Diario las Américas., 1958-04-10
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By ANTONIO RUIZ

MEXICO - The majority of the
many and varied Mexican popular
dances are a mixture OF the abort
g1nal and the Spanish, the first
yelled in mystery, while the Sc
cond is penetrated by European
and Moorish influences; in both,
the manifestations closely related
to native traditions are the, most
interesting. There are no complete
records of the aboriginal dances.
According to the Spanish priests,
the only historians during colonial
times, the dance among the AZtecS
and their neighbors was an official
institution with a dual religious
purpose and military function. The
main choreographic expressions OF
the early Mexican Indians were
staged in honor of their deities.
In them hierophantS, or religious
leaders, breathing fragrant clouds
of burning incense, danced around
the huge statutes of the gods. Or
they performed war dances to the
beating Of gigantic drums, and us
ed the sound of shell-horns to kin
die the fighting spirit in young re-
cruits. Distributed throughout the
year, dances celebrated all the
feasts recorded in the Ceremonial
Calendar which vas known as
Tomalematl, or Paper of the Sun,
and were expressions of the pea
SAINTS hopes when planting seeds,
their anguish when the rainy sea
son was delayed, or the general re-
jogging in the spring or at harvest
time.
Paradoxically. the most savage
and ferocious celebrations are
found side by side in that calendar
with the most poetic feasts in hon
or of the flowers. for which the
warlike AztecS showed an over
whelming love and admiration. In
fact, flowers, feathers, and emer-
ald-green Jade were praised by
them as the three most precious
things in the world and deemed
even more valuablesthan gold. The
dances in honor of the Flower
Goddess Xochiquetzal, and of the
Five Flowers of Macuilxochitl, the
god of music and therefore of the
dance, were the most popular and
picturesque festivals of the whole
year.
been preserved until modern
Only a faint shadow of the orr
ginal sp!endor of those dances has
times. But an idea can be had of
their size and character when visit
ing the buildings at Yucatan, Nit
la and Teotiauacan, with their spa
cious courts for the performance
of pagesnts, and their extensive
terraces on which the whole popu-
lation of the vicinity could be as
sembled. Such open-air auditori
ums far surpasS any modern sta
dunn in size and capacity. In qua
lily as we'll as in volume, modern
native dances are but a poor YES
tige of their originals.
Nothing of the original customs
and ways of the indigenous popu-
lation was encouraged or preserv-
ed, not even tolerated, by the
Spanish conquerors. who destroyed
many things regardless of their
aesthetic or ethical value. How
ever, they evidently considered the
dance in a lightly different light,
In it they sensed a vital instru.
ment for esoteric religious express
sion and attempted to use it as a
part of the Catholic ceremonial.
Thus, native elements were turn.
ed to alien interests. And thus, too,
native subjects we're impregnated
with the Spanish spirit.
In place of the exploits of the
Knights of the Eagle and the
Knights of the Tiger, there ap.
peared, with rather grotesque re-
suits, the heroic feats of Moorish
and Spanish paladins who, under
the patronage of the Saints, help
ed to vanquish the foes of the or
thodox faith.
Continued tomorrow
Spanish Version Page 3