As I noted in the last few posts, Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas have some dances and dance characters in common, probably due to their shared history. More broadly, some of the dances of Guatemala are found in many of the Mexican states. These include the dances of the Moros y Cristianos, the Conquest, and dances with characters dressed as Toritos (bulls). In my post about the Patzcar Dance I included one of the small Torito masks that appear in that performance. Today I will feature three larger Bull masks from another Guatemalan dance, El Baile de los Toritos. However, because the masks worn by the human figures in that dance can be interchangeable with the masks used in the Conquest dance, I will talk about the human masks from both of those dances in next weeks post. Here is a Torito mask; it is quite handsome with the relief-carved curls above the eyes.

I obtained this mask from Spencer Throckmorton in 1995.

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This week we will examine masks that may have been worn by the Gracejos or Mox dancers in the Patzcar dance. According to Joel E. Brown (2008 Volume 1, page 251) the Quiché word Patzka’r means Gracejos in Spanish and Jokers in English. The dance is named for these characters. Each one carries a whip; in the end they whip one another. Here is a stained wooden mask like those from the area of Nahuala that does indeed look like a joker. I have no memory or record of this mask’s aquisition and I am simply speculating that it was used in the Patzcar dance. Actually I always think of it as a Jaguar mask at first glance, until I notice the human nose and the absence of fangs.

The extended tongue reinforces my suspicion that this is a Gracejo (joker). It is a striking and unusual mask.

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This is the third installment of a ten week series about dance masks from Guatemala. On September 21, 2015, I will return to discussion about Mexican dance masks. During this detour to Guatemala, this site may attract new visitors with a special interest in Guatemalan masks. I invite you to identify yourselves, using the Contact Me pull-down menu at the right end of the menu bar across the top, so that I can at least collect a list for future reference. There may be someone out there who would like to blog on that subject and, if so, I would make the list available to them or I could publish their site here.

In the area of Nahuala, Guatemala there is the Patzcar dance, which does not closely resemble dances found in Mexico, although it reminds one of the Feos (uglies) in Michoacán, masked dancers who explicitly demonstrate bad or inappropriate behavior. Similarly, in Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas, Victoria Bricker described the “Grandfathers,” masked dancers in Chamula whose behavior was deliberately clumsy and ill considered. In the Patzcar dance there is a Patrón (a European who is the landowner or overseer, the “Boss”) and his wife, La Patrona; they wear masks that are formal and distinctive. Those masks are usually painted but occasionally stained. Here is a classic Patrón mask, with swirling relief carved eyebrows. We saw similar eyebrows on a Patron mask from Suchiapa Chiapas that was used in the Parachicos dance (see my 6/29/2015 post).

I purchased this mask from the Cavin Morris Gallery in 1994. It had been collected in Nahuala.

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Last week I introduced you to the dance masks of Guatemala, noting that Chiapas and Guatemala share Mayan roots and that Chiapas was part of the Intendancy of Guatemala during the period when the present areas of Mexico and Guatemala were under Spanish rule. Because these two areas were so closely related for so long, we find that their dances and masks have some overlapping features that are otherwise uncommon in other Mexican states. An obvious example is the popularity of monkey masks in these two regions, compared to the traditional scarcity of those masks elsewhere in Mexico. I mentioned that monkey masks are used in many different dances, including the Deer dance. Other masks from that dance will be the subject of today’s discussion and I will begin with a beautiful old Venado (deer) mask. I had been told that it was from Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. However, Jay Vannini, a collector of Guatemalan masks who lived in Guatemala for forty years, tells me that it is more typical of Quetzaltenango or Totonicapán.

I bought this lovely Venado mask and the trio of cats that follow in 1994, from the Cavin Morris Gallery. These deer masks are worn on the top of the dancer’s head. Consequently the back of the mask has heavy contact with the natural oils in the wearer’s hair, resulting in a very dark patina.

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In last week’s post (July 6, 2015) I included a Monito (little monkey) mask from San Fernando Chiapas that performed with a Tigre in what appeared to be a precontact dance. The masks of Chiapas and Guatemala are closely related as I will later explain, so in today’s post we will examine Monkey masks from Guatemala that perform  in a variety of dances, to initiate a series of posts over the next ten weeks about Guatemalan masks. Here is a Mico (monkey) mask from Chichicastenago that was purchased from Luis Ricardo Ignacio by my late friend and fellow collector, Gary Collison. This photo is courtesy of Gary and Linda Collison, and includes Gary, Luis Ricardo Ignacio, the Mico mask, and another mask of a woman who was the Wife of the Deer Hunter.

Luis Ricardo Ignacio is the nephew of Miguel Ignacio Calel, who was the proprieter of a well-documented morería (mask and costume rental business) in Chichicastenango; his masks were marked on the back with branded letters—MIC. The female mask in the Collison photo bears this mark, but none of the masks that follow in today’s post have morería marks. Both masks, along with others with jaguar faces, were said to have been used in La Danza del Venado, the Deer dance.

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Today I am going to discuss some additional masks from the Mexican state of Chiapas, along with the associated dances. We will examine Tigres (jaguars), Monitos or Changuitos (monkeys), and Toritos (bulls). In related video links you will also see Serpent and Kalalá (also spelled Calala) deer body masks. I will begin with the dance of the Tigres in Suchiapa, Chiapas. Here is one style of Tigre mask found there. It came to me with an original wire that was used to hang the mask from a hook when not in use. It would have been danced without the wire, of course.

This mask is 6 inches tall, 7½ inches wide, and 9½ inches deep. In Suchiapa almost all of the jaguar masks have cloth collars attached. The mask is worn on the top of the head like a cap. The dancer peers out at the world through a narrow gap between the chin of the mask and the top of the cloth collar. This gap is much easier to see on the next mask. Continue Reading →

The Parachicos dance is most famously performed in the town of Chiapa de Corzo in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It is said to honor three Catholic saints—Saint Anthony, Our Lord of Esquipulas, and Saint Sabastian. The costumed dancers wear wooden masks with bearded Caucasian faces, they carry handmade tin maracas that are painted silver, and on their heads are headdresses made of woven ixtle (or istle), a fiber obtained from the agave or yucca plant. These headdresses are decorated with colored ribbons.

Here is a mid-20th century Parachicos mask with its ixtle headdress.

A continuous band of carved hair,  which represents the sideburns and beard, provides a stylized design that frames the face of a Parachicos mask. Unlike those that follow, this one has relief carved eyes, rather than inlaid ones made of glass. Like the later masks, this one does have applied eyebrows, but just on the right eye.

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Two weeks ago I introduced a wonderful living carver, Ladislao López Ortiz of Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca. In that post and the next I focused on his Negrito masks, along with some masks by other carvers; today I want you to see other masks, particularly his masks of Tigres (jaguars). Here is one of those.

I purchased this mask from Ladislao in 2006; he had carved it in 2000. There is a crack in the jaw that extends to the back edge; this appeared after I had brought the mask back to my centrally heated house in Pennsylvania. Everything that you see was carved from a single block of wood. It has good lines and it has been carefully painted.

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On June 1, 2015 I told of traveling to the Mixtec villages on the coast of Oaxaca to visit a family of traditional carvers. I introduced you to the masks of the late Filiberto López Ortiz. Last week I told about Filiberto’s brother Ladislao López Ortiz, another master carver in Pinotepa Nacional who is still actively carving. These discussions prompted Randell Morris to send me photos of four masks in his collection that seemed similar to those I had included. Here is the first of these masks. One is immediately impressed by the quality of the carving and the patina.

This is a Black/White Negrito mask, a near duplicate of the mask I showed last week that was carved by Ladislao López Ortiz. I call your attention to some characteristic details—the finely carved protruding eyes, the grooved whirling chevron designs on the cheeks, the finely carved nose, the stylized mouth, and the cleft chin.

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Last week I began to tell about a trip to the Costa Chica of Oaxaca that focused on some of the carvers and their masks. I began with a visit to the family of the late Filiberto López Ortiz.

This week I want to introduce you to Ladislao López Ortiz, the brother of Filiberto. Lao (short for Ladislao) is less widely known, but he remains one of the best carvers from this area. Here is a photo of Lao with a wooden crucifix that he has carved by hand. On the table are about a dozen of his Negrito masks.

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