{"id":11945,"date":"2018-04-02T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/?p=11945"},"modified":"2018-04-01T19:55:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T19:55:39","slug":"moro-guerrero-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/?p=11945","title":{"rendered":"Moro Masks From the Mexican State of Guerrero 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I shift my attention to Moro masks from Guerrero. Once again I will begin with a trio of masks that appear to be by the same hand, and collected from the same town, in this case Altamirano, Guerrero. I purchased the first two from Ren\u00e9 Bustamante in April, 1994, and the third one on EBay eleven years later, in November, 2005. This mask came with a name\u2014Mahoma<\/em> (Muhammad), who would have served as the leader of the Moros in the Altamirano version of the Dance of the Moros y Cristianos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a YouTube\u2122 video from Altamirano in 2017 we find Mahoma wearing a mask just like this one, along with a black lunar headdress like those seen in the State of Mexico and a black cape that is covered with stars. He is accompanied by a similarly dressed small boy who is wearing a mask like the third one in today’s post. The boy evidently represents Mahoma’s son ( seen for instance at 11:30). Later Mahoma clashes swords with Santiago, the leader of the Christians, who is wearing his usual horse on his waist (17:30).<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8TrFNHHiWV4<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This mask has the typical Moor’s frown. Of the three masks, only this one has ears, which are very well carved. The mask is 9 inches tall, 8 inches wide, and 4 inches deep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The back demonstrates heavy staining from use on the sides and chin. There is an old strap.<\/p>\n

This second mask also was reported to represent a named character\u2014Fierabras<\/em> (a fictional Muslim hero from the time of the Crusades).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this next video we meet Fierabras, dressed in scarlet (at 53 seconds).<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P3xnAGJyxhE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This very well carved mask is 8 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and 3\u00bd inches deep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This mask too has prominent staining from use.<\/p>\n

This final mask was apparently worn by a boy portraying Mahoma’s son in the dance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This mask is slightly smaller than the other two. I don’t know why it has a black dot on the chin, and not a red one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This mask is 7\u00bd inches tall, 5\u00be inches wide, and 3\u00bd inches deep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The back of this mask is heavily stained. Also note the penciled cross on the back, just above the hollow for the dancer’s nose. When a dancer is portraying an evil character, such as one of the Moros, he may mark the inside of his mask with a cross to remind God that he is a Christian who is playing a negative character.<\/p>\n

Next week we will examine three Archareo masks from Guerrero.<\/p>\n

Bryan Stevens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I shift my attention to Moro masks from Guerrero. Once again I will begin with a trio of masks that appear to be by the same hand, and collected from the same town, in this case Altamirano, Guerrero. … Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11945"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12247,"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11945\/revisions\/12247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}