeared in Spain, were probably brought by entertainers as they arrived from Naples, a part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ruled from Aragón, or perhaps they traveled first to France and then to Spain. Italian-styled puppets reached the Iberian Peninsula certainly during the twelfth century. The marionettes soon became increasingly popular, especially during the celebration of Lent. Roman Catholic Church fathers ruled that theaters and other entertainments must be closed, but that puppet performances of the passion of Christ or other biblical stories could continue during the solemn 40-day period. The marionette performances featured religious homilies, Mediterranean folklore, and Comedia’della’arte imbroglios.1 By the mid-eighteenth century, the puppeteers had established their own cofradía and the puppets had achieved a major place in popular entertainments in Madrid, with marionettes, glove or hand puppets, shadow puppets (called las sobras chinescas) and [End Page 307] automatas, or life-sized and larger characters used for parades and fiestas. Public exhibitions, such as nativity scenes, at times included stringed or shadow puppets.2

One popular puppet, Don Folías, demonstrates this pattern of cultural migration. The puppet’s origins reach back to Naples, where he was known as Polichinela, named after his sixteenth-century creator Paolo Cinelli. At times, he was also called Pulcinello. The puppet had a hawk nose and pointed chin, with a high, loud nasal voice. Most important, he often appeared humpbacked (alluding to the folklore of these individuals) and braced with a walking stick, one that he used to hit other puppets. Once introduced in Spain, Polichinela became Don Cristóbal Polichinela. When he moved to colonial Mexico, he changed his simple white clothing to an aristocratic suit and top hat, but retained the “elástico pescuezo, rubicundas mejillas y gigantesca nariz” (the elastic neck, rosy-red cheeks, and gigantic nose); both his nose and neck grew longer when he became angry.3 Other puppets along with Don Folías made the same journey from Naples to Spain to Mexico.

In New Spain, the ratio of the small number of missionaries to the large number of indigenous peoples prompted the friars to enlist puppets in the evangelization campaign. Marionettes performed in stories of miracles and the Bible, depictions of spiritual life, and such popular religious practices as Pastorelas, and they re-created victories over the Moors, such as the “Battle of Jerusalem,” first performed in Tlaxcala in 1538.4 At the same time, there gradually developed significant secular entertainments that featured puppets. Paul McPharlan asserted in his history of puppetry in the Americas that the marionettes in the Spanish colonies soon developed a wide following throughout both New Spain and Peru.5 Puppeteers performed in the capital city, Guadalajara, Puebla, and a number of other colonial towns, especially the Port of Veracruz. The Bourbon secular entertainments of the eighteenth century included stringed characters that became widely known in the colony. Among them, there was Don Folias, of course, who constantly got...

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