The Zapatistas and the dance of Jaguars (tecuanes)

By Oscar Cortes Palma


In employer fairs -located more than 45 villages in the states of Mexico, Morelos and Guerrero, a variant Tecuan dance, I have called "Dance of the Tecuanes Coatetelco type" is performed, the following have named it He said by Fernando Horcasitas who investigated Tecuan dance of this town. In this variant of the dance of the same model Tecuanes choreography, costumes, characters, dialogues and musical instruments used.

 Noticing these similarities, I knew that this dance was invented by someone or some place and a certain date, and after being invented, some people spread and unveiled in widely separated places. It is then, when other people learned this dance, adopted and added to its traditional festivals and continued to perform year after year without substantially changing the drama dance they had learned.

But now the question who invented the dance type Coatetelco Tecuan and those who reported arises?

To answer this, I visited many villages where dance this dance drama, and interviewed seniors to know the old. They told me and danced the dance of the Tecuanes since they were escuintles, brats, more or less by 1950 To check this assertion, inquired in books and other written sources. I knew that in the 1970s, the anthropologist Fernando Horcasitas had investigated the distribution of Dance Tecuan, and comparing his research with which I made in recent years, I could see that match. That is, in more than 40 years-from 1970 to the year 2014 the map of the distribution of Dance Tecuan had almost no alterations, which indicates that this dance, in recent decades, has not released quickly since there have been few towns that have adopted and few towns have ceased to dance. An example of the villages have stopped dancing it is Jolalpan, Puebla, there until the 1950s danced the Tecuanes enlivened by the music of Felix pitero times, but now no longer dance.

And about the spread of traditional dances I will mention as an example, the dance of the Chinelos, which apparently arose in the last decades of the nineteenth century, and in less than 140 years, has become popular far coexisting with dance Tecuanes by what I think in a few years will have overtaken this dance in distribution. That is, the dance of the Chinelos is fashionable, as was likely, at some time in history, dance Tecuan.

To continue investigating in written and oral sources I found a manuscript written in mixed with Spanish that translated into Spanish Fernando Horcasitas late 1970s Nahuatl And I also knew that dance Tecuan existed in Coatetelco in 1910, as well registers the manuscript Tecuanes dance, writing mixed with Spanish, Adam Elfego published in the Annals of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of that year Nahuatl, and Elfego Adam not only recorded a manuscript of the dialogue of dance the Tecuanes but also records another manuscript dialogues Dance Cowboys same village Coatetelco in 1910.

Besides the above manuscripts, another research published by Antonieta Espejo who interviewed in 1955, Don Efrén Ariza Jimenez, born in 1891, who mentioned that Tecuan dance and danced in Acatlán de Osorio for the year 1888. It should be clarified that it is different from other dance Coatetelco Tecuan variant type, but it is interesting to mention this fact because the oral sources that place nestled in the Mixteca, say dance Tecuan type Acatlán de Osorio came from a village Nahuatl affiliation.

Also by oral sources, we know that Tecuan dance and danced before the Mexican Revolution in Axochiapan, as we said Arturo Chinese Mozo, who mentioned to us that his father, Victor Mozo Jacinto, danced this dance. Another oral source that I have comes from Tetelpa, there responsible for this dance Don Florentino Sorela Severiano- said he learned dance Tecuan -Lidio Sorela- his father who learned it from his grandfather -Ramon Sorela-, who already the rehearsing since before the year 1895, for this reason they celebrated the centenary dance Tecuan of Tetelpa in the year 1995. With this information we can realize that dance Tecuan and danced in the early twentieth century, in places away from each other, as are the towns of Coatetelco and Tetelpa, a distance of Acatlán de Osorio at about 200 kilometers; and the three towns mentioned far Axochiapan in the town of about 100 kilometers.

Lacking oldest written sources, only one copy of a newspaper article that mentions the existence of a similar dance called Dance of the Tlacololeros in Tixtla in 1898, I have no choice but to look at the written sources and oral with whom do I have and find some data that give me a clue to the origin of dance Coatetelco Tecuan type. So, when analyzing the dialogues of the characters, I find that in the dance of the Tecuanes, monetary denominations called "real" and "pages" coins that were used since colonial times and began to fall into disuse mentioned From the 1870s, when they were replaced by coins called "checks" based on the decimal system. Another point are the weapons of two characters dance, consisting of arrows and spears, weapons that began falling into disuse since the 1820s There is also another character named "Yerbero" depicting a witch, individuals they began to lose its influence in the imagination of communities from the early twentieth century. A third fact is that the dialogues of the characters dance are in Nahuatl language with a few words in Spanish, on this I have knowledge about the year 1700 onwards, were made from Amecameca to Axochiapan, through Tepalcingo, plays driven by the Augustinian friars, on the "Passion of Christ" in the Nahuatl language. Therefore, if the dance Tecuanes Coatetelco type Nahuatl language is mixed with a few words in Spanish, it is likely that arose or at the end of the colonial era when the teaching of Castilian or after the independence of Mexico was promoted when the government of the newly created country of Mexico urged the natives to begin to speak the Spanish language to integrate into national society

A fourth data provides us the plot of the dance, which recounts comically hunting of a Jaguar that threatens to eat the cattle of a farmer so that orders his assistant to hire hunters. Based on this information immediately I place the birth of dance Tecuan type Coatetelco the landowner period, which ended in 1910, but its antiquity goes back to the year 1700 when they began to proliferate farms and ranches in the New Spain. A fifth fact is the existence of another dance in the region called "cowboys" whose plot involves a wealthy farmer orders his workers to a bull bullfighting, in other words jeans dance is very similar to dance Tecuan Coatetelco type, only the Nahuatl language was modified by the Spanish, and the jaguar was replaced by the bull, in the same way the costumes were made spanish and the names of the characters. A sixth fact is the existence of at least eight other dances consisting hunting jaguar in the same region so I think that some of them are "reinventions" or copies adapted from the others, because some retain more primitive elements and others are more modern elements. A seventh thing is the presence in the dance of the Tecuanes Coatetelco type two characters called medical surgeons, which draws attention because the surgery arose in Mexico in 1770, but despite this, it was not until 100 years later, the late nineteenth century when doctors began to distribute in the villages. An eighth data are the costumes of the dancers-the landowner and his foreman consisting charro suits and hats with sweat pants similar to those used by the farmers of the early nineteenth century; also the wardrobe doctors in white coats consisting characteristics of physicians from the ninth century XIX.Un fact is that the doctors of the dances of the state of Mexico, Morelos and Guerrero simulate injecting the injured hunters by Tecuani this also it draws attention because the injections began to be used from the mid-nineteenth century.

Based on these nine points, I conclude that:

1.-The dance of the type Coatetelco Tecuanes, with most of the elements as we know it today, came between the years of 1840-1880.

2. Dance of the Tecuanes massively distributed in the region of 1850-1950.
3. Dance Cowboys states of Morelos and Guerrero, are adapted Tecuan dance, and dance jeans emerged between the years of 1840 to 1880 and danced in many villages where also dancing the dance of the Tecuanes.

4. Dance of the Tecuanes Coatetelco type, was probably spread by tent theaters and circuses, those who came forward in many places between 1850 and 1910. Many residents of these communities liked and started copy and use in their supervisory fairs. Then shared the dance Tecuanes in employer fairs dispersing other towns.

5. In the late nineteenth century with the arrival of the railroad, the dance of the Tecuanes experienced a great dispersion.

6. Both Tecuanes Coatetelco dance dance guy like jeans were promoted or at least were not prohibited by the landowners. As this dance dramatized make them "look good" because in both a character representing the rich landowner who pays very well to catch the Tecuan or Jaguar in the dance of the Tecuanes or to goad the bull in the dance of the participating Cowboys.

7. Dance Tecuan Coatetelco type is obviously a reinvention or adaptation of another oldest Indian dance that dance could be Tlacololeros, the Tlaminques dance, or dance of Chilolos Juxtlahuaca or some other dance primitive extinct. In other words, the dance of the Tecuanes Coatetelco type has prehispanic elements and also has elements of the era landowner.

So I think that this dance is a "reinvention" of a dance of Mesoamerican origin, as well seem to prove the participation of costumed native animals such as Tecuani (jaguar), deer and vulture. This is interesting because there are other native dances that use the same characters, such as deer dance by the Yaqui and Mayo Indians dancing; buzzards and dance, which is danced in Axochiapan and in the state of Guerrero.

Another feature are the names of some of the sounds of dance Tecuan that are related to native animals such as the "Son of the Iguana" is danced imitating the steps of a iguana.Además in dance there is another type Tecuan Coatetelco character, I think is of Mesoamerican origin, "Laughing" (also called Gervasio, Gervaise or Varañado), and is characterized by emitting guttural cries and mocking and act as a wild crazy. The "Laughing" is a character who wears a hand holds a long stick, and is much like the characters in a state of Guerrero dance, dance called "Huesquixtles" meaning in Spanish dance of the "laughing" . Also in dance Tecuan hunters archers, spearmen, herbalists and trappers, weapons not unaware Mesoamerican people involved.

Another feature of the Tecuanes Coatetelco type is that they are a funny, very funny and cheerful dramatized dance. Although not mention any god or saint, or mention Christian values. The relationship with the Christian religion is given in Tecuan dance that is instrumental in the festivities of the patron saint of the community by showing reverence.

In conclusion dance Tecuan Coatetelco type with the characteristics with which we know it today, it came in the second half of the nineteenth century. This information shows that the traditions of the people are not static, they are in constant motion and change over the years, for example, in dance Tecuan can find four types or variants. One of these variants, is danced in fourteen villages in the south west of the state of Mexico and even now is known as the "dance of the wolves", although older people still remember that before he was called Tecuanis dance. Something similar happened about 150 years ago when the dance Tecuanes currently dancing emerged.

With this information, but I find about the origin of the dance type Tecuan Coatetelco me more questions arise due to the existence of at least eight dances similar in the same region which are: 1.Danza of tlacololeros, 2.Danza the tlaminques, 3.Danza of Tejorones, 4.Danza of Chilolos Juxtlahuaca, 5.Danza Tiger Cuitzeo, 6.Danza of maizos, 7.Danza of wolves, 8.Danza type of Tecuan Acatlan Osorio, 9. Multiple local variants Tecuan dance and 10. Dances hunt Jaguar unclassified. All these dances are further evidence of the creativity of the indigenous people and the traditionalists Mexicans.

Information obtained from the book Dance of the Tecuanes (jaguars).

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