The Matachines Dance: Ritual Symbolism and Interethnic Relations in the Upper Rio Grande Valley

Description

Author: Rodriguez, Sylvia (1947-

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM)

Pub Date: 1996

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Good.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends or folds.  Illustrated with a color photo section.  Very light edge and corner wear.  Appears unused.

Notes: The Matachine ceremony is two sides of the same coin, the Pueblo Indian side and the Hispanics of northern New Mexico side.  To the Pueblos who perform the dance it is a ceremony of subjugation–“…the significance of Montezuma, the ‘Indian god in European clothes’, whom Richard Parmentier identifies as the ‘mediating symbol and temporal marker’ for European intrusion into the Pueblo world.  As Montezuma’s gift tot he Pueblos, the dance simultaneously heralds alien rule and offer a hidden means to subvert it, under the protective guise of compliance…” (Page 146).  To the Hispanic performers “Mexicano Matachines dances celebrate the triumph and persistence of Catholicism with none of the ambivalence and symbolic compartmentalization so evident in Pueblo performances…” (Page 147).  For another description of the dance ceremony see Champe’s The Matachines Dance of the Upper Rio Grande  (https://joethebookguy.com/shop/indian/the-matachines-dance-of-the-upper-rio-grande-history-music-and-choreography/)