Ruben Hernández is a Yaqui carver who lives and works in Vicam, Sonora. I have been familiar with this carver’s work for many years. For some reason that is unknown to me, one finds masks in Ruben’s style under at least three different names—Ruben Hernández, Martin Ramírez Urbanezo, and Antonio Rosas. I suppose it is possible that these are three separate carvers who share one overlapping style, but I tend to think that Ruben carved under all three names.

I have masks of Ruben in my collection that were collected in Sonora by dealers other than Barney and Mahina Drees Burns. When I photographed the Burns mask collection, I found at least four additional masks by Ruben, some attributed to him and some to other carvers. I also encountered a number of masks by other carvers that had been erroneously attributed to Ruben Hernández by those who sold them to Barney and Mahina. This has been, of course, a generic problem with Pascola masks collected in Sonora, reflecting genuine similarities in style between carvers, along with a tendency for one artist to repaint another carver’s work. Generic local styles add to the confusion.

Today I will focus on human faced masks from these collections that are typical of Ruben’s hand. Next week I will discuss Ruben’s animal faced masks.

Here is a mask from my collection that I purchased on EBay™ in 2005. I recall that a dealer offered a series of masks by this carver, and I only purchased the best of them. I tell you this to emphasize that Ruben has carved many masks and the quality of those masks has varied from mediocre to wonderful. This one was labeled as the work of Martin Ramírez Urbanezo and appears to be undanced.

I was immediately impressed with the dramatic nature of this carving. Looking at the details in comparison to those on masks by Hilario Álvarez Mendoza, I am struck by the similarities in their styles, although Ruben carves with greater flair.

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Soterito Matus is another Yoeme carver whom I discovered during my photographic documentation of the Barney and Mahina Burns mask collection. Although his name appears on a number of masks, none of the labels indicate where he lives. I am guessing that he lives in Potam, Sonora. I have just one human faced mask to show you, along with a goat, four dogs, and two birds.

This human faced mask was collected  by Barney Burns  and Mahina Drees Burns after 7 years of use by the carver.

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In March 2016 I traveled from Pennsylvania to Tucson Arizona for ten days to photograph masks that had been collected in Northern Mexico by Barney Burns and Mahina Drees Burns. One of my purposes was to learn about carvers who were previously unknown to me. So I was pleased to encounter the masks of Cirilio Ramírez Amarillas of Potam, Sonora. Today I will share some of what I learned about this artist. You will notice that he carves most of his masks following one particular design and that these masks demonstrate a distinctive style.

The first of these masks was collected by Barney and Mahina in 2007, after it had been danced for three years. It is a handsome mask.

Inlaid triangular mirrors are used for the forehead cross, the triangles under the eyes, and on the chin.

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Today I will show you a few animal masks by Hilario Álvarez Mendoza. The first is one that I purchased from the Old Pascua Community Center in Tucson, Arizona, in 2013. I was told that this mask had been worn by children from the Old Pascua community who were learning to dance. When you see the back, it will be clear that quite a lot of learning had taken place. This mask has the face of a dog.

Like the masks in last weeks post, this one certainly has features that might remind you of the masks of Antonio Bacasewa, Hilario’s step-father. The forehead cross and the freehand designs on the cheeks are both typical of Antonio’s style. Furthermore, the hair bundles are pegged. The extended tongue, on the other hand, has an abrupt angular bend while those of Antonio bend more softly.

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Hilario Álvarez Mendoza is one of Antonio Bacasewa’s stepsons. He lives and works in Vicam Switch, which is the Vicam neighborhood near the railway line and the Vicam switching yard (http://mexicanrailroads.blogspot.com/2009/01/ferromex-nogales-to-mazatln.html). Tom Kolaz recalls that Hilario frequently brought up masks by Antonio from Sonora for dancers in Tucson. As you will see, Hilario carved in a style that resembled that of his step-father, although there are details that often differentiate their work.

Today our focus will be on human faced masks by Hilario, and I will start with the mask that introduced me to this carver, an undanced mask that nevertheless has an interesting history. To begin with, this mask was originally collected by Barney Burns in Sonora, from the carver, in 1980. Barney sold it to an Indian arts dealer in Tucson, Mark Bahti. Mark then sold the mask to a Hopi silversmith, Larry Acadiz, who bought it to hang on the wall in his house. Decades later Larry sold the mask back to Mark Bahti, and I purchased it in his shop in 2013. On the back there was a typical Barney Burns pencil inscription—HAM 1/80, but I thought it was a mask by Antonio Bacasewa, and showed it to Tom Kolaz as an example of mislabeling. As you must know if you have reading the posts about Yaqui Pascola masks, Tom and I have frequently agreed that a particular mask has been attributed to someone other than the true carver; I thought this was just another example. Tom then told me about Hilario. Here is that mask.

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Last week I introduced you to Inez “Cheto” Álvarez, a Yaqui mask maker from Potam, Sonora. Today’s animal faced masks will expand your experience of his talent. Some are from my collection and the rest are from the collection of Barney Burns and Mahina Drees Burns.

It seems that Cheto developed specific designs for his animal Pascola masks, so that he made at least several copies of each design. I will begin with one from my collection that I bought on EBay™ in 2002. The seller reported that she had purchased this Canine mask in Tucson, Arizona in 1985, it had been made in Sonora, and she did not know the name of the carver. My friend Tom Kolaz immediately recognized this as a known design by Cheto Álvarez.

This is a Canine Pascola mask with an extended tongue and numerous sharp teeth.

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Now that I have completed a survey of the masks of Manuel Centella Escalante, I feel compelled to immediately follow with the masks of Inez “Cheto” Álvarez, an equally talented Yaqui master. It took me a long time to appreciate Cheto’s greatness, because at first I only encountered lesser examples of his work. Cheto and Manual Centella had overlapping styles, so that sometimes I was uncertain about which one was the carver. You have already met the son or stepson of Cheto, Camilo Álvarez Buitimea. I will begin with a particularly good Cheto mask from the Barney Burns and Mahina Drees Burns collection. This one was collected in 1988.

In the 1980s Cheto liked vivid colors. In this example the rim design is composed of lime green and hot pink triangles, within the same plain band used by Manuel Centella Escalante and Preciliano Rodríguez Cupis. Instead of the painted triangles over the eyes that were favored by Manuel Centella, Cheto often substituted an L-shaped eyebrow.

The triangles under the eyes are particularly dramatic on this mask, oversized versions of those found on Mayo Pascola masks.

The tiny vision slits are nearly hidden under the eyes. You may have noticed that Pascola masks with vision slits in that location are unusual. In earlier posts I included masks by Manuel Centella,  Conrado Rodríguez Cupis, and Preciliano Rodríguez Cupis that had vision openings there; Centella’s were the most dramatic (see 12/26/2016 post). Recall again that all three of those carvers were contemporaries in the town of Potam, Sonora.

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Today we will examine goat faced Pascola masks that were carved by Manuel Centella Escalante, beginning with the mask I had told you about in my earlier post of 11/16/2016, one of those that was discovered in the house of Lino Suarez, the principal Pascola at Old Pascua, just before the bulldozer arrived to demolish the place. The mask was weathered and insects had consumed the hair, but it was otherwise intact. It was later re-haired by David Valenzuela. Here is that goat mask.

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In last week’s post I showed some terrific human faced masks by Manuel Centella Escalante. This week I will round out your exposure with a few more remarkable examples, along with others that may seem less impressive, but they extend our awareness of Centella’s range of features.

The four masks that lead off in today’s post were photographed from the collection of David West, the owner of the Gallery West in Tucson, Arizona; I thank him for his helpful support. The first of these is a particularly elegant example. It was purchased in Sonora by a tourist, who later sold it in 1960 to Tom Bahti, a Tucson Indian arts dealer. Given the impressive wear on the back, this mask could easily date to 1950 or earlier. Painted decoration such as the white triangles under the eyes and parts of the rim design were not outlined with inscribed lines, but instead with pricked or “pecked” lines. I have seen this on no other Centella mask. The mouth, with lips like those of some female movie star, is also unusual.

The rim design is also elegant; I call it Centella’s “drapery” rim design, because it reminds me of the swags interior designers place around windows. In this side view the pricked design around the triangles under the eyes is particularly easy to see.

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This series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks began on July 4, 2016. Last week I introduced you to one of the greatest Yoeme carvers—Manuel Centella Escalante of Potam, Sonora. Because my first mask by Centella had a Chango (monkey or ape) face, I started with six or maybe seven of his Chango masks. Today I will move on to a number of his human faced masks, which display many of the same design details that you had encountered on the Chango masks. My first human faced mask by Manuel Centella has a remarkable history, according to Tom Kolaz.

To begin with, this was one of a number of Pascola masks carved by Centella that had been owned and danced by Lino Suarez, the Pascola Mayor (lead Pascola dancer) at Old Pascua ( in Tucson). In Old Men of the Fiesta: An Introduction to the Pascola Arts (by James Griffith and Felipe Molina, 1980, page 31) there is a photo of Lino Suarez that was taken in 1939; Rosario Castillo, the grandfather of Felipe Molina, is standing next to Lino in the photo. Unfortunately the photo does not reveal their masks in any detail. Lino later died, and for some period of time his house was not occupied. It fell into disrepair, and there was a plan for it to be demolished. Just before the bulldozer arrived, some Yaquis discovered that Lino’s collection of Pascola masks (all by Centella) were still hanging on the walls. These were rescued, sold to a Tucson dealer, and in 1993 I purchased two of them, a human faced mask and another depicting a goat. The two were weathered and each had lost its hair. Tom Kolaz, who had played an important role in their rescue, although he was not their purchaser, later arranged on my behalf for those two masks to be re-haired by a Tucson mask maker, David Valenzuela. In a future post I will show the Goat Pascola mask from Lino’s house, but here is that human faced mask.

Centella’s characteristic crosses, composed of four triangles with their points together, are apparent on the forehead and chin. The hair bundles were restored by David Valenzuela using horse tail.

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