EL JAGUAR EN LAS TRADICIONES MEXICANAS

 ⭐ ««EL JAGUAR EN LAS TRADICIONES MEXICANAS»»⭐

Por Óscar Cortés Palma

«El jaguar está presente en las tradiciones Surianas de México», cómo se menciona en el libro: «Tecuanes, tlacololeros, lobitos y tlaminques».

El libro de los «tecuanes», es una investigación de las tradiciones con disfraces de jaguares de los Estados de México, Morelos, Guerrero, Puebla y Oaxaca; de las fiestas patronales con disfrazados de jaguares de los pueblos nahuas, amuzgos, mixtecos, y mestizos.

En esos pueblos se representan danzas y escenificaciones cómicas parodiales, coreografías de la captura de una persona caracterizada de jaguar por personas disfrazadas de cazadores ancianos risibles. 

En el libro se defiende la hipótesis de que todas las ¿danzas? del jaguar de la región suriana, son variantes entre sí aunque con distinto nombre.

Las tradiciones festivas del jaguar dan alegría a las fiestas patronales de los pueblos de mayoría de origen nahua.

Por orden de distribución, las danzas del tigre (jaguar) más abundantes son: Tecuanes, tlacololeros, tlaminques, tejorones y danza del tigre. 

«Tecuanes» significa jaguares;

«tlacololeros» significa sembrador serrano; «tlaminques» significa cazadores o flecheros.

Salvo los casos de dos poblaciones, (Acatlán y Zitlala) todas la demás teatralidades tradicionales indígenas de jaguar, consisten en la parodia de la persecución de un jaguar (tecuani) en la escenificación cómica de la cacería del felino por personajes , estravagantes y chuscos.

Inclusive en Acatlán y Zitlala, Guerrero,  además del ritual de la pelea de tigres (están los tlacololeros).

Estas escenificaciones del jaguar fueron escritas por los pueblos nahuas porque están en idioma náhuatl mezclado con español antiguo.

LIBRO: 

Óscar Cortés Palma, ««Tecuanes, tlacololeros, lobitos, tlaminques y tejorones. La danza-parodia del tigre en México»». Editorial: Quadrivium. Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas. CDI/ Morelos,  Cuernavaca, 2018.

#Tecuanes

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#Tlaminques

#danzadeltigre

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#jaguar

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#ocelotl

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The jaguar and the rain

By Óscar Cortés Palma

In the world many cultures have the habit of performing rituals to request rainfall from the forces of nature or God.

These rituals for good weather include offerings with meals, ornaments, songs, prayers, dances and theaters that are traditionally performed days before the rainy season begins.

In America, the Native Americans of the United States and Mexico still perform rituals to make it rain.

For example, in the Nahua region of Guerrero, the rain rituals of the villages of Zitlala and Acatlán stand out. In these places the jaguars (also called tigers or tecuanes) are fundamental part of the request of rains.
Atzazilistli, (atzasilistli, atsasilistle) is called in the Nahua language at the request of rains.
The tradition of asking for rains disguised as jaguars is very old. Since in the Mesoamerican cultures the Jaguar represented the rain.

And today, the Tecuanes (jaguars in the Spanish language) still continue being beings of rain.

This is demonstrated by the legends, rituals, myths, caves, hills, bas-reliefs and ancient murals that have to do with jaguars.
An example of this are the murals of Jaguar warrior of Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala.
These murals of jaguar warriors were painted approximately between 650 and 950 BC.
In these murals we can see three different people dressed as jaguars. And even from these people we observed rain.
It is clear that these murals of Cacaxtla evidence the relationship of the jaguar and the rain.
But we find more evidence in the archaeological area of ​​Chalcatzingo, Morelos where there is a bas-relief with a supernatural feline attacking a human. Above this feline are the raindrops.

Further evidence of the relationship of jaguars and rain is found in the figure of Tlaloc. Tlaloc, the mythological being of rain, has fangs like a feline, perhaps a jaguar or a puma.
Another proof that the jaguar represents the rain, we find it in the legend that counts in Zitlala and Acatlán, Guerrero: The legend of the "tecuanes - naguales". This legend tells how the nahual jaguars brought the rains to mankind.

Therefore and since then as a reward is performed the dance and ritual of the tiger fight or tiger fight.

The Tecuan fight consists of fighting disguised as nagual jaguars.
Based on this we can evidence the complicity of the Tecuanes and the rain.

It is also well known that in the Surian lands rituals are carried out in the caves of the hills to request rains currently in at least the states of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla and Guerrero, from this arises a question: Is the fact that Perform rituals to ask for rain in inaccessible caves or because there also usually inhabit ferocious wild beasts like the jaguar (tekuani) or the puma? If so, this would be yet another evidence of the relationship between the jaguars and the rain.

In short, much research is needed on this subject, but it should not surprise us if we continue to find archaeological pieces that have jaguars and raindrops drawn, since everything seems to indicate that in the Mesoamerican era this union was fundamental.

If you want to buy the book of the Tecuanes, Send an email to: cami17_4@hotmail.com; Oscarcortepalma@gmail.com; or www.facebook.com/OscarCortesPalma

Book of the Tecuanes
Email: oscarcortespalma@gmail.com; Cami17_4@hotmail.com

Researchers of the of the Tecuanes Dance Theater 

By Óscar Cortés Palma

In this blog, I will not only limit myself to a description of the dance of the Tecuan, but I will try later to explain its possible meaning, the life stories of some of the custodians of this tradition, and the repercussions of this dance In the villages that practice it.

 Unfortunately, there are very few documents to analyze the traditional dance of Tecuan or its variants, so I relied on how little has been written on the subject.

I mainly assisted myself with the oral sources I gathered during the years 2010 to 2014; And since I believe that traditions are events of long and medium duration, I think that if they exist today, it is most likely that they have existed in many cases for decades in the villages where they are currently danced and even in Other villages, since the dance of the Tecuan describes the life of the hacienda and this form of life ceased to exist in the region after the agrarian distribution of the 1920s and 1930s.

In addition, in some towns the dialogues of the theatrical dance of the Tecuan are in Nahuatl hybrid language even though the population already uses the Spanish language like common language and they are difficult to understand the meaning of the parliaments.

Some of the written sources on which I have relied are: Elfego Adán's manuscript on the dance of Lato Tecuanes of Coatetelco. This is the oldest manuscript I know about the dialogues of this dance. There is another manuscript given by Fernando Horcasitas, who also started an investigation of the dance of the Tecuan nationwide. Unfortunately Fernando Horcasitas died in 1980, leaving his research unfinished, but without a doubt, he was a pioneer in the research of this dance of the Tecuan.

Another bibliographic source, which provides us with a lot of information, is entitled "The Dance of Tecuan" and was published by FONADAN - National Fund for the Development of Mexican Folk Dance - in the year 1975. In this work were recorded Careful manner the dialogues, the music and the choreography of the dance of the Tecuan of San Francisco Cuautzosco, Texcaltitlán, state of Mexico; In the 1970s.

© Óscar Cortés Palma Degree in History UNAM and Researcher of the Dance of the Tecuan of Morelos and the history of the town of Axochiapan.

 Email axochiapancultural@hotmail.com; Cami17_4@hotmail.com;

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/axochiapan

BOOK OF THE TECHNICIANS

Information obtained from the book DE LOS TECUANES.

If you want to purchase this book, call the cell: 7351824631 or send an email to: cami17_4@hotmail.com; The www.facebook.com/OscarCortesPalma

This book has a total of 232 pages, also contains maps, photos and scripts of dance-theater of the Tecuan.

Website: http://danzadelostecuanes.blogspot.mx/

Book of the Tecuanes

Email: cami17_4@hotmail.com; Oscarcortespalma@gmail.com

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Twitter: oscarcortespalm

The theater dance of the Tecuan of Tlalixtaquilla

By Edmundo Fidencio Pérez Escamilla -Master, chronicler and cultural promoter of Tlalixtaquilla Gro-.

Tecuan in the Nahuatl language means wild animal. This dance came to the municipality of Tlalixtaquilla to stay in the year 1832, twenty years after the founding of this town, according to research with the elderly, are three people deceased and have been inheriting the knowledge of this dance , It is said that he was called the first flute musician Don Bacho, died and resulted in another one known as Catino, then in the 1950's it is directed by Aurelio Escamilla Alvarado and is currently directed by Caritino Merino Miron, this dance tells the events of a group Of peasants who at that time the lands of sowing in each rainy season were known as tlacocoles, these sowings were affected by wild animals that avoided in the region, among them the most ferocious and wild was a jaguar.

                                                                                

At night, the chickens, goats, and cattle would arrive at the farms of the village, and the peasants, tired and tired, thought how to finish the animal, old Lucas and Pancho Melo of the town would be the captains to direct the search since they were the ones who knew the Region of the mountain, went to invite the old couple living on the outskirts of the town, and began to disguise themselves as different animals that lived in the region as buzzards and vultures, some of goats or masks that caused fear and accompanied by His dogs began to search for this animal through all the high mountains, trapping them, but the astute animal did not fall into any of them, but one day they lowered them and managed to get them out of their burrows and began the difficult fight until they died. And distributed his flesh among the people of the small town.

Tired with their clothes torn by the jaguar but happy to have killed him eating and toasting, one of them took his reed flute and his leather drum and began to play different sones and musical notes, and began the party dancing until dawn.

The torn and torn clothing represents the tired struggle to kill the jaguar, the hats to the peasants, the costumes they make themselves, the tail hat of approximately 40 to 60 cm. Of natural palm, because this dance is hard wearing work shoes and thick clothes, can be patched broken or dirty of colorful colors and masks of horrifying aspects, A reed flute and a drum of skin are the instruments that a single person They play different musical notes and dance variants steps like: The little band, the basket, the zapateado, the carrerita, the ligerito, the knee, the square and the crazy syrup.

Since its arrival in this town of Tlalixtaquilla this dance is fundamental in its customs and traditions, from October 28 to November 2, highlighting the two days of November, people leaving home and waiting to see in the streets to Young children or masters disguised as jaguars or tecuanes, the first day they go to the foot of the hill of the cloud some are already disguised and others there disguise themselves hanging in their hat bouquets of dead flower, from there the tecuanes bring the tiger and arriving To the town they begin to dance from house to house and the families reward them giving them the offering that put their deceased in their altars of days of dead, due to the diffusion that has been given to this dance through a cultural promoter this dance To have developed enough, has won in contests that municipal presidents have organized although sometimes they have profited with her, in spite of that they go ahead because it has been invited to burials, walks of boyfriends in his r This dance is able to present it on stage to give its show without losing its participation in customs and traditions of its people.

BOOK OF THE TECHNICIANS

Information obtained from the book DE LOS TECUANES.

If you want to purchase this book, call the cell: 7351506920 or send an email to: cami17_4@hotmail.com; The www.facebook.com/OscarCortesPalma

This book has a total of 232 pages, also contains maps, photos and scripts of dance-drama of the Tecuan.

Book of the Tecuanes

Cel: 7351506920

Email: cami17_4@hotmail.com; Oscarcortespalma@gmail.com

Facebook.com/oscarcortespalma

Twitter: oscarcortespalm

What does the theater dance of Tecuan represent in our day?

By Óscar Cortés Palma

 It is well known that "The fights of Tecuanis" of Zitlala, and of Acatlán, Guerrero, represent a ritual for the request of rains. This ritual consists, among other activities, in a combat of two men or women disguised as Tecuani following certain rules. In these fights, the more blood in the "Fights of Tecuanis" is better, as that will attract a good storm.


But in the case of the dance of the Tecuanes of Morelos, if we analyze the dates in which this theatrical dance is presented we can clearly observe that only in some communities the dance is performed on dates close to the rainy season, for example in Xoxocotla , Dances on May 1st at the Patron Saint of San Felipe and in Coatetelco, dance the Tecuan in the festivities to the Patron Saint San Juan Bautista, on June 24.

In other towns such as Tenextepango the dance is danced on the 24th, 25th and 26th of July in the festivities to Santiago Apóstol, but in this village it had already disappeared, and the dance that they are currently dancing was learned from Axochiapan "maestro tecuaneros" 40 years. Another town where dance is danced on rainy dates is in Ocotepec, where the dance is danced on August 6th but according to the neighbors, this dance was brought from Coatetelco for about 50 years.


If we observe the months in which there is dance of tecuanes in Morelos, we can observe that the bimestre December-January, the dance of the Tecuan is danced in seven of the eleven morelenses towns, these are Axochiapan, Coatetelco, Ocotepec, Tetelpa, Tepalcingo, Alpuyeca And Tetecala. In other periods of time, in which the dance of tecuan dances a lot, it is the quarter: August, September and October, when dancing in Alpuyeca, Atlacahualoya, Ocotepec, El Higuerón and Xoxocotla.

As we can see, the dance of the Tecuan de Morelos has little to do today with the request for rainfall, since it is performed mostly in months when the rain is already ending or has already ended, although it could be that the dance will dance In a town originally and from there extended to the other towns, losing with that the initial purpose with which this dance was created.


The meaning of the dance of the present Tecuan is that it is performed to venerate the patron saint of the People, and although the dance of the Tecuan is a very funny theatrical comedy about how a group of peasants are engineered to hunt a Tecuani or jaguar, in Reality for the populations that realize it does not mean more than that, the human fight against Jaguar, human against nature.


However, dance also has another implicit meaning and this is that it unites the people. It is a tradition that is transmitted from generation to generation, and this makes it a tool of the people who practice it to maintain their community connection and their own personality, their own way of being, their essence, different from other cultural expressions Of other regions or countries of the world.

Months in which the Tecuan theater dance is performed in Morelos

POBLADOS

En

Feb

Mar

Abr

May

Jun

Jul

Agos

Sept

Oct

Nov

Di

Alpuyeca

X

X

Atlacahualoya

X

Axochiapan.

X

Coatetelco

X

X

El Higuerón

X

Ocotepec

X

X

Tenextepango

X

Tepalcingo

X

Tetelpa

X

Tetecala

X

Xoxocotla

X

X

Telixtac

X

X

Tlatenchi

Months in which the Tecuan theater dance is performed in estado de Mexico

POBLADOS

En

Feb

Mar

Abr

May

Jun

Jul

Agos

Sept

Oct

Nov

Di

Jajalpa

X

Almoloya d Rio

X

Zumpahuacan

X

Atlatlahuca

X

Atizapán

X

Xalatlaco

X

Months in which the Tecuan theater dance is performed in Puebla

POBLADOS

En

Feb

Ma

Abr

May

Jun

Jul

Ag

Sep

Oct

Nov

D

Acatlán

X

X

X

Chinantla

X

Huehuetlán Chico

X

Chietla

X

Chiautla de Tapia

X

Months in which the Tecuan theater dance is performed in Guerrero

POBLADOS

En

Feb

Mar

Abr

M

Jun

Jul

Ago

Sep

Oct

Nov

D

Acapetlahuaya

X

X

X

X

Apaxtla

X

X

Apetlanca

X

C. Altamirano

X

Ahuehuepan

X

Atlixtac

X

Atlamajalcingo

X

X

X

Cuetzala

X

Cutzamala

X

Cocula

X

Coatepec Costa

X

X

Chaucingo

X

Huitzuco

X

Huamuxtitlán

X

X

X

Huehuetepec

X

Mezcala

X

Ixcateopan

X

X

X

X

Ixcatepec

X

Malinaltepec

X

Mexiquiapan

X

Ozomatlán

X

Oxtotitlan

X

Rio Florido

X

X

Pachivia

X

Potaichàn

X

Poliutla

X

Tecoyo

X

Teloloapan

X

X

Tlapa

X

Taxco

X

Tlapehuala

X

Temalacatzingo

X

Tototepec

X

Tlalixtaquilla

X

X

Tlatzala

X

Tomatal

X

Tenamazapa

X

Zapotitlan

X

© Óscar Cortés Palma 

Book of the Tecuanes

Cel: 7351506920

Email: cami17_4@hotmail.com

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